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Unlike traditional peekaboo, nuclear peekaboo is a most deadly game.
Georgios Jakobides (1853–1932) Kou-kou 1895
The nuclear industry, and those who are pro-nuclear, seem to not have evolved out of the infant stage where there is no understanding of object permanence, which is why peekaboo works: “Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be observed (seen, heard, touched, smelled or sensed in any way).” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peekaboo

The nuclear industry is constantly adding dangerous radionuclides into the environment. Even relatively short-lived radionuclides like tritium will be in the environment for well over a 100 years. Others will be in the environment for hundreds, thousands, and even millions of years. The nuclear industry legally flushes radionuclides into air and water. Whether it stays nearby or goes someplace else, it is ever building up in the environment. For instance, if 1 mSv is allowed into an individual’s environment each year and goes nowhere, then by year 14 the person would have been exposed to 100 mSv, giving a one in one-hundred, or greater, chance of developing cancer or leukemia, according to the US National Academy of Sciences BEIR report. These numbers assume that there was zero radiation in the environment in year one, which is false. Radionuclides have been churned out by the nuclear industry in the form of weapons testing and nuclear reactors for 70 years, and actually longer, in some places, due to commercial use of radium and uranium.

That people accept this as ok means that either
1) they do not know that the nuclear industry is legally leaking radionuclides into air and water;
2) that they have not exited the infantile stage; or
3) that they are sado-masochists, who enjoy inflicting misery and death upon themselves and others.

The UK DECC is making a formal policy of allowing the dumping to landfill of highly radioactive nuclear waste, calling it very low level waste, when it far exceeds the already high amounts allowed in food and water.

The US NRC has proposed seemingly endless blanket safety-related exemptions for dry-cask maker Holtec, including ones which would let them forego material testing, presumably because they know that if the cask leaks or explodes, no one can see the radiation and they need only lie and say that [fill in the blank] is causing the cancers, infertility, deformations, and human and animal deaths. The US NRC seem to be hiding at least some of the comments, as well. [See update at bottom.] The US NRC has also allowed many site specific exemptions for Holtec, which dangerously impact safety (e.g. Mississippi, Arkansas). A failure could have deadly consequences for most of North America.

The NRC also have not implemented Fukushima lessons learned and appear engaged in an endless chain of environmental crimes, such as actively encouraging the nuclear industry to dilute radionuclides into air and water, which does not change the amount emitted, in order to better to deceive, etc., ad nauseam).

The UK is better off in that they have a strong Green Party, along with the SNP, officially opposed to nuclear. Nonetheless, it is important to carefully examine the candidates on a case by case basis on the nuclear issue, because there is at least one anti-nuclear Conservative, and at least one Green who has ties to a pro-nuclear union, which may or may not impact their position. Registration deadline is 20th April for the 7th May General Election.

Because UKIP is running on the right, there is no problem of a split vote in the UK. By May the UK can peacefully get shot of infantile sado-masochists like Lib Dem MP Ed Davey and Sandip Verma, who are spear-heading this UK policy.

It is more difficult to find any hope for the US, but people need to start looking for it, in the run-up to the next election. There has to be a crack in the wall someplace or North America faces extermination, as a major accident may impact Canada and Mexico, along with the US.

“Peekaboo (also spelled peek-a-boo) is a game played primarily with babies. In the game, one player hides his or her face, pops back into the view of the other, and says Peekaboo!, sometimes followed by I see you! There are many variations: for example, where trees are involved, “Hiding behind that tree!” is sometimes added.

Peekaboo is thought by developmental psychologists to demonstrate an infant’s inability to understand object permanence.[1] Object permanence is an important stage of cognitive development for infants… Psychologist Jean Piaget conducted experiments with infants which led him to conclude that this awareness was typically achieved at eight to nine months of age. Infants before this age are too young to understand object permanence. A lack of Object Permanence can lead to A-not-B errors, where children reach for a thing at a place where it should not be.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peekaboo

“Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be observed (seen, heard, touched, smelled or sensed in any way). This is a fundamental concept studied in the field of developmental psychology, the subfield of psychology that addresses the development of infants’ and children’s social and mental capacities. There is not yet scientific consensus on when the understanding of object permanence emerges in human development.

Jean Piaget, the Swiss psychologist who first studied object permanence in infants, argued that object permanence is one of an infant’s most important accomplishments, as without this concept, objects would have no separate, permanent existence. In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development infants develop this understanding by the end of the “sensorimotor stage,” which lasts from birth to about two years of age.[1] Piaget thought that an infant’s perception and understanding of the world depended on their motor development, which was required for the infant to link visual, tactile and motor representations of objects. According to this view, it is through touching and handling objects that infants develop object permanence.[2]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_permanence

Any comments sent in to the US NRC and the DECC should be copied to as many parties as possible. We have reason to believe that the US NRC is hiding comments and it is doubtful that the UK DECC is better.

In the US the comments should be copied to Senator Barbara Boxer and to Friends of the Earth for starters. Comments can be anonymously faxed or sent by email: https://www.boxer.senate.gov/contact/shareyourviews.html
In the UK copying comments to the Green Party is a good start.
70 Years is Enough Campaign: Nuclear Energy is Nuclear War Everyday

Update: On April 20th the NRC wrote a notice of withdrawal of one Holtec’s proposed rules, but it’s unclear what this means.
Withdrawal does not appear to mean cancellation! They sound like they will still approve some variant of Holtec’s request. The requests by Holtec are so over the top that they must be totally cancelled. There are no half-measures. Standards must be upheld or not. It’s worse than saying a surgeon need only wash one hand. Once the casks are certified, there should be no changes, excepting possible improvements. It appears that the NRC withdrew another Holtec request late last year. Once again, we don’t know the final outcome. Additionally, there were well over 100 comments and they are alleging only 16 comments. It appears that the US NRC posts all requests made by Holtec, with no review and simply wait for objections. Due to frequency of requests, some will thus get through, which is apparently what Holtec is banking on.

From the NRC:
“In the February 5, 2015, proposed rule, the NRC stated that if any significant adverse comments were received, then the NRC would withdraw the direct final rule by publishing a document in the Federal Register. As a result, the direct final rule would not take effect. The NRC received 16 comments from private citizens. The comments are available at http://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID NRC-2014-0233. The NRC determined that at least one of the comments is significant and adverse as defined in Section II, “Procedural Background,” of the direct final rule, because the comment raises an issue serious enough to warrant a substantive response to clarify or complete the record. Therefore, the NRC is withdrawing the direct final rule.
As stated in the February 5, 2015, proposed rule, the NRC will address the comments in a subsequent final rule. The NRC will not initiate a second comment period on this action.”
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/04/20/2015-09023/list-of-approved-spent-fuel-storage-casks-holtec-international-hi-storm-100-cask-system-certificate

Painting Credit: Kou-kou, 1895 by
Georgios Jakobides (1853–1932)
Alternative names Γεώργιος Ιακωβίδης
Description Greek painter
Date of birth/death 1853 1932
Location of birth/death Lesbos Athens
(Public Domain, Via Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peekaboo