Navajo Challenge Uranium Mining Permit on Tribal Lands

Way to go...The war drums are beating in Navajo Country, URI aka Hydro is going to get scalped!!!

The Navajo communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock, New Mexico will fight the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the permitted company, Hydro Resources, Inc., demanding that they stay off Navajo lands in New Mexico.

Can't steal uranium any more, no more suffering, no more pain. Time to open eyes on those that believe nuclear energy is going to stop the "electricity shortage." What shortage, the only shortage is in those people's pockets that speculate that nuclear energy will save polar bears from drowning.

The only way to deal with climate change is to stop using those current sources of energy that are causing the problem in the first place. If that seems impossible, then perhaps we are heading down that road to self-extinction without the help of a comet or any other natural catastrophe.

Nuclear energy is not clean energy, it is not renewable energy...it is just another lethal weapon as a wolf hiding under sheep skin.

Visit our new website: WAKINYAN HOKSILA

We have uplinked another website Wakinyan Hoksila, which means Thunder Boy. This name was told to me by my grandmother, who said that it is the name of the last warrior society in our community. These Hunkpapa warriors vowed to never have children so they'd never have to know that suffering in reservation society. The most notable of these Hunkpapa warriors was Rain in the Face whose very name struck terror in the hearts of early trespassers. It is with honor that our new website uses the honorable namesake.

Please visit our website http://www.wakinyanhoksila.com/ Use our forum to discuss news and other personal reflections on the nuclear nightmares.

Always remember that the new corporate nukewashing has discovered that they could use drowning polar bears as their evil marketing strategy to promote nuclear energy. While I agree there is climate change, I don't agree that nuclear energy has part in finding the solution. My firm belief is that the energy giants knew that they were harming our climate, poisoning our air. But they also knew that the days of large construction projects are over, there can only be so many bridges, so many mega-skyscrapers, so many railroads, superhighways; so they invented this delusion that we need nuclear energy.

What we really need is to reconsider our use of our existing energy sources, we need to make them less harmful to our air, our water, and our land. We need leaders that aren't two-faced shills to corporate interests. Nuclear energy is not clean energy, it is not renewable energy; it is too expensive: the costs of accidents, destruction to our environment, our air and our land and water are not worth the supposed benefits.

But above all, ask yourself...Do we have an energy shortage? Or do we have a shortage of leaders, willing to tell us the truth---THAT NUCLEAR ENERGY IS NOT THE SOLUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE!!!

Uranium Impacts Native and non-Native Seek Justice

Bluewater Valley Downstream Alliance ? Church Rock Uranium Monitoring Project

Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining ? Laguna Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment

Navajo Uranium Radiation Vicitms Committee

New Mexico Environmental Law Center ? Post '71 Uranium Workers Committee

Sierra Club Environmental Justice Office ? Southwest Research and Information Center

Press Release

For More Information:

Thursday Nov. 15, 2007

Mitchell Capitan, 505-786-5209

Linda Evers, 505-287-2304

Candace Head-Dylla, 505-401-4349

Chris Shuey, 505-262-1862

Robert Tohe, 928-774-6103

Grass-roots and nongovernmental organizations

seek justice for uranium impacts in meetings with members of Congress

WASHINGTON , DC — Representatives of grass-roots groups and nongovernmental organizations from New Mexico and Arizona told members of Congress last week that they want a federal moratorium on new uranium development in the region until the widespread environmental and public health damages from past mining and milling are resolved and workers and communities are fully compensated.

The organizations were in Washington, D.C. to participate in the Navajo Uranium Roundtable sponsored by Rep. Tom Udall of New Mexico, and co-hosted by Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah, Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona, and Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr.

The groups, which represented communities in the Eastern Navajo Agency, Acoma and Laguna pueblos, and the Milan and Grants area, supported the Navajo Nation's requests for funding to clean up hundreds of abandoned mines in Navajo communities, fully compensate uranium workers, conduct health studies in uranium-impacted communities, and honor and respect the Navajo Nation's 2005 law banning uranium mining and processing in Navajo Country.

Speakers for the grassroots groups joined President Shirley, other Navajo Nation officials, and Laguna Pueblo Governor John E. Antonio, in calling for a federal moratorium on new uranium mining.

Mitchell Capitan, founder of Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM), based in Crownpoint, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is "tilted toward industry" and cannot be trusted to properly regulate uranium in situ leach (ISL) mines and new uranium mills. He charged that the NRC did not give fair consideration to ENDAUM's technical and legal arguments challenging NRC's 1998 licensing of Hydro Resources, Inc.'s (HRI) proposed ISL mines in Churchrock and Crownpoint. To illustrate his point, Capitan provided copies of a photo from the NRC's web site showing agency officials smiling and shaking hands with executives of a Wyoming uranium company, which had just submitted an application for a new ISL mine — long before the proposed facility is subjected to NRC staff review and approved by the Commission.

Larry J. King, an ENDAUM member and Churchrock Chapter resident, said his community recommends a federal uranium mine clean-up program that would address legacy sites throughout the West. He also called for Congress to force NRC to return to its mission to protect public health and safety. He cited an NRC ruling in 2006 that classified high levels of radiation from mining wastes at a proposed ISL site across the highway from his home as "background" radiation.

Robert Tohe, environmental justice organizer for the Sierra Club in Flagstaff , Ariz. , said Congress should give federal land management agencies the authority to deny exploration and mining permits on Native American sacred sites and in sacred places. He noted that several mining companies are exploring for uranium on and around Mt. Taylor , one of the four sacred mountains of the Navajo people and a sacred place for Acoma and Laguna pueblos.

Long-time Diné uranium worker advocate Phil Harrison, Jr., who is now a delegate to the Navajo Nation Council, and attorney Keith Killian of Grand Junction , Colorado , called on Congress to amend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to address disparities in compensation awards between Native Americans and non-Indian uranium workers and downwinders. They said the range of compensable diseases should be expanded and attention given to the lack of compensation for dependents of former workers and people who lived, and still live, in mining-impacted communities.

Harrison, Paguate resident Alvino Waconda, and Milan residents Linda Evers and Liz Lucero, all of whom are former uranium workers, supported amending RECA to include people who worked in the uranium industry after 1971. Evers said her group has collected nearly 1,500 surveys of post-1971 uranium workers, and that the vast majority of workers are reporting a wide range of cancers, respiratory diseases and kidney disease. Evers said she expects to report the first results by the end of the year.

Milan residents Candace Head-Dylla, Milton Head and Art Gebeau, representing the Bluewater Valley Downstream Alliance (BVDA), handed out information packets showing how groundwater contamination around the Homestake Uranium Mill north of Milan has spread to three aquifers covering several miles of land since first detected in 1961. They said the plumes contain high levels of uranium and other toxic substances and are inching toward Milan 's municipal water wells, yet no groundwater monitoring is being conducted ahead of the contamination plume. Dozens of private wells in communities near the mill have been shut down, but until very recently some residents were unknowingly still drinking tainted water from private wells, the BVDA members said. They recommended that Congress should amend federal laws, such as the Clean Water Act, to ensure that that uranium mine and mill wastes and associated discharges are regulated as toxic pollutants.

The grass-roots people were assisted by staffs of Southwest Research and Information Center , Natural Resources Defense Council, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center , Earthworks, and The Raben Group. A list of major policy objectives advocated by the groups follows.

Dr. Johnnye Lewis, a University of New Mexico toxicologist who was invited by the Navajo Nation and Udall staffs to provide scientific guidance, spoke to the need for a comprehensive health study, noting that the lack of health data is often misconstrued as a lack of effect. Dr. Lewis, who is the principal investigator for the first community-based health and exposure study in Navajo communities, emphasized the need for health studies to be conducted by independent investigators to ensure the validity and scientific integrity of results.

GRASS-ROOTS AND NONGOVERENMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS'

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FEDERAL RESPONSES TO THE URANIUM MINING LEGACY AND PROPOSED NEW URANIUM DEVELOPMENT ON THE NAVAJO NATION AND THROUGHOUT THE FOUR CORNERS AREA

1. Seek legislation to impose a federal moratorium on new uranium development until environmental pollution from previous mining and milling is cleaned up, workers are appropriately compensated, and community health studies conducted.

2. Amend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to, among other things, include certain New Mexico counties in the areas exposed to fallout from nuclear weapons testing, expand the universe of compensable diseases for uranium workers, and extend eligibility for compensation to workers who worked after 1971. Congress should also investigate compensation strategies for dependents of former uranium workers and for residents of communities impacted by uranium development.

3. Respect and protect the Navajo Nation's sovereign right to enact the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act (DNRPA) of 2005, which prohibits uranium mining and processing by any means anywhere in Navajo Country.

4. Ensure full funding for health studies among residents of communities impacted by uranium mining and milling, and restore cuts in existing studies.

5. Require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to drop work on the proposed Generic Environmental Impact Statement for uranium in situ leach mining and to return to full and fair implementation of its statutory authority to protect public health and safety.

6. Amend the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Atomic Energy Act to make clear and certain that uranium mill and mine wastes are defined as "pollutants" and are subject to the same level of regulatory control and scrutiny as all other pollutants. Uranium mine and mill waste should not be exempt from any federal public health or environmental statute.

7. Enact a comprehensive federal abandoned uranium mine clean-up program, including funds for cleanup of abandoned mines on the Navajo Nation, Laguna Pueblo and throughout the Four Corners Area. Ensure that financially viable companies are held responsible for cleaning, or paying for cleanup, of the mining and milling sites they abandoned.

8. Reaffirm the principal of religious freedom by authorizing federal land management agencies to deny exploration, mining and milling permits on sacred sites or in sacred places, including and especially Mt. Taylor in northwestern New Mexico .

*****

Public Meeting about Abandoned Uranium Mines in the Cave Hills Area

Defenders of the Black Hills

P. O. Box 2003, Rapid City, SD 57709

Nov. 6, 2007

Public Service Announcement

“Public Meeting about Abandoned Uranium Mines in the Cave Hills Area”

On Tues. Nov. 13, 2007, the US Forest Service will hold a meeting in Ludlow regarding the abandoned uranium mines in the Cave Hills area at Riley Pass. The meeting is for the public and will be held in the Ludlow Hall from 5-8:00 PM.

Representatives from Tronox, formerly Kerr-McGee, the mining company that dug the uranium mine at Riley Pass will be there as well as representatives from SD School of Mines and Technology.

We encourage as many people as possible to attend and question how and when all of the 89 mines are going to be cleaned up, the health concerns from no cleanup after 30 years of leaving the mines exposed, possible destruction of more burial and sacred sites in the cleanup process, and how much taxpayer dollars are being used for the cleanup.

For more information call (605) 399-1868, or email: bhdefenders@msn.com

Astonishing tower collapse screams "No New Nukes!!"

August 27, 2007

A cooling tower at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power plant has collapsed.

A broken 54" pipe there has spewed 350,000 gallons per minute of contaminated, overheated water into the Earth. "The river water piping and the series of screens and supports failed," said a company spokesman. They "fell to the ground."

The public and media were barred from viewing the wreckage for three days. But when a Congressional Energy Bill conference committee takes up Senate-approved loan guarantees for building new nukes this fall, what will reactor backers say about this latest pile of radioactive rubble?

This kind of event can make even hardened nuke opponents pinch themselves and read the descriptions twice. Who could make this up?

Vermont Yankee has been in operation---more or less---since the early 1970s. Its owner is Entergy, a multi-reactor "McNuke" operator that last year got approval to up VY's output by 20%.

Required inspections revealed worrisome cracks and other structural problems. Entergy dismissed all that, but was forced to issue a "ratepayer protection policy" against incidents caused by the power increase. The guarantee expired earlier this month, not long before the collapse.

The tower came down amidst angry negotiations between Entergy and plant workers. A strike was barely averted, but VY's labor troubles are by no means over.

The reactor's output has now been slashed 50%. A public battle is raging over whether it can dump water even hotter than usual into the Connecticut River. Reactors in Alabama, France and elsewhere have been forced shut because the rivers that cool them have exceeded 90 degrees.

Yankee's cooling system, vintage 1972, centers on 22 (now 21) wood, fiberglass and metal towers that stretch for 300 feet, and are 50 feet high and 40 feet wide. The company calls this giant rig a "rain forest."

Operators admit to hearing "strange sounds" coming from its fans last week, but say Tuesday's collapse was unexpected.

Nuclear opponents who warned about such an event have been scorned by Entergy and its supporters. That something as apparently absurd as the spontaneous collapse of an entire cooling tower could actually occur underlines America's Keystone Kops reality of atomic operation and regulation. "We need to understand what happened," explains the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Diane Screnci.

So does Congress. A definitive Conference Committee battle will be fought after Labor Day over an Energy Bill that includes taxpayer guarantees for $50 billion and more to build new nukes.

Meanwhile Vermonters will pay for this latest pile of radioactive reactor rubble. Maybe a "fall foliage" field trip to the Green Mountain State would do the Congress some good.

--
Harvey Wasserman's SOLARTOPIA: OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, A.D. 2030, is available at www.solartopia.org. He is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, and senior editor of Freepress.org, where this article first appeared.

Vermont Yankee cooling tower catastrophic failure

The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus
Ruling out sabotage, I wonder if the NRC and Homeland Security will consider Entergy to be managed by fools and termites lol

This is serious, nuclear catastrophic accidents shouldn't be left for hindsight...why aren't the regulatory authorities investigating the entire nuclear industry...because they rely on self-reporting by the nuclear industry...that is like asking the fox in the henhouse, how many chickens he ate...

My Personal Agenda Against South Dakota Abandoned Uranium Mines

My Personal Mission against Uranium Mining and the Nuclear Industry

1. To demand the comprehensive and total clean up of abandoned uranium mines with the Slim Buttes and Cave Hills, and not just one at a time as the US Forest Service is stating it is doing.

2. To consider the negative health effects of low-dose ionizing radiation exposure through surface water, ground water and air transport; especially as this has been occurring to my community Rock Creek (Bullhead, SD). We feel that the US Forest Service's negligence of considering the Rock Creek communities concern that the uranium mines are causing extreme health crises within the community is tantamount to genocide and racism.

3. To revise the US Forest Service Sioux Oil and Gas Leasing Final Environmental Impact Statement to either start an Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement or start the EIS process anew to include tribal communities' extreme health concerns. This is our main point that the US Forest Service although hearing testimony from Rock Creek community members about their increasing rates of cancer, birth problems, and diabetes, they didn't include this in the FEIS and replied that the commenting period is over. They were told numerous times about what the sickness and deaths happening downstream, yet they purposefully ignore our concerns. This too is genocide and racism!

4. We demand that all current leases involving uranium, oil, gas as well as other mineral resources be outlawed in the Slim Buttes and Cave Hills and those existing outstanding leases be allowed to expire without renewal of these leases.

5. We demand that the name of the Custer National Forest be changed to Crazy Horse National Forest; this is upon the advice of the story told to LaDonna Brave Bull-Allard by Johnson Holy Rock and Elaine Quiver: that the Slim Buttes and Cave Hills was one of Crazy Horse's favorite places and is part of the Powder River basin that as a condition of his surrender would be his permanent reservation. For this he was murdered at Fort Robinson.

6. We demand that the Sioux Ranger District be renamed Paha Zizipila as this is its true Lakota name.

The Contest Begins in Earnest

As we enter this new day in the Nuclear Renaissance in which a majority of the herd are hoping foolishly that nuclear energy will save us from the inevitable meltdown of our climate, I feel that more public involvement is needed from a more independent perspective, namely ours, the Native Americans, Indians or the People you stole land from where your precious uranium lies underneath.

Our legend has it that uranium is Iya (pronounced EYE--EEE-YAA); it is a black monster, a brother to Iktomi, the trickster. Since Iya eats people from the inside as does cancer, Inyan Hokshila (Stone Boy) buried deep under the earth to protect people from the black monster. Iya is an ancient spirit, also kin to the Unktehila (dinosaurs) and Unkcegila (cavemen), who also ate people. From our perspective, we feel that Inyan Hoksila walks with us and he does because he is me.

As one that has been fighting Iya for 11 years alone, gathering my resources for this day when they will be useful to all that need this; I have lost many precious people to Iya, to cancer. My parents passed on long ago, my relatives passed on long ago and I am alone.

These are my words, not parroted from some white person or copied from some arcane website...the nuclear industry has a weakness, it is us, the Native Americans. They need us to accept again as did the Navajo did long ago their wishes to rape and desecrate our Grandmother Earth through mining and deforestation, polluting our precious water, killing our future...they have sent many lackeys, including their token Injuns under the name NAEG (Native American Energy Group) and even sometimes those token Injuns don't know they are token Injuns (they know who they are).

In our community Rock Creek (Bullhead, South Dakota) on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation, we have chased down and booted out NAEG, chastising their lackeys for being anti-Native, exposing them for being nothing but bootlickers as they know themselves to be. NAEG offered wind power, solar power, oil wells and ISL uranium mining and each time our community shot them down, saying you are here to rip us off. Evidently NAEG thought the southern tribes of Pine Ridge and Rosebud would be ignorant but the moccasin trail beat them to those reservations and opposition has started against them; NAEG will fail!!!

As this relates to the nation-wide putsch in nuclear energy, the corporations are doing the same thing to the public, lying to them that nuclear energy will save us from global warming and catastrophic climate change! They even present animated maps showing the east coast underwater, glaciers melting, the polar ice caps disappearing. These are their lies they use and while it is true these natural events are happening, they have been happening because we are polluting our environment, killing our Grandmother Earth, not because we need nuclear energy!!!

The corporations are broke, they need government subsidies and loans to start building their nuclear reactors...most are heavily financed by debt and bonds. These bonds are coming due but they can't pay them since they don't have the cash! This is their weakness-if they don't get the loans and grants through GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership) and if they don't get the cheap sources of uranium from within this country...THEY WILL GO BANKRUPT!!!

We need to form a common ground in the anti-nuclear movement to cause this to happen...if we are successful and I know we will be; these corporations will lose control of their stranglehold over their customers and giving the power back to the people where it truly belongs through cooperative ownership of electrical power!!!

We need to bring all facets of this issue together: mining, weapons, reactors, and waste! We do this and they will concede defeat!!!!! And our environment will be safe, our Grandmother Earth will begin to heal herself!!!

BAN URANIUM MINING
STOP NEW REACTOR LICENSING
OPPOSE GNEP
SHUT DOWN ALL REACTOR UP FOR RELICENSING

SHUT DOWN INDIAN POINT!!!!!

Maps and more maps - lost in a nuclear maze

After looking at the following maps and what they signify, you'll coming to the conclusion that nuclear renaissance is a feint meant to distract the public from their true objectives which, in my opinion is storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

Most of the spent nuclear fuel is being stored mainly in the eastern half of the United States as shown the maps below. Then if you consider that this area is also where most of the nuclear reactors are located while the rest of the country only has a few reactors in their backyards. This squeeze play comes about after the Barnwell nuclear waste storage closes its door to all the states except for New Jersey, South Carolina and Connecticut.

Locations of Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations



Map of Power Reactor Sites



Locations of Uranium Milling Facilities




Nuclear Waste Transportation Routes



Finally this map reinforces my theory that the nuclear renaissance is another chic word like global warming. If you notice on a previous map the Southeast has the highest concentrations of nuclear reactors but on this map the Southeast is not pursuing clean energy as a goal. In other words they'd rather take the chance of a major catastrophic failure at one of their nuclear reactors than to contribute in reducing global warming and reduce the amount of nuclear waste.

Is this risk worth it?

Renewable Electricity Standards at Work in the States



Now to end this, I feel that in Congress the southeastern states are a self-serving voting bloc while the western, northeastern and midwest states are not as organized and therefore cannot win any major concessions on clean renewable energy and probably can't stop the upcoming federal subsidies and loan guarantees promoting the nuclear energy industry.

James Lovelock and the big bang

Green Left - James Lovelock and the big bang

Jim Green
3 August 2007

British scientist James Lovelock, famous for his Gaia theory of the earth as a self-regulating organism, was in Adelaide on July 7-8, speaking at the Festival of Ideas. He has researched across a range of disciplines and has much of interest to say. But on the topic of nuclear power, Lovelock is inaccurate and irresponsible.

“Modern nuclear power stations are useless for making bombs”, Lovelock told the ABC’s Lateline program on May 30, 2006. That is in stark contrast to comments last year by former US Vice-President Al Gore, who said: “For eight years in the White House, every weapons’ proliferation problem we dealt with was connected to a civilian reactor program … if we ever got to the point where we wanted to use nuclear reactors to back out a lot of coal … then we’d have to put them in so many places we’d run that proliferation risk right off the reasonability scale.”

Which of these climate campaigners is right — Lovelock or Gore?

A typical nuclear power reactor produces about 300 kilograms of plutonium each year, sufficient for about 30 nuclear weapons. There is no dispute that this “reactor-grade” plutonium can be used in weapons, though the use of weapon-grade plutonium increases their reliability and destructive force.

Power reactors can also be used to produce weapon-grade plutonium, which is ideal for nuclear weapons. All that needs to be done is to shorten the amount of time that the nuclear fuel is irradiated in a reactor. This results in a higher percentage of plutonium-239 relative to other, unwanted, isotopes, such as plutonium-240, 241 and 242.

A typical power reactor can produce hundreds of kilograms of weapon-grade plutonium annually and just a few kilograms are required for one weapon as powerful as that dropped on Nagasaki.

The proliferation risks associated with nuclear power are not just hypothetical. India uses power reactors in its nuclear weapons program (although research reactors have been the main source of plutonium). Under a proposed nuclear agreement between India and the United States, India has announced that 14 of its power reactors will be subject to international safeguards inspections, but a further eight will not be safeguarded and can be used for weapons production.

North Korea’s nuclear bomb test last October used plutonium produced in a so-called “experimental power reactor”. The US uses a power reactor to produce tritium, which is used to increase the destructive force of nuclear weapons. The US has also published details of a successful weapon test in 1962 using reactor-grade plutonium.

Australia’s nuclear history also demonstrates the link between nuclear power and weapons. On several occasions in the 1950s and 1960s, federal cabinet received submissions arguing that one “advantage” of nuclear power reactors is that they inevitably produce plutonium that can be used in weapons.

From 1969 until his resignation in 1971, Liberal PM John Gorton pursued a plan to build a power reactor at Jervis Bay on the NSW coast. He later acknowledged that the reactor was to produce not just electricity but also plutonium for potential use in weapons. The Jervis Bay plan was scrapped by Gorton’s Liberal successor, Billy McMahon.

Nuclear power programs have indirectly supported a number of weapons programs by providing a rationale for acquiring uranium enrichment plants, research and training reactors, or reprocessing plants. Five of the 10 countries to have developed nuclear weapons did so under cover of a “civil” program: India and Israel use research reactors to produce plutonium for weapons; South Africa and Pakistan acquired enrichment technology and produced highly enriched uranium bombs; and North Korea used its “experimental power reactor” for plutonium production.

Iraq’s nuclear weapons program from the 1970s to 1991 illustrates the indirect links between power and weapons. Iraq never actually built power reactors, but its professed interest in nuclear power facilitated the acquisition of a vast amount of nuclear technology and expertise, which was put to use in the weapons program. It was later described in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as a “shop-till-you-drop” weapons program, with much of the shopping done openly.

According to Khidhir Hamza, a senior nuclear scientist involved in Iraq’s weapons program: “Acquiring nuclear technology within the [International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA] safeguards system was the first step in establishing the infrastructure necessary to develop nuclear weapons. In 1973, we decided to acquire a 40-megawatt research reactor, a fuel manufacturing plant, and nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities, all under cover of acquiring the expertise needed to eventually build and operate nuclear power plants, and produce and recycle nuclear fuel. Our hidden agenda was to clandestinely develop the expertise and infrastructure needed to produce weapon-grade plutonium.”

Iraq’s nuclear weapons program continued until the 1991 Gulf War, yet the IAEA failed to detect it, or its use of “safeguarded” research reactors to produce materials used in tests of “dirty” radiation bombs. The Iraq debacle prompted efforts to tighten the safeguards system, but the current IAEA director-general, Dr Mohamed El Baradei, characterises those efforts as “half hearted”.

Nuclear power is the one and only energy source with a repeatedly demonstrated connection to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. To deny that connection — as James Lovelock does — is inaccurate, irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

[Dr Jim Green is an anti-nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth.]

Powered by ScribeFire.

The Convenient Solution

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/the-convenient-solution-20070718



A short film about climate change, energy and nuclear power. If you're confused about whether we need nuclear power to stop climate change, take nine minutes of your time to watch our new film. It doesn't just explain why nuclear power can't stop climate change - it also points the way to a better, cheaper, more convenient solution.

Hunkpapa means HOSTILE

Growing up as an orphan, I was told many stories about how our people, the Hunkpapa, came to be living in a concentrated cluster housing project. Asking my grandfather, where was our tipi and he started telling me the history of the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation.

I am related to several families in Bullhead, South Dakota, collectively known as the Hunkpapa, loosely translated as the northern horn. The Hunkpapa are related to a larger group of families known as the Oceti Sakowin, the Seven Council Fires.

We are totally dispossessed and have been persecuted by others even our own tribal government since the day my relatives returned from political exile in Canada. The reason for our exile was the 1876 honorable defeat of General Custer and the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Afterwards my relatives, the Hunkpapa headed north into Canada where they stayed for nearly 5 years under starvation and exposure to the elements, yet they endured this hardship since they knew that returning to the US was to concede defeat and would become great suffering to our people.

In 1881 Sitting Bull returned to the US and was imprisoned but was released to the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation. Although many say that he led the Ghost Dance, he really didn't have anything to do with it. In 1890 they assassinated Sitting Bull, causing an mass exodus south to the Pine Ridge Reservation where the Hunkpapa again sought political asylum under Chief Red Cloud. Rumors and the stories told me that he refused to help my relatives then and even refused to greet them before they rounded up and slaughtered in cold blood at Wounded Knee by the 7th Cavalry.

This caused my relatives still staying on Standing Rock to withdraw from the tribal and federal government, moving to the southwestern corner of Standing Rock. It was here that our ceremonies were held in secrecy.

During the following years, the massive cattle herds polluted the drinking water, causing my relatives to move further and further east to where they finally formed the Rock Creek community, formally known as Bullhead, South Dakota.

Prior to this, other than having bad drinking water, they were totally self-sufficient. They even opposed the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act and the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act as they knew these were against our human rights and were instruments of genocide.

In 1976, my relatives also opposed the Indian Self-Determination and Education Act for the same reasons which they knew to be contrary to self-sufficiency and would cause great harm and deaths to our small group of families.

It was during these times of great change, falling upon our people that I became aware of my duty, my sacred mission in life. The American Indian Movement was out there fighting for our rights but other than the 1974 International Treaty Council, their impact on improving our living conditions was barely felt. But they did help us in one way, they gave us back our spirit of resistance and showed us that we were very special since we never agreed to the selling of the Black Hills or the Allotment Act as well as the following Acts that are genocidal.

During 1985 while staying south on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation with my friends that were teaching me the old ways and the ceremonies, I was given a copy of the Sioux Nation Black Hills Act. Immediately after reading it, I saw more acts of genocide and treachery within its highfalutin words. I returned the next day to Standing Rock where I showed my cousin who was on the tribal council what I had read. He replied that those sections weren't in the first readings and they were inserted after the tribes agreed to accept the money and the land to be returned. On the next day he introduced the motion to refuse the Sioux Nation Black Hills Settlement Act; like a strong wind the rest of the tribes also refused the act.

My point for this slight history of my past is to show you that one person can make changes that are right and just! Ever since that time, I was being taught our sovereign treaty rights, our superior water rights, our rights to have a safe and pure environment.

Then, in 1997, I was told about the uranium mine contamination out at the Cave Hills. Studying this mine has become a very dear fascination to me. I fully oppose all actions out there as they are a cover-up for the genocide being perpetuated against my relatives downstream who had no choice but to drink the radiologically contaminated water during the late 60's. We no longer have that many elders left in our community, they are all dying from cancer and diabetes. Our younger relatives are experiencing miscarriages, diabetes and cancer. Recently I was told by a federal employee that the reasons for this is that we drink, we smoke cigarettes, and we have a bad diet; little did that person know that I was already given this answer: that before the upstream mining in the 50's and 60's cancer, diabetes and miscarriages were totally unknown and they did drink, smoke and have a bad diet so that statement just reflects their prejudice, racism and further the genocide against my relatives.

In 2004 I approached the Defenders of the Black Hills while they were celebrating their success stopping the proposed shooting range that would have been built by Bear Butte. Giving them maps and documents, I left knowing that they'd help us get our genocide publicized in the mainstream media. Then I became one of their advocates and volunteers. My other purpose is to find lawyers and doctor sympathetic to us and our health crises so that our leaders can make better decisions on unbiased scientific studies at the Cave Hills. Just recently the US Forest Service and the potentially responsible party Tronox outsourced the reclamation of the Riley Pass abandoned uranium mine to two companies: ENSR; and Millenium Science and Engineering; which I feel only adds more controversy to our charge of racial genocide and environmental justice.

And now I am doing what I asked of the Defenders of the Black Hills and received their approval; this is to start approaching all the environmental movements involved in water pollution issues, radiation contamination, and air pollution, seeking to build bridges because the war against our environment, against the people, is still going on, even though the aggressors know that in the long run, they are on a path of suicide.

To add more to this conundrum, my tribe is lacking the technical capacity to truly make these decisions and are just fence sitting. I am not relying on them for this but they are also watching me with great curiosity.

Ending this I'll say that this is our cause, our duty, our self-sacrifice...it can't be compartmentalized into a radiation poisoning issue, or water contamination issue, or an air pollution issue; rather it is a total assault on every human being on this earth! Our earth is dying, we are killing her, we have to learn how to work with her or she will kill us! We are the hostiles!

PR nuke flacks do the Kashiwazaki quake death spin

Harvey Wasserman

PR nuke flacks do the Kashiwazaki quake death spin
July 23, 2007

As you read this, swarms of extremely well-paid PR flacks are spinning the Kashiwazaki nuke quake into an argument for building more reactors. They will deploy utter absurdities and personal attacks, followed by the sound of media-complicit silence.

But the news coming from Japan---and not being covered here---makes it clear the realities of this latest reactor disaster are beyond catastrophic. Seven reactors were put at direct risk, with four forced into emergency shut-downs while suffering numerous fires and emitting unknown quantities of radiation. Most importantly, the quake exceeded the design capabilities of all Japan's 55 reactors, and worse seismic shocks are expected.

To counter these inconvenient realities, expect to soon see more of Patrick Moore, the alleged ex-Greenpeace founder.

Moore has called the disaster at Three Mile Island a "success story." Moore claims to be a scientist. He's obviously not an accountant.

His face stays straight while calling the transformation of a $900 million asset into a $2 billion liability a "success story." It testifies to a mentality that never saw a polluter's check that couldn't be cashed.

On January 28, 1986, I debated a spokeswoman from Cleveland Electric Illuminating who termed the earthquake fault near the Perry Nuclear Plant a "geologic anomaly."

As we spoke, the Challenger space shuttle blew up because NASA "scientists" said warnings from their own staff about O-rings in cold weather were not "compelling." The shuttle was shot off to coincide with a planned presidential performance by Ronald Reagan. Seven astronauts died while the whole world watched in horror.

Three days later, a non-anomalous earthquake cracked pipes and pumps at Perry, knocking out roads and bridges. Apparently, neither the O-rings nor the fault line had read the industry's spin.

Today the nuke flacks say Kashiwazaki was a "success story" because four reactors SCRAMmed into emergency shutdown and three more were damaged, but no apocalypse resulted (yet).

Since this is only the world's largest nuke complex, with only seven reactors on site, and only several hundred barrels of nuke waste tipped over, and far fewer had their lids fly off, and the gas emissions the utility lied about were only tritium, which is less deadly than plutonium, the fact that all of Japan was not engulfed in a catastrophic radiation release (yet) will be used to sell more reactors.

Expect phrases like these:

"The reactors withstood the worst nature could throw at them."

"The SCRAMs went off perfectly."

"The shut-downs will be temporary."

"American reactors are far stronger than Japanese ones."

"This was a once-in-a-century fluke, and no one was hurt."

"Even so, we must have nuke power to fight global warming."

"The media has distorted the utility's good-faith attempts to inform the public."

"Those rad-waste barrels were tipped over by eco-terrorists."

"Tritium is good for you."

"Nuke power is a 'zero emissions' technology, therefore the reported leaks could not have occurred."

"Those anti-nuke so-called scientists have been discredited."

But most importantly, expect a tightly enforced media blackout.

It starts when all who question the industry are automatically "discredited."

Dr. John Gofman, universally acknowledged as one of the world's leading nuclear and medical researchers, was once in charge of health research for the old Atomic Energy Commission. When asked to determine how many people would be killed by radioactive emissions from "normal" reactor operations, he found it would be about 32,000 Americans per year.

The AEC demanded he revise his findings. Gofman refused. So he was forced out of the AEC and "discredited" despite credentials that continue to dwarf those who replaced him.

The list of physicists, engineers, medical researchers and others similarly purged for fact-based reporting is too tragic to reconstruct here.

But it even includes a park ranger at the Pt. Reyes National Seashore who noticed in the spring of 1986 that the number of live bird births had plummeted compared with the previous ten springs. The only logical link was to radioactive fallout from Chernobyl, brought down by a California rainstorm ten days after the explosion.

The ranger soon found himself out of a job.

On the other hand, the industry still falsely asserts that no one died at Three Mile Island. It even produced a "doctor" who traveled through Europe asserting that the enormous radiation releases spewed by the explosion at Chernobyl would ultimately save lives.

Predictably, the Kashiwazaki catastrophe has disappeared from the American media. But in Japan, the news has transcended the truly horrifying.

According to Leo Lewis in The Times, talk is rampant of a "Genpatsu-shinsai," defined by Japan's leading seismologist, Katsuhiko Shibashi, as "the combination of an earthquake and nuclear meltdown capable of destroying millions of lives and bringing a nation to its knees." Shibashi warns that the recent 6.8 magnitude shock exceeded the design capabilities of the Kashiwazaki nuke by a factor of three. A Kobe University research team is reported as saying that if the quake had been 10km further to the southwest, a "terrible, terrible disaster" would have resulted.

Prof. Mitsuhei Murata of Tokai Gakuen University is quoted as warning that a quake at the Hamaoka nuke could bring "24 million victims and the end for Japan." Japan's earthquake experts assume the probability of an 8.0 quake within the next 30 years to be 87 percent.

As in the US, Tokyo Electric has long denied that its seven Kashiwazaki reactors were sited atop a fault line, only to have it turn out to be true. As at Three Mile Island, vital data has already disappeared from the Kashiwazaki disaster, and the exact quantities of radiation released are unknown. Radiation at both sites escaped well after the reactors were shut down.

As in the United States, Japanese earthquake experts have warned since the 1960s about the dangers of reactor construction, only to be ignored and "discredited."

Undoubtedly the Japanese PR nuke spinsters will continue to attack and ignore them.

Here, 2400 central Pennsylvania families will still be denied a federal trial on the death, disease and mayhem spewed upon them by Three Mile Island nearly thirty years ago. And the seven dead Challenger astronauts are not available for comment on the "perfectly safe" O-rings that killed them just prior to the "non-credible" earthquake that struck the Perry nuke.

Any possible problems with a new generation of reactors are equally non-credible. Just ask a flack.

--
Harvey Wasserman's SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, A.D. 2030, is at http://www.solartopia.org/. He is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, and senior editor of http://www.freepress.org/, where this article first appeared.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuke accident, a US model of ineptitude

Company: Japan Radioactive Leak Bigger - Forbes.com

The malfunctions and a delay in reporting them fueled concerns about the safety of Japan's 55 nuclear reactors, which have suffered a string of accidents and cover-ups. Nuclear power plants around Japan were ordered to conduct inspections.Adding to the urgency of any investigation was new data from quake aftershocks that suggested a fault line may run underneath the mammoth power plant.The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, located 135 miles northwest of Tokyo, has been plagued with mishaps. In 2001, a radioactive leak was found in the turbine room of one reactor. It is the world's largest nuclear plant in power output capacity. '

As an excellent illustration of safety systems failures, this nuclear accident is easily the finest, although very tragic, example of what could happen in the future to any of our 103 aging nuclear reactors. We need to close Indian Point, not only because it is ancient and outdated, but for its proximity to the very densely populated New York City. Its evacuation plan is not widely distributed, nor do most of the local area residents know of this plans existence.

Several days ago problems surfaced with the early warning system's sirens; they accidentally started sounding for hours. Causing undue fear and nuisance, Entergy turned off this system and is asking for more time to fix them; surely this is another sign that the reactor is dangerous to the public. Without this warning system, how will the public know that an excursion or catastrophe occurred at the reactor; when they hear about the accident from someone in South Dakota!

Entergy and its supporters should quit looking at the Japanese situation as a fluke or an act of God; rather they should see this as an excellent opportunity to truly serve their customers by offering to shut down Indian Point voluntarily. It takes a great man to admit he is wrong, but when he does, he shows that he is truly great.

Radiation Warning Signs Placed on Cheyenne River

Notice to the Press


July 16, 2007

“Radiation Warning Signs Placed on Cheyenne River”

Red Shirt Village -- Some of the residents of Red Shirt village on the northwest corner of the Pine Ridge Reservation will be unveiling signs warning people of the high nuclear radiation levels found in the Cheyenne River.

Residents of the tiny community of Red Shirt on the south side of the Cheyenne River occupy a village site that is thousands of years old to the Oglala Tetuwan (Sioux) people. Many have lived here all of their lives, growing gardens with water taken from the Cheyenne River and fishing for catfish, bass, and turtles. In the summer months, the River is used for swimming and other recreational pursuits.

Several weeks ago, in preparation for the summer months, Everitt Poor Thunder asked Defenders of the Black Hills, an environmental organization, whether the Cheyenne River water could be used to irrigate a community garden. A local well could not be used as it was found to be radioactive and warning signs surround that structure.

A water sample was taken, sent to a laboratory, and the results were found to be above the Environmental Protection Agency’s Maximum Contaminant Level for alpha radiation.

As alpha radiation causes harm when ingested, the warning signs are being placed to warn people of the dangers of nuclear radiation in the water. The event is to begin at 10:00 AM on Wednesday, July 18, 2007, on the south side of the bridge spanning the River.

Red Shirt village is located about 25 miles southeast of Hermosa, SD, on SD Highway 40.

For more information contact Charmaine White Face, Coordinator for Defenders of the Black Hills at 399-1868.

Nuclear Power: Promoting a Myth

Russell Lowes talks about how nuclear power is being promoted by the nuclear industry again as cheap, clean and efficient. They hope to foist another round of reactors on the U.S. at the expense of the environment and of the American economy. This was shot at Access Tucson on My Commentary.

Erwin uranium spill cloaked in secrecy

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/jul/11/erwin-uranium-spill-cloaked-in-secrecy/

Federal regulators looking into NRC policy that kept details from being public

By Andrew Eder
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

RELATED LINKS

Read the letter detailing the NRC's secrecy policy with an East Tennessee nuclear facility

Federal regulators are reviewing a policy that has kept details on an East Tennessee nuclear facility — including a potentially deadly spill of highly enriched uranium last year — hidden from the public.

Since August 2004, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has designated most correspondence with Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. as “official use only,” which has prevented inspection reports and other materials on the nuclear fuel producer from being publicly released.

That policy kept a March 2006 uranium spill at the company’s Erwin, Tenn., plant out of public view for more than a year, until the incident was disclosed in May in a required annual report to Congress. Local authorities weren’t even informed of the spill.

The disclosure drew attention from a Congressional committee, prompting the NRC to re-examine the “official use only” tag, an administrative designation that allows the commission to withhold sensitive documents without technically classifying them.

NRC spokesman Roger Hannah said commission staffers were reviewing the designation for documents on Nuclear Fuel Services, and possibly other licensees as well.

“I would assume that’s something they’re looking at across the board,” Hannah said.

The March 2006 incident prompted a change to the company’s Special Nuclear Materials License, but the February order detailing the change was kept from the public, which would have had a right to request a hearing on the changes. Hannah said the NRC has decided to reissue the order publicly, possibly within the week.

“The changes were an affirmation that NFS should establish a program to create a more robust safety culture within the plant among its employees and supervisors,” said Nuclear Fuel Services spokesman Tony Treadway.

The spill last year involved about 35 liters of highly enriched uranium solution that leaked into a protected glovebox, then onto the floor in a facility where highly enriched uranium is “downblended” to a lower enrichment for use in commercial reactors, including TVA’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama.

According to the NRC’s report, there were two chances for a “criticality” accident, where a nuclear chain reaction releases radiation. If such an incident occurred, “it is likely that at least one worker would have received an exposure high enough to cause acute health effects or death,” according to the report.

More information on the event came to light last week in a letter sent to the NRC by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The NRC had provided the committee with inspection reports on the Erwin facility, which have not been publicly released.

“NRC inspection reports suggest that it was merely a matter of luck that a criticality accident did not occur,” reads the letter, signed by U.S. Reps. John Dingell, the committee’s chair, and Bart Stupak, a subcommittee chair, both Michigan Democrats.

The letter revealed that the NRC implemented its “official use only” policy in August 2004 after a request from the Department of Energy’s Office of Naval Reactors, which was concerned that sensitive national security information could be found on the NRC’s public records system. The memo that established the policy was itself kept from the public.

“Thus, the public and Congress have been kept in the dark regarding NRC’s decision to withhold all documents regarding the NFS plant from public view,” the congressmen wrote.

The policy was supposed to cover only documents related to Nuclear Fuel Services’ and another contractor’s program to make nuclear fuel for Navy submarines. Treadway said last year’s spill was not related to the company’s production of naval fuel.

The NRC’s Hannah said he did not know why the spill was kept secret given the limited scope of the “official use only” policy.

“Unfortunately, we’re in a position in this case where it seems the public has been denied the right to know what’s going on there,” said Linda Modica, a Jonesborough resident who chairs the Sierra Club’s national radiation committee.

Modica said she lives downwind of the Erwin facility and drinks groundwater from the same watershed.

“We have no idea what, if anything, was released to the air or water at the time of that spill,” she said.

Yet the NRC has to walk a “delicate line” between giving citizens information about nuclear accidents and preventing terrorists from learning too much about bomb-grade materials, U.S. Rep David Davis said.

Davis, a Republican who hails from Unicoi County, said he has a personal stake in making sure his constituents are safe — his mother-in-law lives a half-mile from the Erwin facility.

“I want to make sure we use common sense on this issue,” Davis said. “We don’t want too much information out, but we don’t want to withhold information either.”

With about 715 employees, Nuclear Fuel Services, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, is the largest employer in Unicoi County. The private company has a history of fines and enforcement actions by the NRC, which regulates commercial reactors and other uses of nuclear materials.

Erwin Mayor Don Lewis worked at the Nuclear Fuel Services plant for 43 years before retiring in 2002.

Lewis said he had “heard rumors” about the spill but ultimately learned about it through media reports, the same way as the general public. But he said he had no concerns about the incident or the fact that local authorities were not notified after it happened.

“I didn’t have any complaint whatsoever with the way it was handled,” Lewis said. “We can always ‘what if’ this, or ‘what if’ that, but really you got to look at the facts about the thing.”

Treadway said the spill did not injure anyone or cause harm to the environment. He said Nuclear Fuel Services reported the incident promptly to the NRC’s two resident inspectors at the Erwin facility. The NRC later notified the state of the spill, but not local authorities.

“We would have gone against (NRC) regulations should we have shared it with the public,” Treadway said.

For Modica, that’s precisely the problem.

“How can you trust that your government is duking it out for the public with respect to these polluters if they don’t tell you what they’re doing?” Modica asked.

Business writer Andrew Eder may be reached at 865-342-6318.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.

Department of Energy Awards Over $10 Million for GNEP Siting Grants

What fascinates me most about this is that two of the grant recipients and locations immediately drew my attention since they were involved in some very interesting business deals in the past; now they are coming back on-line again under community reinvestment/economic revitalization project under the US EPA Brownfields program. interesting


http://www.gnep.energy.gov/gnepPRs/gnepPR013007.html

January 30, 2007

Department of Energy Awards Over $10 Million for GNEP Siting Grants

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced that over $10 million will be used for 11 commercial and public consortia selected to conduct detailed siting studies for integrated spent fuel recycling facilities under President Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP).

“These facilities will enable us to effectively recycle spent nuclear fuel in a safe and proliferation-resistant manner. They will set the technological standard and allow us to influence energy policy abroad while increasing energy security here at home,” DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon said. “With the negotiations complete, we are ready to proceed from an initial phase to one where actual studies can explore sites for GNEP-related facilities.”

Award recipients, announced in November 2006, will carry out siting studies to determine the possibility of hosting an advanced nuclear fuel recycling center and/or an advanced recycling reactor. Beginning today, recipients will conduct detailed site characterization studies of the sites which were proposed in their Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) responses. Recipients will have 90-days to complete these studies and submit a Site Characterization Report to DOE on May 1, 2007.

Of the 11 sites, six are currently owned and operated by DOE. Sites, lead award recipients, and award amounts are as follows:

Proposed Site Location Teaming Consortia Award Amounts

1. Atomic City, ID; EnergySolutions, LLC; $915,448

2. Barnwell, SC; EnergySolutions, LLC; $963,151

3. Hanford Site, WA; Tri-City Industrial Development Council/Columbia Basin Consulting Group; $1,020,000

4. Hobbs, NM; Eddy Lea Energy Alliance; $1,590,016

5. Idaho National Laboratory, ID; Regional Development Alliance, Inc; $648,745

6. Morris, IL; General Electric Company; $1,484,875

7. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN; Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee; $894,704

8. Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, KY; Paducah Uranium Plant Asset Utilization, Inc.; $664,600

9. Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, OH; Piketon Initiative for Nuclear Independence, LLC; $673,761

10. Roswell, NM; EnergySolutions, LLC; $1,134,522

11. Savannah River National Laboratory, SC; Economic Development Partnership of Aiken and Edgefield Counties; $468,420

TOTAL: $10,458,242

Information generated from the detailed siting studies of non-DOE sites is expected to address a variety of site-related matters, including site and nearby land uses; demographics; ecological and habitat assessment; threatened or endangered species; historical, archaeological and cultural resources; geology and seismology; weather and climate; and regulatory and permitting requirements. Information requirements for the DOE sites are more limited due to the availability of previous studies.

Such information may also be used in preparing the draft programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) – a process that began in early January (http://www.energy.gov/news/4560.htm) – which will evaluate the potential environmental impacts from each proposed GNEP facility.

An advanced nuclear fuel recycling center contains facilities where usable uranium and transuranics are separated from spent light water reactor fuel then produced into new fuel (or “transmutation fuel”) which then could be reused in an advanced recycling reactor. This advanced recycling reactor is a fast reactor that would demonstrate the ability to reuse and consume materials recovered from spent nuclear fuel, including long-lived elements that would otherwise be disposed of in a geologic repository.

GNEP is a part of President Bush's Advanced Energy Initiative, which seeks to reduce our reliance in imported oil by changing the way we power our cars, homes and business. For more information on GNEP, visit: http://www.gnep.gov/. Additional information on the DOE’s nuclear energy program may be found on http://www.nuclear.energy.gov/.

NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940

Ten Reasons Why We Don’t Need To Build More Nuclear Power Plants

Ten Reasons Why We Don’t Need To Build More Nuclear Power Plants

To Address Climate Change…..

…..Reject the Nuclear Option

Ten Reasons Why We Don’t Need To Build More Nuclear Power Plants

* Nuclear reactors are pre-deployed weapons of mass destruction and pose an unacceptable risk. We need to eliminate, not proliferate them. An attack could render a city like Manhattan a sacrifice zone and kill hundreds of thousands within weeks.
* More reactors can’t halt climate change in time. We would need 300 in the U.S. and 1,500 worldwide just to make a dent in greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions. One reactor takes seven to ten years to build.
* Devoting scarce resources to shore up nuclear takes away from the real climate change solutions – conservation, energy efficiency and renewables like wind and solar.
* Building enough reactors to offset climate change is cost prohibitive. Reactors cost $4 billion or more each a decade ago and the price hasn’t gone down.
* Nuclear reactor proliferation means more waste with no place to put it. A new Yucca Mountain-style dump every four years would be needed if 1,500 new reactors were built.
* Nuclear power is not emissions-free. From uranium mining, milling and enrichment to construction and waste storage, nuclear uses fossil fuels.
* Even nuclear industry executives aren’t convinced. One described nuclear expansion as “comatose” and an option that would give his chief financial officer and Standard and Poors “a heart attack.”
* More reactors sends the wrong message abroad. The peaceful atom is a myth already exposed by the weapons programs of Indian, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea and Iran.
* Reactors at the beginning and the end of their lifespans are at their most dangerous, prone to breakdown and accident. Most of the 103 operating now are nearing the end of their cycles. Adding new ones doubles the risk of accident.
* Electricity is not the biggest problem. It’s fossil fuel-powered vehicles. Adding nuclear won’t address this or reduce these major ghg emitters.

Born Again Environmental Spiritualist

While waiting for my ride to the Sundance ceremony, I couldn't help but write this for you, discussing several major concerns I have about the Nuclear Power Craze.

First of all, I think the Nuclear Boom caught most environmentalists with their pants down, being totally unprepared for this explosion on their psyches and environment, and then being borgified into believing that Nuclear Power is the "solution" to the global warming theory after watching the film "An Inconvenient Truth," depicting Al Gore as the proletarian superhero who'll save us from our ecologically destructive mass consumptive society. Frankly most environmentalists I feel have almost lost sight of their objective as a result of their borgification into this false belief: to protect the environment.

I come from South Dakota, a state rich in mineral resources such as gold and uranium; it is also a state with a very poor environmental record. Most of the river have been contaminated with mining wastes; in the north in the Slim Buttes and Cave Hills areas on the Custer National Forest, uranium mine tailings waste, agricultural chemical wastes, while in the south, the rivers and Black Hills are polluted with gold mining tailings wastes. To me, protecting our rivers and the Black Hills have become a major focus of my life, being a fisherman and an avid outdoorsman. As an ardent and somewhat vocal supporter of environmentalism, I feel that eventually if we yell loud enough, someone will hear us and come to help us in our fight against all of the mining companies in our state.

After reading much of material on the Internet about environmentalism, I also feel that most of these groups have got to become more active in terms of proposing legislation and actual improvements, rather than just having an outdoor meeting just to meet other men and women for dating; this is what MySpace is for. I am not sniping at any group in particular, but specifically all of these environmental groups have got to take one unified stand against the destroyers, rather than fall to the "Divide and Conquer" tactic used on Native Americans for hundreds of years. We have got to remember we all have our parts in this grand play, and at the show's end, the main actor that should take the applause is our planet Earth.