North Bay Report: Ideas on Nuclear Power, Organized Labor in California and the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival

Nuclear Power Risks

Regardless of the global public health impacts from the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan, the disaster can be expected to cast a dark cloud over the future of that power source elsewhere.

The reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant incorporated all modern safety standards in their design,which still wasn't enough to protect them from the double disaster of the earthquake and tsunami. But Sonoma State University professor Sascha von Meier says their salvation lay in an extra bit of self-sufficiency.

Some portion of the fuel rods within the disabled reactors has already melted, although the precise amount is not clear. Professor von Meier says that's secondary to ensuring that whatever amount does melt down remains sealed within the containment chambers.

Interested in this story? Listen to the full report by KRCB here.

Organized Labor in California

Internal strife over the past decade has weakened and disrupted organized labor in California, but may also have set the stage for a new, more grass-roots driven workers' movement.

In his new book, The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor, Steve Early devotes considerable attention to the representation of healthcare workers, in California and elsewhere. He details the battle between the California Nurses Association and the SEIU, part of the context in which the long-running effort to unionize workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital took place. But ultimately, Early observes, neither of those larger unions supported the local organizing effort as it finally succeeded.

While he recognizes that the personalities and ambitions of certain leaders, contributed to the conflicts he writes about, Early contents that focusing solely on those aspects—as he says most of the mainstream media has—overlooks the genuine issues that were also an important part of the story.

Get the full story from KRCB's news director, Bruce Robinson, here.

Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival

The account of how fourth graders restored a watershed in Marin and Sonoma Counties is just one of many remarkable stories on display this weekend at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival.

One of the strengths of his film, says Kevin White, co-director of A Simple Question, is its ability to show the full 17 year history of the STRAW program within its 34 minute running time.

View the trailer for the movie, and listen to KRCB's full report here.

Editor's note: This story was reported and produced by KRCB, and written for Rohnert Park Patch with the permission of KRCB News Director Bruce Robinson.