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January 10, 2020 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

House Committee Okays Changes to High-Level Waste Dump Law

Nukewatch Winter Quarterly 2019-2020

The US House Energy & Commerce Committee passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019—H.R. 2699—by a voice vote Nov. 20. This dangerously bad high-level radioactive waste bill is among the most controversial in Congress. H.R. 2699 would allow for the opening of one or more waste dumps in the US Southwest—so-called Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities (CISFs)—now targeted for New Mexico and Texas (by Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance at New Mexico, and by Interim Storage Partners/Waste Control Specialists in Texas). The bill also reopens plans for permanent abandonment of the waste in Yucca Mountain, Nevada—on Western Shoshone Indian land—a scientifically unsuitable site that was eliminated in 2010. If any of these dumps opens, large-scale shipments of high-risk irradiated waste reactor fuel would travel by road, rail, and/or waterway through most states, past millions of homes. The bill now moves closer to a House floor vote. What can you do? Please contact your US Rep’s via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to oppose H.R. 2699, and to oppose funding for both the Yucca dump and any CISF. Urge them to instead support good bills like the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act (S. 649/H.R. 1544), and the STRANDED Act (S. 1985). —Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear

Filed Under: Environmental Justice, Newsletter Archives, Quarterly Newsletter, Radioactive Waste

October 29, 2019 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Radiation and Colonialism Leave a Permanent Stamp on New Mexico—Part II

(See Part I)

July 16—New Mexico’s Day of Infamy

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2019
By Leona Morgan of Nuclear Issues Study Group

July 16th is a day of infamy for New Mexico, as it is the anniversary of the world’s largest uranium spill near Churchrock in 1979, and of the Trinity test, the first atomic weapon detonation in 1945.

Hibakusha & Internationals Commemorate July 16

In 2016, organizers in uranium-impacted communities called for an international day of action every July 16, to spotlight the unaddressed consequences of the Churchrock Spill and the ongoing global genocide of indigenous peoples from nuclear colonialism. The first to respond were organizers [Nukewatch and Nonviolent Action for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, Germany] protesting the deployment of US weapons at the German military base in Büchel in 2017. In 2018, solidarity events took place in the US, Germany, Spain, England, and France. This year, the local group Red Water Pond Road Community Association held its 11th annual day of remembrance of Churchrock. More than 200 folks attended from as far away as Japan.

The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (TBDC) hosted a town hall meeting and its 10th annual candlelight vigil to remember the lives lost due to the Trinity Test. Participants called out the names of all those lost to cancer, and read statements of support from Congressional offices and allies. Tina Cordova of TBDC reported that they “called out around 800 names. The list grows every year. We also held a tribute in memory of all the children that were lost as a result of the Trinity Test or were stillborn. This is such a horrible legacy! Children died and the government still lied.”

The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium remind us that before Hiroshima, there was Trinity.

Toshiya Morita, a second generation Hibakusha (people affected by the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), traveled from Kyoto, Japan to take part in both the Churchrock and Tularosa events. Morita recalls, “When I went to New Mexico I saw a lot of Hibakusha. Most of them are Indigenous people by uranium mines… [and] other Hibakusha by nuclear tests. I feel all of Hibakusha in the United States are one of my family… I want to walk with all of you to the no nuclear world!”

Exposed Communities Demand Compensation

Also on July 16, Representative Ben Ray Lujan, D-NM, introduced the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2019 (H.R. 3783). The bill would extend much-deserved compensation to all who have been impacted by the US military’s use of uranium weapons. The bill includes an apology, an extension of the fund until 2045 (beyond the current 2022 sunset date), and expansion of compensation to uranium mill and mine workers who worked after 1971 (up to 1990) and to nuclear weapons test downwinders in additional locations—including Tularosa Basin and Guam. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate on March 28, 2019 by Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho (S. 947).

Opposition to Centralized Waste Dump Continues

Today, the same region of Trinity’s radioactive fallout is being threatened by two proposals for consolidation of high-level waste nuclear fuel from reactors. Although New Mexico does not have any commercial nuclear power reactors, and such a waste dump would not be legal, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proceeding with the National Environmental Policy Act process for license applications from both Holtec International and Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP). ISP is a partnership between Waste Control Specialists and Orano—formerly Areva Corp. Scoping for both dumps was completed in 2018, and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Holtec is expected in March 2020, while ISP’s is expected in May 2020. Both proposals are being legally challenged within the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB). The ASLB hearing for ISP took place in Midland, Texas, on July 10 and was well attended by community folks opposing the so-called “Consolidated Interim Storage” facility.

—Leona Morgan works with the Nuclear Issues Study Group in New Mexico.

Filed Under: Direct Action, Environmental Justice, Newsletter Archives, Quarterly Newsletter, Radiation Exposure, Radioactive Waste

July 6, 2019 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Refusing to Report on Church Rock, “the worst incident of radiation contamination in the history of the United States”

Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2019
By Mark L. Taylor, Special to Nukewatch

Editor’s note: In New Mexico, the Church Rock Spill of July 16, 1979 has been called “the worst incident of radiation contamination in the history of the United States.” Catherine Caufield in “Multiple Exposures,” and Harvey Wasserman and Norman Solomon in “Killing Our Own,” reported that when the earthen dam holding radioactive uranium mine tailings burst, it released 93 million gallons of liquid wastes and more than 1,100 tons of solid wastes. “The wall of water backed up sewers and lifted manhole covers in Gallup, 20 miles downstream … and carried toxic metals … at least 70 miles downstream. … it left residues of radioactive uranium, thorium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, sodium, vanadium, zinc, iron, lead and high concentrations of sulfates.”

The 32nd anniversary of the Church Rock spill was observed July 16, 2011 with an awareness march starting from the site of the spill, 20 miles upstream from Gallop, New Mexico. Navajo Times photo by Paul Natonabah.

In 1978, I was a few years out of college when I stumbled into a job as the editorial cartoonist for The Albuquerque Tribune, which was part of the once legendary Scripps Howard chain of papers. At its founding in 1878 by E.W. Scripps, the company was a feisty force for progressive reform. By the late 1970’s, not so much.

Before loading up the U-Haul and heading off to the southwest an uncle of mine from San Antonio sat me down to make sure I understood just what the newspaper business was all about. Uncle Gary, a former journalist, was a very successful newspaper consultant and broker.

Full of dreams and inspired by the legacy of Scripps Howard’s most famous journalist, World War II combat reporter Ernie Pyle, I was eyeing my new career with a reformer’s heart.

“Yeah, so all that stuff about covering the news and getting to the truth is important, but never forget this,” uncle Gary said. “Bottom line, it is always a business and a business is about making money.”

“Yeah, I know that,” I said aloud, while inside thinking, “But journalism is a different kind of business.”

I settled into my new job with the passion of a religious convert, cranking out editorial cartoons and illustrations, and reading all I could about New Mexico, which one colleague described to me as, “Being as close as you can get to living in the Third World and still be in the United States.”

Where E.W. Scripps had once warned cub reporters about never trusting an editor who belonged to a country club, the corporation now not only provided the editor Ralph Looney with a membership to the most established country club in the city, but also a membership to the swanky Petroleum Club, perched atop one of the city’s tallest bank buildings.

Editor Ralph regularly went to luncheons at the Petroleum Club and would casually mention how he had enjoyed yet another lovely dinner at the club with this or that banker, oil company executive, or big wig with one of the nuclear labs.

On July 16, 1979 any lingering illusions I had about corporate media were sandpapered out of me. Reports were coming in regarding a massive flood of liquid radioactive waste from a breached uranium mine tailings evaporation pond. A “state of the art” earthen dam had collapsed and a veritable avalanche of radioactive sludge, heavy metals, acids and other toxins was roaring down the Little Puerco River (Rio Puerco), right through the heart of the Navajo Nation.

The Rio Puerco is a tributary of the Little Colorado River, which runs to the Colorado River, which feeds Lake Mead—a source of drinking water for Los Angeles.

Initial reports of what came to be known as the Church Rock Spill were fragmentary, but details were coming in about millions of gallons of toxic radioactive liquid waste gushing into the Rio Puerco; a virtual tsunami of nuclear industry poison. There were reports of sheep along the banks dropping dead and people falling ill. But, of course, far out on the “rez’” all of that was “out of sight.”

I was tracking the scraps of information coming across the news wire. A friend at United Press International phoned me tidbits he was hearing. I was worked up about the story but the news editors were coolly dismissive. Of course, if the same thing were happening to the Rio Grande flowing through Albuquerque I had no doubt the news room would have jumped into action.

I went to Editor Looney. Surely an old news hound like him could see the importance of what was happening out on the Navajo land. This was a big story, just what newspapers are meant to cover. He knew Navajo elders and artists in Santa Fe, so surely, he would do something.

But Editor Ralph took me into his office and shut the door. A small, portly man, he had to hunch forward on his elbows with his hands clasped before him on the cluttered desktop. He sighed and gazed unblinkingly at me. Then he cleared his throat and said quietly, calmly, “Mark, you have to understand, the nuclear industry built New Mexico. We will not be covering that story.” And, with the exception of a few follow-up wire stories buried in the back end of the paper, we didn’t.

By the time the dam was patched up, between 93 and 100 million gallons had gushed downstream, along with 1,100 tons of radioactive waste, sludge, acids and heavy metals including arsenic, uranium, thorium, radium, polonium, cadmium, and molybdenum. Due to the rugged, remote landscape, much of the clean-up had to be done by crews with shovels, rakes, buckets and wheelbarrows. Pockets of remaining radioactive waste dotted the dry landscape waiting to be moved along in the next downpour or blown about in the wind. Later studies found the toxic brew had seeped as much as 30 feet into the alluvial soils and groundwater. The rate of illness and death went up for those living along the Rio Puerco.

The Navajo Nation Tribal Government asked then governor Bruce King to seek federal assistance to clean up the colossal radioactive mess. King rejected the request. Again, the Albuquerque Tribune had other stories to cover.

Three years after the disaster, United Nuclear Corporation closed up operations and walked away. Now 40 years on, I know that the corporate media is still not to be trusted when it comes to covering the nuclear, or any other area of the energy industry.

As E.W. Scripps once wrote:

The press of this country is now and always has been so thoroughly dominated by the wealthy few of the country that it cannot be depended upon to give the great mass of the people the correct information concerning political, economic, and social subjects which it is necessary that the mass of people shall have, in order that they shall vote and in all ways act in the best way to protect themselves from the brutal force and chicanery of the ruling and employing class.

But that was a long time ago.

—Mark Taylor is an independent illustrator and cartoonist.

For more on the Church Rock spill see Radiation’s and Colonialism’s Permanent Stamp on New Mexico.

Filed Under: Environmental Justice, Newsletter Archives, Quarterly Newsletter, Radioactive Waste, Uncategorized

July 6, 2019 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Rogue Nuclear Waste Agencies Flouting Federal Law

Secret Cross-Country Plutonium Shipment Ignored US Law & Nevada Lawsuit

Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2019

With two recent actions, government nuclear power and weapons program administrators in the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission appear to have flagrantly disregarded federal and state law governing transport of highly radioactive materials in one case, and storage of it in another.

Sometime late last year, the Energy Dept. secretly shipped a half metric ton of weapons-grade plutonium from South Carolina to Nevada in defiance of Nevada’s public opposition and the National Environmental Policy Act.

In the face of near unanimous resistance from Nevada state lawmakers, and from past and present governors, the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) secretly sent the extremely hazardous shipment across the country without notifying first responders or emergency preparedness officials in any city or state through which the plutonium passed, and without first completing an environmental impact assessment.

The NNSA acknowledged its clandestine transport during a court hearing in January. Former Nevada governor Brian Sandoval had filed a November 2018 lawsuit to prevent DOE’s shipment without first filing an environmental impact statement as required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

In a January 30 court filing, the NNSA claimed that its shipment of the plutonium was “before November 2018, prior to the initiation of…” Sandoval’s lawsuit. However, the agency refused to say exactly when the shipment took place.

The government’s admission that the plutonium was secretly shipped to the Nevada National Security Site 70 miles north of Las Vegas (formerly called the Nevada Test Site), outraged state politicians and other observers. The Associated Press reported that Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak was “beyond outraged by this completely unacceptable deception” and said he’s working with Nevada’s congressional delegation to fight back against the government’s “reckless disregard” for the safety of Nevadans.

The Mineral County Independent-News reported April 4, 2019 that Amber Torres, Chair of the Walker River Paiute Tribe, joined 12 Nevada tribal leaders in writing to President Trump and Energy Secretary Rick Perry protesting that the shipment was done without first informing state or tribal officials. The Tribe was “outraged that Federal officials … have shipped radioactive plutonium to Nevada in spite of the state’s vehement opposition to the idea and concerns that doing so opens the state up to further nuclear waste dumping,” Torres wrote.

The Nevada National Security Site is the “ancestral homelands of the Western Shoshone people,” said Arlan Melendez, Chair of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, a federally recognized government in Reno, Nevada.

State lawmakers and Gov. Sisolak had demanded that studies be done regarding the chances and impacts of transport accidents, but were ignored by the NNSA.

Atomic Licensing Board Violates US Nuclear Waste Policy Act

A similarly crass trampling of environmental law was issued May 7 by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), an arm of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Licensing Board was petitioned by Beyond Nuclear to dismiss the unlawful application for a permit, submitted by Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (Holtec), to “temporarily” store 173,600 metric tons of highly radioactive waste reactor fuel rods in southeast New Mexico.

The petition to terminate Holtec’s application is based on the fact that the governing Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, forbids any transfer of the commercial reactor waste to a temporary or “interim” storage site, only to a permanent repository. Holtec could do this as a private enterprise, but the company wants the Energy Department to pay all its costs, and the industry is lobbying Congress to further amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.

In what Beyond Nuclear called “an astounding ruling,” the ASLB agreed that the application violates federal law, but it nevertheless dismissed the legal challenge on the ground that Holtec could be depended on not to implement the unlawful provision if the license were granted. “…the Board assumes Holtec will honor its commitment not to contract unlawfully with DOE to store any other spent nuclear fuel. Likewise, we assume DOE would not be complicit in any such unlawful contracts.”

Mindy Goldstein, a lawyer for Beyond Nuclear said, “Holtec, Beyond Nuclear, and the NRC all agree that a fundamental provision in the Holtec application violates the US Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Today the Licensing Board decided that the violation did not matter. But, the Board cannot ignore the mandates of federal law.”

The legal counsel has appealed to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) against the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) rulings in favor of Holtec International’s license application.

Filed Under: Environmental Justice, Newsletter Archives, Quarterly Newsletter, Radioactive Waste

July 6, 2019 by Nukewatch 2 Comments

Radiation’s and Colonialism’s Permanent Stamp on New Mexico—Part I

(See Part II.)
Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2019
By Leona Morgan of Nuclear Issues Study Group
Leona Morgan, with Diné No Nukes and the Nuclear Issues Study Group in New Mexico, spoke to the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance in Tennessee in 2016.

As an indigenous person whose ancestral connections to the land are rooted in the occupied territories of “New Mexico,” and as an anti-nuclear activist, the connection between the marginalization and oppression of people of color in this state and the incidence of widespread radioactive contamination is unmistakable.

White settler colonialism has been perfected over centuries, and is built on deliberate institutionalized racism. The United States once mandated genocide and the forced removal of indigenous peoples to uplift a dominant culture of privileged white men making decisions about our future and the future of our Mother Earth. With modern technology, the process of removal and genocide has taken new forms and may have slowed in pace, but has not ended.

The drive for nuclear domination, first military and later electrical, has left thousands of abandoned uranium mines, over a hundred aging reactors, and no safe place to put radioactive waste. In New Mexico, we consider ourselves to be in the belly of the nuclear beast, and July 16th is an anniversary that reminds us of the omnipresence of that beast.

Trinity Test

July 16, 1945 was the day of the first atomic blast. The Trinity nuclear bomb test and hundreds more have left countless victims with cancers, other health problems, and deadly fallout that covered much of the state. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) compensates uranium workers prior to 1971, “onsite participants” of US nuclear weapons tests, and Nevada Test Site “downwinders” who can show their health problems were caused by bomb test fallout. RECA does not cover uranium workers after 1971, or downwinders from other tests such as the Trinity Site. However, many survivors today are suffering from illness at the hands of the US government. US Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-NM, has been pushing Congress for changes to RECA on behalf of post-1971 workers and others from the impacted area known as the Tularosa Basin.

Tina Cordova, founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, is an advocate for the impacted community. The group has done a Health Impact Assessment to gain support in Congress for expanded RECA coverage. This year, TBDC is planning a National Trinity Day of Remembrance to bring attention to all downwinders. “We are hoping to get organizations representing the Downwinders in places like Idaho and the Pacific Islands and the Post 71 Uranium miners/workers to hold candlelight vigils of their own in remembrance of the people who’ve lost their lives as a result of nuclear testing and uranium mining around the country,” Cordova states.

Cordova continues, “We never thought that it would take this long for Congress to pass the RECA Amendments to add the New Mexico Downwinders to the fund… We add new names every year to our list. People are dying…It is high time for the people of New Mexico to receive the justice they’ve been denied for 74 years.”

Church Rock Mill Spill of 1979

One the same fateful date of July 16 this year marks the 40th anniversary of the world’s largest uranium milling disaster, which occurred within miles of the Diné (Navajo) community located along Red Water Pond Road north of Church Rock. The United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) knowingly and willfully continued using a uranium mill waste tailings pond that had a cracked dam wall. United Nuclear’s own consultant predicted that a dam failure was likely, yet no state or federal agencies came to inspect. In the early morning hours of July 16, 1979, the dam broke, and over 90 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste and 1,100 tons of solid waste spilled into the environment, the Little Puerco River and eventually Arizona.

Today, UNC has proposed “cleaning up” its mine by piling waste on top of its existing contaminated mill waste, covering it with clay, and abandoning it permanently. The proposal does not include any cleanup of off-site contamination or address the liquid mill tailings spill. Residents living near the Rio Puerco say that when it rains they can still smell the toxic chemicals that were spread downriver by the giant Church Rock spill.

Today, the community continues to demand reparations for the two 1,000-foot-deep mine pits where Mother Earth has been raped for the sake of paper money. The Red Water Pond Road Community Association is working with the US Environmental Protection Agency on the cleanup. Edith Hood, local Diné resident and community organizer, says, “We, the people of the Red Water Pond Road, are still waiting for equality and justice to be served. The toxic contamination of our Mother Earth and her people has not been addressed—a lot of talk and not enough action.” In Hood’s public testimony at the NRC’s public scoping meeting regarding the mine site’s cleanup, she said, “They are just waiting for us to die.”

On the weekend of July 13-14, 2019, the Red Water Pond Road Community Association will hold a commemoration to recognize the anniversary, the work that has been done by the community, and the work still left for the government and responsible companies to address.

From the 1942 Manhattan Project, to newly proposed radioactive waste dumps, we as New Mexicans know and live with the injustice that, while once focused on Natives, now threatens everyone. With the industrialization of the splitting of the atom, the totality of the impact on humanity is unknown. For those of us living in places broadly contaminated with ionizing radiation, we know radiation does not discriminate, and that we will forever pass-on this history of nuclearism in our DNA.

—Leona Morgan works with the Nuclear Issues Study Group in New Mexico.

For more on the Church Rock spill see Refusing to Report on Church Rock, “the worst incident of radiation contamination in the history of the United States”

Filed Under: Environmental Justice, Newsletter Archives, Quarterly Newsletter, Radiation Exposure, Radioactive Waste, Uranium Mining

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