On this edition of the “Dissenter Weekly,” host and Shadowproof editor Kevin Gosztola highlights how President Donald Trump’s administration is apparently moving to massively deregulate nuclear waste disposal while everyone is focused on the coronavirus outbreak.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group known for its work representing environmental whistleblowers in government agencies, says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) plans to allow “every reactor in the country to dump virtually all its radioactive waste except spent fuel in local regular garbage dumps, which are designed for household trash not for plutonium.”

“Both the National Academy of Sciences and EPA calculate that the risk of such doses would be every 500th person exposed getting a cancer from the radiation,” according to PEER.

Worse, the public may not know radioactive waste is in their local garbage dump because there will be no requirement for notifying the public.

Later in the show, Gosztola covers Cate Jenkins, an EPA whistleblower, who is known for criticizing the EPA’s response to the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam as well as how the agency downplayed concerns about air quality in lower Manhattan after the World Trade Center towers collapsed. She says the CDC and FDA should not minimize the possible risks of contracting COVID-19 from consuming food.

Gosztola discusses a prisons whistleblower in Arizona, how a medical staffing company is cutting salaries and benefits for doctors and nurses, and as he does each week, he offers an update on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his detention at Belmarsh prison in London.

“Dissenter Weekly” airs every Thursday at 4pm ET on YouTube and Facebook, and covers whistleblower and press freedom news from that week.

This week’s stories:

During Pandemic, US Government Deregulates Massive Amounts Of Nuclear Waste

EPA Whistleblower Suggests CDC, FDA Wrong To Downplay COVID-19 Risks In Food

Arizona Prisons Whistleblower Claims Staff Are Forbidden From Wearing Masks

Medical Staffing Company Cuts Salaries And Benefits For Hospital Staff Fighting Coronavirus

Whistleblower Exposes Alleged Saudi Phone Spying Campaign In US

Report: Belmarsh Prison Has History Of ‘Inadequate Infection Control’

***

Julian Assange has been in jail for 359 days, since he was expelled from the Ecuador embassy in London.

Send tips and feedback to editor@shadowproof.com

This show is brought to you by Shadowproof.com, a 100% reader-funded press organization. If you enjoy our work, you can support us with a donation or by subscribing for $5/month or more: https://shadowproof.com/donate