'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
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What protests occurred on President's Day?
Really happy to have you here. Great to have you with us. Today, of course, was President's Day. And today we saw protests all over the country once again in Washington, D.C. Yes, as you see in the upper left-hand corner of your screen here, but also in state capitals all across the country. You see there Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Denver, Colorado. And look at that, Columbia, South Carolina, big turnout. The same coalition, same group that organized protests at 50 state capitals a couple of weeks ago organized these as well today. Big turnout, lots of places. And, you know, it wasn't just at state capitals. We saw pretty big turnout at a lot of town halls, city halls, any location basically that has anything to do with government.
You can see some of the images here from outside City Hall in Orlando, Florida and San Francisco. Also big protests in Seattle and in Philly. We're going to be looking in detail at some of those big protests today all over the country. That's coming up in just a few minutes. You will want to see that for sure. We're also going to be talking with a U.S. senator who joined the protest at his state capitol today. U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen is going to be joining us live here this hour in just a few minutes. So there's a lot to show you, a lot to talk about in terms of how that all went down today. A big national day of protest against the Trump administration. We'll get to all of that. But we are going to start tonight here, here on Nuclear Street.
Why is the Hanford nuclear site significant?
Nuclear Street, Proton Lane, Bombing Range Road. The Atomic Body Shop, Atomic Plumbing, Atomic Health Center, Atomic Bowling, even an Atomic Supermarket. Atomic, Atomic, Atomic. Where are we anyway? A Captain Marvel comic book? No, we're in the state of Washington, Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick, the tri-city area around the Hanford nuclear site. That's where they produced the plutonium that America dropped on Nagasaki, the high school, home of the bombers. Inside the front entrance, believe it or not, a bomb inlaid into the floor. And on the football helmets, mushroom clouds.
That's from the Today Show in 1983, a profile on the Hanford nuclear site in Washington state. A Hanford nuclear site, Richland, Washington, was opened as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II. And when that very cheery, slightly eerie Today Show story on it ran 40 years later, Hanford at that point in 1983 was still chugging along, still open. The last of Hanford's nine nuclear reactors was not shut down until 1987. That shutdown was in the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union in 1986. That 1986 disaster had a way of focusing the world's attention on the threat of mass radioactive contamination. And again, Hanford shut down its last nuclear reactor the following year.
But you don't just shut down a nuclear site like that and walk away. Hanford has continued to be a site not only of national security importance, but also of frequent news coverage, much less cheery news coverage over the years, but all about that same site.
The first official calculations of radiation exposure around Hanford in the late 1940s took many by surprise. The levels announced today by a government-appointed study group were high. Radiation is measured in rads, one rad equal to about a dozen chest X-rays. The new study calculates that more than 13,000 people got doses of at least 33 rads, the same as 400 chest X-rays. And a small number of infants may have gotten doses up to 2,900 rads to their thyroids, mostly from drinking the milk of cattle grazing on radioactive grasses. The government limits nuclear power workers to less than one rad exposure a year, limits weapons workers to five rads. The Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Soviet Union exposed many to 1,500 rads, but that's still only half as much as the 2,900 rad exposures around Hanford. UCLA radiation specialist Dr. Robert Gale, who treated Chernobyl victims, worries about Hanford.
So one may expect now or in the future to see thyroid abnormalities and very likely thyroid cancers.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What protests occurred on President's Day?
0:00–1:37
2
Why is the Hanford nuclear site significant?
1:37–9:13
3
What are the consequences of Trump's nuclear-related staff cuts?
9:13–26:51
4
How does the Trump administration's firing decisions impact national security?
26:51–33:32
5
What are the broader implications of these mass firings?
33:32–42:49
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Rachel Maddow Show
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