Rapid City Journal Jul 26, 2007
Uranium mine clean-up underway
Journal staff
A minerals-reclamation company and an engineering company have nearly completed surface gamma surveys of five bluffs in Harding County as remediation work at the Riley Pass Site at North Cave Hills Abandoned Uranium Mines area continues.
The gamma surveys will allow the reclamation company, Tronox, and engineering company, ENSR, to determine the extent of excavation, re-grading and how much contaminated spoils, soils and sediment will be buried at the site. The clean-up criteria are based on surface readings. ENSR also will assess vegetation planted last year, which will help with this year's replanting efforts on site.
The engineering firm soon will conclude design work for an additional sediment pond needed at the site. The pond's planned location was originally on U.S. Forest Service lands, but Tronox has proposed moving the pond farther downstream onto private land. The new site provides more room for construction and will allow more sediment to be captured. Forest Service officials approved the new location, pending the landowner's approval.
Forest Service officials have awarded a contract to Millennium Science & Engineering of Salt Lake City to help with technical support on site. The engineering firm will perform quality control and quality-assurance oversight to the Forest Service, according to regulations of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, commonly known as the Superfund.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
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.
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.
Nuclear Fantasies, a delusion of omnipotence
Cognitive Dissonance – Choosing today, tomorrow doesn't exist
Convincing the American public because of global warming, we need nuclear energy; how they go about doing this, borders on madness. The polar ice caps are melting, glaciers are melting, the bees are dying, seasons are changing, weather is becoming more violent, hurricanes are becoming more and more destructive, and the ocean temperature is rising, droughts, famine, crop failures and even wars: they have embraced all of these as their own philosophy; their own personal belief. Without a doubt these natural events are sometimes catastrophic, causing human suffering beyond measure, beyond grief, yet in hypocrisy, the nuclear industry regularly takes our suffering, using it as a stepping stone on towards their greater glory. They have also stepped on the environmentalists whom have been saying that pollution is the cause of our planet's climate change for years and years; they weren't listened to then and they aren't heard now.
The nuclear renaissance, as a publicity campaign for providing more electricity without adding to the CO2 emissions to our atmosphere, is a sham; it is an outright lie and goes against nature, goes against what people would consider as living in a safe, contaminant-free environment. Everyday this sham is being exposed by the environmentalists and the anti-nuclear movement, the costs are examined and balanced against the benefits, and are found to be environmentally unsafe and the lie becomes more and more apparent to even the ardent nuclear energy supporter. Yet rather than recant their belief and accept the truth of their fallacy, they cling to it tighter until it causes them to withdraw to some corner hoping to be forgotten and overlooked in their guilt, their backs striped with their complacency in promoting the dangerous nuclear industry against the human rights of the future.
The aftershocks are still continuing in Japan, soon more suffering from the lack of electricity will come to them; this unfortunate accident at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear reactors must be considered by our government as more reason to re-evaluate our nuclear energy policy, to see if catastrophes such as what happened to the Japanese can be avoided in our country. All it will take is one major accident and the game is over. If one looks at the history of the nuclear energy industry, it is strewn with minor accidents and leaks of radiological materials into the air, water and land.
And to look with an unbiased perspective at the uranium mining, milling, enrichment and waste disposal phases of the nuclear fuels and weapons cycle, one can seen it as causing the deaths of many Native Americans, creating an unseen, overlooked health crises on many reservations. Is this the price Native Americans must pay for having our land illegally taken, then having the natural resources such as uranium and other minerals used to promote the greater prosperity of the mainstream American society without just compensation being paid for these thefts? These profits, then, should be just considered blood money being paid by the Native Americans to rent our poverty-stricken reservations and their blighted economies. Is this why our genocide is kept hidden from mainstream society; to hide the fact that the history of the Nuclear Renaissance is written with our blood!
Now where are the pro-nuclear factions and groups, clearly it is apparent to me that they are only promoting their support for nuclear energy because they are being paid to do so. They never consider the mining or waste issues in the nuclear renaissance hyperbole and this is wrong.
Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy
By declaring that nuclear energy is safe since there haven't been very many catastrophic failures is following this fallacy; nuclear energy is relatively new to humanity, and not enough data has been collected to make this judgment. Yet this position is a major selling point offered by the nuclear energy industry. As our nuclear reactor fleet ages, many maintenance have been appearing with extreme regularity, becoming an almost daily occurrences at some nuclear reactor sites. Rather than believing their one-sided opinions we should consider that most safety records collected by the NRC of the nuclear reactors clearly shows that there are many minor problems with leaking radionuclides into the surrounding environment. And that there have been several major catastrophic failures, Chernobyl, Three Miles Island, and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa , should be consider as reasons to state that nuclear energy is dangerous when it does decide to fail. Based on this, we should really not jump right onto the nuclear renaissance bandwagon without more unbiased qualitative research data; then factoring this information into the nuclear energy equation, we must also consider the distance to nearby communities, emergency preparedness action plans, locations to emergency support services and fire departments skilled in handling nuclear accidents, transport and logistics problems involving nuclear waste and fuel storage. Using the results from this equation, we can then say that sites such as Indian Point is a clear candidate for decommissioning.
And how this applies to the mining and waste issues is that most of the anti-nuclear and anti-mining community groups in the Midwest where the nuclear renaissance is quixotically called the uranium boom. The in situ leach/recovery uranium mining companies are taking advantage of the local communities' lack of informed consent and decision making. Very few communities have, as consultants, scientists or lawyers that can impartially provide sound scientific data that can be used by community leaders to make these important decisions. This too follows the Texas sharpshooter fallacy; not enough unbiased data on uranium issues is being given to the community leaders and without this data they usually accept the uranium mining companies into their communities, often because the uranium mining company pours money into local community coffers as a pseudo-bribe to improve the streets, roads, water supply and infrastructure. Then the uranium mining company goes to the next community and tells community leaders there that the other community accepts their actions and therefore they should also.
All across the Midwest are examples of these glowing lies, there are more than a 1,000 abandoned uranium mines and prospects in Colorado, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming, and several abandoned toxic uranium mills. Communities nearby these sites have experienced extremely high cancer rates, health-related deaths and other illnesses such as diabetes, a key indicator of low-dose radiation exposure. Does this matter to the proponents to the nuclear renaissance? It is an issue that they know crumbles their nuclear cookie, and wastes into dust their fallacies that nuclear energy is safe.
Conclusion
I must emphasize this even further; I was born and raised in one of the radiologically contaminated Indian reservations in South Dakota, I have seen my parents die young, I have seen our elders die young, I have seen our children with strange illnesses. After telling the federal agencies this many times I was told by one of them that the reason we are dying is that "we drink alcohol, we smoke cigarettes, and we eat a bad diet." This statement strikes me as the most racist statement I have ever heard since they didn't even consider that I have experienced the deaths and illnesses first hand; they are my parents, my relatives and my community. Asking my elders about the cancers before they passed on, they said that before the 60's they had never heard of diabetes or cancer, that many of the elders were also veterans of the Custer Battle. And now in this day, they are gone, our community is dying from diabetes and cancer; and what can the federal agencies offer a response to this, except the words, "Don't worry about it, we have scientists that say there isn't a problem." Where are our scientists, our lawyers?
I don't support nuclear energy and weapons, I never will! The nuclear renaissance is a myth, an outright lie; nuclear energy has absolutely nothing to do with global warming.
For more information
Defenders of the Black Hills
http://www.defendblackhills.org
The Silkwood Project
http://www.silkwoodproject.com
Environmental Nightmares
http://environmentalnightmares.blogspot.com
Convincing the American public because of global warming, we need nuclear energy; how they go about doing this, borders on madness. The polar ice caps are melting, glaciers are melting, the bees are dying, seasons are changing, weather is becoming more violent, hurricanes are becoming more and more destructive, and the ocean temperature is rising, droughts, famine, crop failures and even wars: they have embraced all of these as their own philosophy; their own personal belief. Without a doubt these natural events are sometimes catastrophic, causing human suffering beyond measure, beyond grief, yet in hypocrisy, the nuclear industry regularly takes our suffering, using it as a stepping stone on towards their greater glory. They have also stepped on the environmentalists whom have been saying that pollution is the cause of our planet's climate change for years and years; they weren't listened to then and they aren't heard now.
The nuclear renaissance, as a publicity campaign for providing more electricity without adding to the CO2 emissions to our atmosphere, is a sham; it is an outright lie and goes against nature, goes against what people would consider as living in a safe, contaminant-free environment. Everyday this sham is being exposed by the environmentalists and the anti-nuclear movement, the costs are examined and balanced against the benefits, and are found to be environmentally unsafe and the lie becomes more and more apparent to even the ardent nuclear energy supporter. Yet rather than recant their belief and accept the truth of their fallacy, they cling to it tighter until it causes them to withdraw to some corner hoping to be forgotten and overlooked in their guilt, their backs striped with their complacency in promoting the dangerous nuclear industry against the human rights of the future.
The aftershocks are still continuing in Japan, soon more suffering from the lack of electricity will come to them; this unfortunate accident at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear reactors must be considered by our government as more reason to re-evaluate our nuclear energy policy, to see if catastrophes such as what happened to the Japanese can be avoided in our country. All it will take is one major accident and the game is over. If one looks at the history of the nuclear energy industry, it is strewn with minor accidents and leaks of radiological materials into the air, water and land.
And to look with an unbiased perspective at the uranium mining, milling, enrichment and waste disposal phases of the nuclear fuels and weapons cycle, one can seen it as causing the deaths of many Native Americans, creating an unseen, overlooked health crises on many reservations. Is this the price Native Americans must pay for having our land illegally taken, then having the natural resources such as uranium and other minerals used to promote the greater prosperity of the mainstream American society without just compensation being paid for these thefts? These profits, then, should be just considered blood money being paid by the Native Americans to rent our poverty-stricken reservations and their blighted economies. Is this why our genocide is kept hidden from mainstream society; to hide the fact that the history of the Nuclear Renaissance is written with our blood!
Now where are the pro-nuclear factions and groups, clearly it is apparent to me that they are only promoting their support for nuclear energy because they are being paid to do so. They never consider the mining or waste issues in the nuclear renaissance hyperbole and this is wrong.
Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy
By declaring that nuclear energy is safe since there haven't been very many catastrophic failures is following this fallacy; nuclear energy is relatively new to humanity, and not enough data has been collected to make this judgment. Yet this position is a major selling point offered by the nuclear energy industry. As our nuclear reactor fleet ages, many maintenance have been appearing with extreme regularity, becoming an almost daily occurrences at some nuclear reactor sites. Rather than believing their one-sided opinions we should consider that most safety records collected by the NRC of the nuclear reactors clearly shows that there are many minor problems with leaking radionuclides into the surrounding environment. And that there have been several major catastrophic failures, Chernobyl, Three Miles Island, and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa , should be consider as reasons to state that nuclear energy is dangerous when it does decide to fail. Based on this, we should really not jump right onto the nuclear renaissance bandwagon without more unbiased qualitative research data; then factoring this information into the nuclear energy equation, we must also consider the distance to nearby communities, emergency preparedness action plans, locations to emergency support services and fire departments skilled in handling nuclear accidents, transport and logistics problems involving nuclear waste and fuel storage. Using the results from this equation, we can then say that sites such as Indian Point is a clear candidate for decommissioning.
And how this applies to the mining and waste issues is that most of the anti-nuclear and anti-mining community groups in the Midwest where the nuclear renaissance is quixotically called the uranium boom. The in situ leach/recovery uranium mining companies are taking advantage of the local communities' lack of informed consent and decision making. Very few communities have, as consultants, scientists or lawyers that can impartially provide sound scientific data that can be used by community leaders to make these important decisions. This too follows the Texas sharpshooter fallacy; not enough unbiased data on uranium issues is being given to the community leaders and without this data they usually accept the uranium mining companies into their communities, often because the uranium mining company pours money into local community coffers as a pseudo-bribe to improve the streets, roads, water supply and infrastructure. Then the uranium mining company goes to the next community and tells community leaders there that the other community accepts their actions and therefore they should also.
All across the Midwest are examples of these glowing lies, there are more than a 1,000 abandoned uranium mines and prospects in Colorado, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming, and several abandoned toxic uranium mills. Communities nearby these sites have experienced extremely high cancer rates, health-related deaths and other illnesses such as diabetes, a key indicator of low-dose radiation exposure. Does this matter to the proponents to the nuclear renaissance? It is an issue that they know crumbles their nuclear cookie, and wastes into dust their fallacies that nuclear energy is safe.
Conclusion
I must emphasize this even further; I was born and raised in one of the radiologically contaminated Indian reservations in South Dakota, I have seen my parents die young, I have seen our elders die young, I have seen our children with strange illnesses. After telling the federal agencies this many times I was told by one of them that the reason we are dying is that "we drink alcohol, we smoke cigarettes, and we eat a bad diet." This statement strikes me as the most racist statement I have ever heard since they didn't even consider that I have experienced the deaths and illnesses first hand; they are my parents, my relatives and my community. Asking my elders about the cancers before they passed on, they said that before the 60's they had never heard of diabetes or cancer, that many of the elders were also veterans of the Custer Battle. And now in this day, they are gone, our community is dying from diabetes and cancer; and what can the federal agencies offer a response to this, except the words, "Don't worry about it, we have scientists that say there isn't a problem." Where are our scientists, our lawyers?
I don't support nuclear energy and weapons, I never will! The nuclear renaissance is a myth, an outright lie; nuclear energy has absolutely nothing to do with global warming.
For more information
Defenders of the Black Hills
http://www.defendblackhills.org
The Silkwood Project
http://www.silkwoodproject.com
Environmental Nightmares
http://environmentalnightmares.blogspot.com
Thursday, July 19, 2007
The Earthquake that Screamed "NO NUKES!!!"
By Harvey Wasserman
The massive earthquake that shook Japan this week nearly killed millions in a nuclear apocalypse.
It also produced one of the most terrifying sentences ever buried in a newspaper. As reported deep in the New York Times, the Tokyo Electric Company has admitted that "the force of the shaking caused by the earthquake had exceeded the design limits of the reactors, suggesting that the plant's builders had underestimated the strength of possible earthquakes in the region."
There are 55 reactors in Japan. Virtually all of them are on or near major earthquake faults. Kashiwazaki alone hosts seven, four of which were forced into the dangerous SCRAM mode to narrowly avoid meltdowns. At least 50 separate serious problems have been so far identified, including fire and the spillage of barrels filled with radioactive wastes.
There are four active reactors in California on or near major earthquake faults, as are the two at Indian Point north of New York City. On January 31, 1986, an earthquake struck the Perry reactor east of Cleveland, knocking out roads and bridges, as well as pipes within the plant, which (thankfully) was not operating at the time. The governor of Ohio, then Richard Celeste, sued to keep Perry shut, but lost in federal court.
The fault that hit Perry is an off-shoot of the powerful New Madrid line that runs through the Mississippi River Valley, threatening numerous reactors. The Beyond Nuclear Project reports that in August, 2004, a quake hit the Dresden reactor in Illinois, resulting in a leak of radioactive tritium. Nevada's Yucca Mountain, slated as the nation's high-level radioactive waste dump, has a visible fault line running through it.
More than 400 atomic reactors are on-line worldwide. How many are vulnerable to seismic shocks we can only shudder to guess. But one-eighth of them sit in one of the world's richest, most technologically advanced, most densely populated industrial nations, which has now admitted its reactor designs cannot match the power an earthquake that has just happened.
In whatever language it's said, that translates into the unmistakable warning that the world's atomic reactors constitute a multiple, ticking seismic time bomb. Talk of building more can only be classified as suicidal irresponsibility.
Tokyo Electric's behavior since the quake defines the industry's credibility. For three consecutive days (with more undoubtedly to come) the utility has been forced to issue public apologies for erroneous statements about the severity of the damage done to the reactors, the size and lethality of radioactive spills into the air and water, the on-going danger to the public, and much more.
Once again, the only thing reactor owners can be trusted to do is to lie.
Prior to the March 28, 1979 disaster at Three Mile Island, the industry for years assured the public that the kind of accident that did happen was "impossible. "
Then the utility repeatedly assured the public there had been no melt-down of fuel and no danger of further catastrophe. Nine years later a robotic camera showed that nearly all the fuel had melted, and that avoiding a full-blown catastrophe was little short of a miracle.
The industry continues to say no one was killed at TMI. But it does not know how much radiation was released, where it went or who it might have harmed. Since 1979 its allies in the courts have denied 2400 central Pennsylvania families the right to test their belief that they and their loved ones have been killed and maimed en masse.
Prior to its April 26, 1986, explosion, Soviet Life Magazine ran a major feature extolling the virtually "accident-proof design" of Chernobyl Unit Four.
Then the former Soviet Union of Mikhail Gorbachev kept secret the gargantuan radiation releases that have killed thousands and yielded a horrific plague of cancers, leukemia, birth defects and more throughout the region, and among the more than 800,000 drafted "jumpers" who were forced to run through the plant to clean it up.
Since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the industry has claimed its reactors can withstand the effects of a jet crash, and are immune to sabotage. The claims are as patently absurd as the lies about TMI and Chernobyl.
So, too, the endless, dogged assurances from Japan that no earthquake could do to Kashiwazaki what has just happened.
Yet today and into the future, expensive ads will flood the US and global airwaves, full of nonsense about the "need" for new nukes.
There is only one thing we know for certain about this advertising: it is a lie.
Atomic reactors contribute to global warming rather than abating it. In construction, in the mining, milling and enriching of the fuel, in on-going "normal" releases of heat and radioactivity, in dismantling and decommissioning, in managing radioactive wastes, in future terror attacks, in proliferation of nuke weapons, and much much more, atomic energy is an unmitigated eco-disaster.
To this list we must now add additional tangible evidence that reactors allegedly built to withstand "worst case" earthquakes in fact cannot. And when they go down, the investment is lost, and power shortages arise (as is now happening in Japan) that are filled by the burning of fossil fuels.
It costs up to ten times as much to produce energy from a nuke as to save it with efficiency. Advances in wind, solar and other green "Solartopian" technologies mean atomic energy simply cannot compete without massive subsidies, loan guarantees and government insurance to protect it from catastrophes to come.
This latest "impossible" earthquake has not merely shattered the alleged safeguards of Japan's reactor fleet. It has blown apart---yet again---any possible argument for building more reactors anywhere on this beleaguered Earth.
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 piece originally appeared. In 1975 he spoke near the Kashiwazaki complex, urging its shut down.
The massive earthquake that shook Japan this week nearly killed millions in a nuclear apocalypse.
It also produced one of the most terrifying sentences ever buried in a newspaper. As reported deep in the New York Times, the Tokyo Electric Company has admitted that "the force of the shaking caused by the earthquake had exceeded the design limits of the reactors, suggesting that the plant's builders had underestimated the strength of possible earthquakes in the region."
There are 55 reactors in Japan. Virtually all of them are on or near major earthquake faults. Kashiwazaki alone hosts seven, four of which were forced into the dangerous SCRAM mode to narrowly avoid meltdowns. At least 50 separate serious problems have been so far identified, including fire and the spillage of barrels filled with radioactive wastes.
There are four active reactors in California on or near major earthquake faults, as are the two at Indian Point north of New York City. On January 31, 1986, an earthquake struck the Perry reactor east of Cleveland, knocking out roads and bridges, as well as pipes within the plant, which (thankfully) was not operating at the time. The governor of Ohio, then Richard Celeste, sued to keep Perry shut, but lost in federal court.
The fault that hit Perry is an off-shoot of the powerful New Madrid line that runs through the Mississippi River Valley, threatening numerous reactors. The Beyond Nuclear Project reports that in August, 2004, a quake hit the Dresden reactor in Illinois, resulting in a leak of radioactive tritium. Nevada's Yucca Mountain, slated as the nation's high-level radioactive waste dump, has a visible fault line running through it.
More than 400 atomic reactors are on-line worldwide. How many are vulnerable to seismic shocks we can only shudder to guess. But one-eighth of them sit in one of the world's richest, most technologically advanced, most densely populated industrial nations, which has now admitted its reactor designs cannot match the power an earthquake that has just happened.
In whatever language it's said, that translates into the unmistakable warning that the world's atomic reactors constitute a multiple, ticking seismic time bomb. Talk of building more can only be classified as suicidal irresponsibility.
Tokyo Electric's behavior since the quake defines the industry's credibility. For three consecutive days (with more undoubtedly to come) the utility has been forced to issue public apologies for erroneous statements about the severity of the damage done to the reactors, the size and lethality of radioactive spills into the air and water, the on-going danger to the public, and much more.
Once again, the only thing reactor owners can be trusted to do is to lie.
Prior to the March 28, 1979 disaster at Three Mile Island, the industry for years assured the public that the kind of accident that did happen was "impossible. "
Then the utility repeatedly assured the public there had been no melt-down of fuel and no danger of further catastrophe. Nine years later a robotic camera showed that nearly all the fuel had melted, and that avoiding a full-blown catastrophe was little short of a miracle.
The industry continues to say no one was killed at TMI. But it does not know how much radiation was released, where it went or who it might have harmed. Since 1979 its allies in the courts have denied 2400 central Pennsylvania families the right to test their belief that they and their loved ones have been killed and maimed en masse.
Prior to its April 26, 1986, explosion, Soviet Life Magazine ran a major feature extolling the virtually "accident-proof design" of Chernobyl Unit Four.
Then the former Soviet Union of Mikhail Gorbachev kept secret the gargantuan radiation releases that have killed thousands and yielded a horrific plague of cancers, leukemia, birth defects and more throughout the region, and among the more than 800,000 drafted "jumpers" who were forced to run through the plant to clean it up.
Since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the industry has claimed its reactors can withstand the effects of a jet crash, and are immune to sabotage. The claims are as patently absurd as the lies about TMI and Chernobyl.
So, too, the endless, dogged assurances from Japan that no earthquake could do to Kashiwazaki what has just happened.
Yet today and into the future, expensive ads will flood the US and global airwaves, full of nonsense about the "need" for new nukes.
There is only one thing we know for certain about this advertising: it is a lie.
Atomic reactors contribute to global warming rather than abating it. In construction, in the mining, milling and enriching of the fuel, in on-going "normal" releases of heat and radioactivity, in dismantling and decommissioning, in managing radioactive wastes, in future terror attacks, in proliferation of nuke weapons, and much much more, atomic energy is an unmitigated eco-disaster.
To this list we must now add additional tangible evidence that reactors allegedly built to withstand "worst case" earthquakes in fact cannot. And when they go down, the investment is lost, and power shortages arise (as is now happening in Japan) that are filled by the burning of fossil fuels.
It costs up to ten times as much to produce energy from a nuke as to save it with efficiency. Advances in wind, solar and other green "Solartopian" technologies mean atomic energy simply cannot compete without massive subsidies, loan guarantees and government insurance to protect it from catastrophes to come.
This latest "impossible" earthquake has not merely shattered the alleged safeguards of Japan's reactor fleet. It has blown apart---yet again---any possible argument for building more reactors anywhere on this beleaguered Earth.
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 piece originally appeared. In 1975 he spoke near the Kashiwazaki complex, urging its shut down.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuke accident, a US model of ineptitude
Company: Japan Radioactive Leak Bigger - Forbes.com
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.
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.
Monday, July 16, 2007
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.
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.
King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nuclear, and Gas)
Several days ago while randomly surfing for nuclear articles I found this gem amidst the rubble pile.
Solartopia
At first I couldn't believe that other than the anti-nuclear movement groups with which I am familiar; this would is actually combining slogans from the "Green Movement" to come up with a fresh feel and outlook towards the whole pollution issue.
A little more digging and then feeling this change, this hope growing inside of me, giving me more courage to continue the anti-nuclear, anti-Earth fight against big business and strange politics. BRAVO!!! I am now a SOLARTOPIAN!
To save the Earth, are YOU a Solartopian?
In the global campaign to save the Earth, a shared vision is vital.
" Solartopia" foresees a democratic, green-powered 21st Century civilization. Our economic and ecological survival depend on it.
Technologically, the vision rests on four simple pillars:
1. Total renunciation of all fossil and nuclear fuels. In a sustainable, survivable future, they are a 20th Century pox, neither green nor clean.
2. All-out conversion to renewable energy, led by the "Solartopian Trinity" of wind, solar and bio-fuels. Mother Earth gives us the natural power we need.
3. Complete commitment to maximum efficiency, including revived and solarized mass transit and passenger rail systems. Our automotive "love affair" is a hoax.
4. Zero tolerance for production of anything that cannot be re-used or recycled, including chemical-based food. Solartopia is an organic, post-pollution world.
Along with wind, solar and bio-fuels, Solartopian energy comes from the waves, currents, rivers and tides; from the geothermal heat beneath the earth's crust; from the interplay of solar-heated water at the oceans' surface and the frigid deep.
Hydrogen and electricity are the chief power carriers, but they are always produced by clean Solartopian means.
The efficiency revolution drives Solartopian energy consumption levels ever downward. Compact fluorescent bulbs are transcended by Light Emitting Diodes. An evolving armada of efficiency devices, many invented in backyards and garages, spreads at warp-speed through a hyper-linked global community.
Advanced methods of organic food production get us past the "silent spring" of chemical pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and genetically modified crops.
The ever-evolving Internet fuels a geek-driven torrent of Solartopian innovation---and the raging e-network of green grassroots democracy (http://solartopia.org/Links.php).
In our 21st Century global economy, renewable technologies are already on the whole more profitable than the obsolete King CONG "alternatives" of coal, oil, nukes and gas.
But from bio-fuels to wind, from hyper-efficiency to organic farming, no green technology is without costs and limitations. All demand vigilance, limitation, regulation and innovation to stay clean, current and useful.
When done right, the Solartopian revolution spawns the decentralized wealth, full employment, and community-based economic power of a prosperous, socially democratized society.
Homes, buildings, communities and farms control their own energy. Power and prosperity are widespread, not concentrated in the hands of King CONG and its corporate minions.
Indeed, Solartopia can't happen without transcending some primary barriers:
5. Corporations can no longer enjoy human rights without human responsibilities. Revised corporate charters must break the grip these giant economic organizations have held on our political, economic and ecological systems.
6. Population is the province of women, who in Solartopia are empowered, educated and equally paid. In synch with Mother Earth, they bring us the number of children She wishes to accommodate.
7. Where everyone has a right to the basic necessities of life, including free education, nobody starves. The Solartopian rich may be plentiful, but no civilization thrives unless all have access to sustenance and dignity.
8. Big Money is barred from the campaign process. Free and fair elections and referenda power non-violent community-based evolution. The universal right to ballots on recycled paper means accurate vote counts and recounts for all.
Solartopia demands that business serve society and the planet, rather than vice versa. Capitalism may be one thing, but Enron cannibalism is quite another. Balancing competition and the profit motive with human and ecological need, the Solartopian vision demands accountability, efficiency, service and justice.
The switch to renewables defunds global terrorism. Atomic reactors are pre-deployed weapons of radioactive mass destruction. Shutting them ends the fear of apocalyptic disaster by both terror and error. Transcending coal and cars cures much of global warming.
But everywhere we turn, the King CONG corporations build barriers. They use government subsidies and media disinformation to prolong their failed investments in obsolete technologies and the fossil/nuke fuels that run them.
Inseparable from those fuels are authoritarian power structures that produce wars for oil, financial imbalance and social chaos, leading to biological extinction.
By contrast, Solartopia is the diverse, democratic, organic place we go to survive and thrive.
Born of hyper-linked grassroots non-violence, empowered by post-pollution prosperity in synch with Mother Earth and all her children, Solartopia is the 21st Century vision of our necessary future.
Are YOU a Solartopian?
Now to continue spreading the word about this exciting new website and then they will come and join us.
Solartopia
At first I couldn't believe that other than the anti-nuclear movement groups with which I am familiar; this would is actually combining slogans from the "Green Movement" to come up with a fresh feel and outlook towards the whole pollution issue.
A little more digging and then feeling this change, this hope growing inside of me, giving me more courage to continue the anti-nuclear, anti-Earth fight against big business and strange politics. BRAVO!!! I am now a SOLARTOPIAN!
To save the Earth, are YOU a Solartopian?
In the global campaign to save the Earth, a shared vision is vital.
" Solartopia" foresees a democratic, green-powered 21st Century civilization. Our economic and ecological survival depend on it.
Technologically, the vision rests on four simple pillars:
1. Total renunciation of all fossil and nuclear fuels. In a sustainable, survivable future, they are a 20th Century pox, neither green nor clean.
2. All-out conversion to renewable energy, led by the "Solartopian Trinity" of wind, solar and bio-fuels. Mother Earth gives us the natural power we need.
3. Complete commitment to maximum efficiency, including revived and solarized mass transit and passenger rail systems. Our automotive "love affair" is a hoax.
4. Zero tolerance for production of anything that cannot be re-used or recycled, including chemical-based food. Solartopia is an organic, post-pollution world.
Along with wind, solar and bio-fuels, Solartopian energy comes from the waves, currents, rivers and tides; from the geothermal heat beneath the earth's crust; from the interplay of solar-heated water at the oceans' surface and the frigid deep.
Hydrogen and electricity are the chief power carriers, but they are always produced by clean Solartopian means.
The efficiency revolution drives Solartopian energy consumption levels ever downward. Compact fluorescent bulbs are transcended by Light Emitting Diodes. An evolving armada of efficiency devices, many invented in backyards and garages, spreads at warp-speed through a hyper-linked global community.
Advanced methods of organic food production get us past the "silent spring" of chemical pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and genetically modified crops.
The ever-evolving Internet fuels a geek-driven torrent of Solartopian innovation---and the raging e-network of green grassroots democracy (http://solartopia.org/Links.php).
In our 21st Century global economy, renewable technologies are already on the whole more profitable than the obsolete King CONG "alternatives" of coal, oil, nukes and gas.
But from bio-fuels to wind, from hyper-efficiency to organic farming, no green technology is without costs and limitations. All demand vigilance, limitation, regulation and innovation to stay clean, current and useful.
When done right, the Solartopian revolution spawns the decentralized wealth, full employment, and community-based economic power of a prosperous, socially democratized society.
Homes, buildings, communities and farms control their own energy. Power and prosperity are widespread, not concentrated in the hands of King CONG and its corporate minions.
Indeed, Solartopia can't happen without transcending some primary barriers:
5. Corporations can no longer enjoy human rights without human responsibilities. Revised corporate charters must break the grip these giant economic organizations have held on our political, economic and ecological systems.
6. Population is the province of women, who in Solartopia are empowered, educated and equally paid. In synch with Mother Earth, they bring us the number of children She wishes to accommodate.
7. Where everyone has a right to the basic necessities of life, including free education, nobody starves. The Solartopian rich may be plentiful, but no civilization thrives unless all have access to sustenance and dignity.
8. Big Money is barred from the campaign process. Free and fair elections and referenda power non-violent community-based evolution. The universal right to ballots on recycled paper means accurate vote counts and recounts for all.
Solartopia demands that business serve society and the planet, rather than vice versa. Capitalism may be one thing, but Enron cannibalism is quite another. Balancing competition and the profit motive with human and ecological need, the Solartopian vision demands accountability, efficiency, service and justice.
The switch to renewables defunds global terrorism. Atomic reactors are pre-deployed weapons of radioactive mass destruction. Shutting them ends the fear of apocalyptic disaster by both terror and error. Transcending coal and cars cures much of global warming.
But everywhere we turn, the King CONG corporations build barriers. They use government subsidies and media disinformation to prolong their failed investments in obsolete technologies and the fossil/nuke fuels that run them.
Inseparable from those fuels are authoritarian power structures that produce wars for oil, financial imbalance and social chaos, leading to biological extinction.
By contrast, Solartopia is the diverse, democratic, organic place we go to survive and thrive.
Born of hyper-linked grassroots non-violence, empowered by post-pollution prosperity in synch with Mother Earth and all her children, Solartopia is the 21st Century vision of our necessary future.
Are YOU a Solartopian?
Now to continue spreading the word about this exciting new website and then they will come and join us.
"Are you Oglala or Wasicu?"
By Charmaine White Face
The question was raised at a recent meeting called by Oglala Sioux Tribal President John Yellow Bird Steele about the idea of mining uranium on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, "Are you Oglala or Wasicu?"
If a person is Oglala, or Anishinabeg, or Dine, or from any other Indigenous nation that is trying desperately to retain their Indigenous values, the answer to the possibility of mining uranium is a simple and resounding "No!" The answer "yes" to the question of mining uranium reflects the values of the wasicu, or the white man, and the Lakota word wasicu literally means "takes the fat" for a reason.
All of the Indigneous nations understood what uranium was in their own terms and their own cultures. The Dine (Navajo) called it "the yellow monster." An Oglala holy man spoke of only those who had a dream and were protected could go into areas where uranium was naturally occurring. The understanding is entirely different than viewing uranium according to the wasicus as an energy source, or natural resource. Mitochondria in the cell is also a source of energy that wasicu scientists still do not understand, and their study of the cell is a lot older than the study of uranium.
John Yellow Bird Steele, as the president of one of the poorest tribes on the North American continent, is in the unenviable position of trying to improve the economic conditions on the reservation while at the same time trying to stay within the cultural, traditional values of the Oglala people. With the price of uranium soon to be reaching the $200 per pound category, and with uranium located all over the region, he called a meeting to discuss an offer made to the previous tribal president, Cecilia Fire Thunder. As the new Tribal President, he has been asked to sign a Memorandum of Agreement with the mining entity, Native American Energy Group (NAEG).
The slick handout from NAEG has a quote from Leonard Peltier on its front cover which states:
"I heard about your company and all the good things you are doing for Native Americans. Our people are good and deserve a chance to live a better life. Too many companies say they want to help, but in the end they only help themselves to our resources and give us barely enough to survive. I knew in my heart that someday a company like yours would come, a company that does not take advantage of us and truly wants to help. I heave heard about your "Tribal Empowerment Program", and I wish to be a member and supporter. My supporters and followers also pledge their complete support for your company as well."
A woman at the meeting said she was going to contact Leonard to see if he really did say these things, and to let him know what NAEG is planning for the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The handout further stated: "Native American Energy Group is an energy company that was originally founded in 2001 to develop energy resources on Native American reservations in the United States. Upon inception, the founders of the Company initiated its current philosophy of commitment and dedication to create opportunities for an emerging group of American Indian Nations with abundant natural resources, to become producing nations which explore, produce and control their own natural resources."
Again, we have an entity planning to come into the last Oglala territory and impose their philosophy in typical colonizing fashion. If NAEG was truly cognizant of Oglala philosophy and values, they would know in the first place not to call Ina Makoce "natural resources." If they understood the vast difference in philosophy between the Oglalas and the Wasicus, they would have known better than to even try to recommend destroying and hurting her by mining.
Even more unconscionable is the idea of waving the possibility of multimillion dollars in front of tribal presidents responsible for the economic development of a reservation that is slated for poverty by design. It is not just the epitome of colonialism, but is the equivalent of the guard of this prisoner of war camp opening the gate and telling the prison leader he will be free. Upon running, the prisoner will be shot for escaping, only in this case the bullet will be the unseen, unsmelled, untasted form of nuclear radiation.
OST President John Steele is right to gather more heads together than just the OST Executive Committee, his own group of advisors, or even the entire Tribal Council when trying to decide what to do about something as dangerous as uranium mining. Along with the current tribal ban on mining on the reservation, President Steele needs to arm himself with as much information and advice as he can muster to fend off the other uranium mining companies that are sure to come knocking on the door soon.
The Task Force he established was originally called the Uranium Mining Task Force but after the presentations and discussions, concluding with the question of "Are we Oglala or Wasicu?" the group changed the name to the Natural Resources Protection Task Force. The new name fits according to wasicu philosophy and understanding. If it were totally according to Oglala understanding, there would be no need for any Task Force as we would all know that we must always protect Ina Makoce (Mother Earth) and we would never talk about mining. But the colonization and forced cultural genocide has succeeded so well that we must continue to learn all we can according to the wasicu philosophy and understanding, then discuss with each other and remind ourselves of what it is in Oglala terms and values.
The front line helping President Steele is the young, educated, and culturally aware staff that currently comprises the Oglala Sioux Tribe Environmental Protection Office and Natural Resources Regulatory Agency. If politics and corruption don't interfere and they are allowed to do their jobs, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation may be one of the last places left in the Upper Midwest that is not completely polluted by nuclear radiation.
####
Charmaine White Face, whose Lakota name is Zumila Wobaga, is Oglala Tetuwan Oceti Sakowin (Oglala Lakota from the Great Sioux Nation). She is a Biologist, Physical Scientist, former educator, writer and the founder and Coordinator for Defenders of the Black Hills. Ms.
White Face may be reached at bhdefenders@msn.com
The question was raised at a recent meeting called by Oglala Sioux Tribal President John Yellow Bird Steele about the idea of mining uranium on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, "Are you Oglala or Wasicu?"
If a person is Oglala, or Anishinabeg, or Dine, or from any other Indigenous nation that is trying desperately to retain their Indigenous values, the answer to the possibility of mining uranium is a simple and resounding "No!" The answer "yes" to the question of mining uranium reflects the values of the wasicu, or the white man, and the Lakota word wasicu literally means "takes the fat" for a reason.
All of the Indigneous nations understood what uranium was in their own terms and their own cultures. The Dine (Navajo) called it "the yellow monster." An Oglala holy man spoke of only those who had a dream and were protected could go into areas where uranium was naturally occurring. The understanding is entirely different than viewing uranium according to the wasicus as an energy source, or natural resource. Mitochondria in the cell is also a source of energy that wasicu scientists still do not understand, and their study of the cell is a lot older than the study of uranium.
John Yellow Bird Steele, as the president of one of the poorest tribes on the North American continent, is in the unenviable position of trying to improve the economic conditions on the reservation while at the same time trying to stay within the cultural, traditional values of the Oglala people. With the price of uranium soon to be reaching the $200 per pound category, and with uranium located all over the region, he called a meeting to discuss an offer made to the previous tribal president, Cecilia Fire Thunder. As the new Tribal President, he has been asked to sign a Memorandum of Agreement with the mining entity, Native American Energy Group (NAEG).
The slick handout from NAEG has a quote from Leonard Peltier on its front cover which states:
"I heard about your company and all the good things you are doing for Native Americans. Our people are good and deserve a chance to live a better life. Too many companies say they want to help, but in the end they only help themselves to our resources and give us barely enough to survive. I knew in my heart that someday a company like yours would come, a company that does not take advantage of us and truly wants to help. I heave heard about your "Tribal Empowerment Program", and I wish to be a member and supporter. My supporters and followers also pledge their complete support for your company as well."
A woman at the meeting said she was going to contact Leonard to see if he really did say these things, and to let him know what NAEG is planning for the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The handout further stated: "Native American Energy Group is an energy company that was originally founded in 2001 to develop energy resources on Native American reservations in the United States. Upon inception, the founders of the Company initiated its current philosophy of commitment and dedication to create opportunities for an emerging group of American Indian Nations with abundant natural resources, to become producing nations which explore, produce and control their own natural resources."
Again, we have an entity planning to come into the last Oglala territory and impose their philosophy in typical colonizing fashion. If NAEG was truly cognizant of Oglala philosophy and values, they would know in the first place not to call Ina Makoce "natural resources." If they understood the vast difference in philosophy between the Oglalas and the Wasicus, they would have known better than to even try to recommend destroying and hurting her by mining.
Even more unconscionable is the idea of waving the possibility of multimillion dollars in front of tribal presidents responsible for the economic development of a reservation that is slated for poverty by design. It is not just the epitome of colonialism, but is the equivalent of the guard of this prisoner of war camp opening the gate and telling the prison leader he will be free. Upon running, the prisoner will be shot for escaping, only in this case the bullet will be the unseen, unsmelled, untasted form of nuclear radiation.
OST President John Steele is right to gather more heads together than just the OST Executive Committee, his own group of advisors, or even the entire Tribal Council when trying to decide what to do about something as dangerous as uranium mining. Along with the current tribal ban on mining on the reservation, President Steele needs to arm himself with as much information and advice as he can muster to fend off the other uranium mining companies that are sure to come knocking on the door soon.
The Task Force he established was originally called the Uranium Mining Task Force but after the presentations and discussions, concluding with the question of "Are we Oglala or Wasicu?" the group changed the name to the Natural Resources Protection Task Force. The new name fits according to wasicu philosophy and understanding. If it were totally according to Oglala understanding, there would be no need for any Task Force as we would all know that we must always protect Ina Makoce (Mother Earth) and we would never talk about mining. But the colonization and forced cultural genocide has succeeded so well that we must continue to learn all we can according to the wasicu philosophy and understanding, then discuss with each other and remind ourselves of what it is in Oglala terms and values.
The front line helping President Steele is the young, educated, and culturally aware staff that currently comprises the Oglala Sioux Tribe Environmental Protection Office and Natural Resources Regulatory Agency. If politics and corruption don't interfere and they are allowed to do their jobs, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation may be one of the last places left in the Upper Midwest that is not completely polluted by nuclear radiation.
####
Charmaine White Face, whose Lakota name is Zumila Wobaga, is Oglala Tetuwan Oceti Sakowin (Oglala Lakota from the Great Sioux Nation). She is a Biologist, Physical Scientist, former educator, writer and the founder and Coordinator for Defenders of the Black Hills. Ms.
White Face may be reached at bhdefenders@msn.com
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