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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

October 11, 2018 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Walkatjurra Walkabout to Ban Uranium Mines in Western Australia

On the Bright Side
Fall Quarterly 2018
Kado Muir, at left, of the Western Australia Nuclear-Free Alliance joined the walkabout. Photo by the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

In the state of Western Australia a group that reached over 50 at times left Wiluna by foot led by Wangkatja Indigenous elders of the Goldfields region. For the eighth year in a row the Walkatjurra Walkabout hiked through four areas threatened with uranium mines to amplify the voice of indigenous traditionals and local organizations that have struggled for decades to remain nuclear-free.

In 2017, a state ban on uranium mining was declared by the government of Western Australia except for four proposals at Kintyre, Yeelirrie, Wiluna and Mulga Rock. The strength of local anti-mining movements has set back all four mining plans, none of which have received final approval. While there is no uranium mining in Western Australia, the walkers want it banned completely before any of the proposals are developed. The 155-miles walk ended in Leonora Sept. 3. Along the way walkers met with communities that could be impacted by the mines and shared stories from their struggles. “The Walkatjurra Walkabout is a pilgrimage across Wangkatja country in the spirit of our ancestors, so together, we as present custodians, can protect our land and our culture for future generations. My people have resisted destructive mining on our land and our sacred sites for forty years,” said Kado Muir, one of the walkers.

—To support or join the Walkabout next year see: walkingforcountry.com

Filed Under: Direct Action, Environment, Environmental Justice, Newsletter Archives, On The Bright Side, Quarterly Newsletter, Uranium Mining

August 30, 2018 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

The Tip of the Radiation Disaster Iceberg

In 1959, a partial reactor meltdown struck the Sodium Reactor Experiment at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (pictured), in the Simi Hills 30 miles from Los Angeles, CA. The incident was successfully kept secret until 1979. According to the 1997 “Epidemiologic Study to Determine Possible Adverse Effects,” Santa Susana Field Lab workers showed higher than expected rates of some cancers. Dept. of Energy photo.

The World Nuclear Association (WNA) says its goal is “to increase global support for nuclear energy” and it repeatedly claims on its website: “There have only been three major accidents across 16,000 cumulative reactor-years of operation in 32 countries.” The WNA and other nuclear power supporters acknowledge Three Mile Island in 1979 (US), Chernobyl in 1986 (USSR), and Fukushima in 2011 (Japan) as “major” disasters.

But claiming that these radiation gushers were the worst ignores the frightening series of large-scale disasters that have been caused by uranium mining, reactors, nuclear weapons, and radioactive waste. Some of the world’s other major accidental radiation releases indicate that the Big Three are just the tip of the iceberg.

CHALK RIVER (Ontario), Dec. 2, 1952: The first major commercial reactor disaster occurred at this Canadian reactor on the Ottawa River when it caused a loss-of-coolant, a hydrogen explosion and a meltdown, releasing 100,000 curies of radioactivity to the air. In comparison, the official government position is that Three Mile Island released about 15 curies, although radiation monitors failed or went off-scale.

ROCKY FLATS (Colorado), Sept. 11, 1957: This Cold War factory produced plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons 16 miles from Denver. It caused 30 to 44 pounds of breathable plutonium-239 and plutonium-240 to catch fire in what would come to be known as the second largest industrial fire in US history. Filters used to trap the plutonium were destroyed and it escaped through chimneys, contaminating parts of Denver. Nothing was done to warn or protect downwind residents.

WINDSCALE/SELLAFIELD (Britain), Oct. 7, 1957: The worst of many fires burned through one reactor igniting three tons of uranium and dispersed radionuclides over parts of England and northern Europe. The site was hastily renamed Sellafield. Another large radiation leak occurs in 1981 and leukemia rates soared to triple the national average.

KYSHTYM/CHELYABINSK-65 (Russia), Sept. 29, 1957: A tank holding 70 to 80 metric tons of highly radioactive liquid waste exploded, contaminating an estimated 250,000 people, and permanently depopulating 30 towns which were leveled and removed from Russian maps. Covered up by Moscow (and the CIA) until 1989, Russia finally revealed that 20 million curies of long-lived isotopes like cesium were released, and the release was later declared a Level 6 disaster on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The long covered-up explosion contaminated up to 10,000 square miles making it the third- or 4th-most serious radiation accident ever recorded.

SANTA SUSANA (Simi Valley, Calif.), July 12, 1959: The meltdown of the Sodium Reactor Experiment just outside Los Angeles caused “the third largest release of iodine-131 in the history of nuclear power,” according to Arjun Makhajani, President of the Institute for Energy & Environmental Research. Released radioactive materials were never authoritatively measured because “the monitors went clear off the scale,” according to an employee. The accident was kept secret for 20 years.

CHURCH ROCK (New Mexico), July 16, 1979: Ninety-three million gallons of liquid uranium mine wastes and 1,000 tons of solid wastes spilled onto the Navajo Nation and into Little Puerco River, and nuclear officials called it “the worst incident of radiation contamination in the history of the United States.” The Little Puerco feeds the Little Colorado River, which drains to the Colorado River, which feeds Lake Mead—a source of drinking water for Los Angeles.

TOMSK-7 (Russia), April 7, 1993: In “the worst radiation disaster since Chernobyl,” Russian and foreign experts said a tank of radioactive waste exploded at the Tomsk nuclear weapons complex  and that wind blew its plume of radiation  toward the Yenisei River and 11 Siberian villages, none of which were evacuated.

MONJU (Japan), Dec. 8, 1995: This sodium-cooled “breeder reactor” caused a fire and a large leak of sodium coolant into the Pacific. Liquid sodium coolant catches fire on contact with air and explodes on contact with water. Costly efforts to engineer commercial models have failed. Japan’s Monju experiment was halted in 2018 after over 24 years of false starts, accidents and cover-ups.

TOKAI-MURA (Japan), Sept. 30, 1999: A uranium “criticality” which is an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction caused a “neutron burst” that killed three workers and dispersed neutron radiation throughout the densely populated urban area surrounding the factory.

Not to be slighted, deliberate contamination has also been enormous: Five metric tons of plutonium was dispersed over the earth by nuclear bomb testing, and other nuclear weapons processes; Over 210 billion gallons of radioactive liquids were poured into the ground at the Hanford reactor complex in Washington State; and 16 billion gallons of liquid waste holding 70,000 curies of radioactivity were injected directly into Idaho’s Snake River Aquifer at the Idaho National Lab.

—Sources: Nuclear Roulette: The Truth About the Most Dangerous Energy Source on Earth, by Gar Smith (Chelsea Green, 2012); Mad Science: The Nuclear Power Experiment, by  Joseph Mangano (OR Books 2012); In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age, by Stephanie Cooke (Bloomsbury, 2009); Criticality Accident at Tokai-mura, by Jinzaburo Takagi (Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, 2000); Nuclear Wastelands: A Global Guide to Nuclear Weapons Production & Its Health & Environmental Effects, by Arjun Makhijani, et al (MIT Press, 1995); The Nuclear Power Deception , by Arjun Makhijani & Scott Saleska (Apex Press, 1999); Nuclear Madness, Revised, by Helen Caldicot (Norton, 1995); Multiple Exposures: Chronicles of the Radiation Age, by Catherine Caufield  (Harper & Row, 1989); Greenpeace Book of the Nuclear Age, by John May (Pantheon, 1989); Deadly Defense: Military Radioactive Landfills, edited by Dana Coyle, et al (Radioactive Waste Campaign 1988); and No Nukes, by Anna Gyorgy (South End Press, 1979).

— John LaForge

Filed Under: Chernobyl, Environment, Environmental Justice, Fukushima, Nuclear Power, Radioactive Waste, Uranium Mining, Weekly Column

August 16, 2018 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

International Summer Camp Protests Nuclear Industry in France and Around the World

By Sortir du nucléaire Aude, Nuclear Heritage Network and Réseau “Sortir du nucléaire”
On August 9, 2018, Participants pose with the symbolic hand gesture of Australian anti-nuclear movement, to show solidarity with their action Walking For Country or, “Walkatjurra Walkabout,” taking place at this time in Australia. Photo credit: Günter Hermeyer

Narbonne, France–During this week of the 73rd anniversaries of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the International Anti-Nuclear Summer Camp takes place near Narbonne in the south of France from August 6th to 12th. Tents, performances, and debates are waking up a peaceful estate of olive trees and wild thyme. Located a few miles away from Malvési, the Orano uranium-conversion facility (formerly Areva), this meeting of 17 nationalities focuses on all aspects of the nuclear fuel chain.

How can the nuclear industry propagate so much new waste when there is waste that has not been properly cleaned up at uranium mines, nuclear weapons facilities, and nuclear power plants? Why does government allow the nuclear industry to continue, knowing the health and environmental dangers, as well as possible terrorism risks? How do private interests suppress democracy and human rights? What are the solutions to fight against nuclear proliferation? How can we separate nuclear energy into “civilian” and “military” uses? To address these shared problems, the International Anti-Nuclear Summer Camp has designed a week’s long program filled with workshops, discussions, film screenings, debates, activist formations, site visits, music, street actions, and two commemorations for the bombings of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9).

From: Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Navajo Nation (Indigenous Nation of Turtle Island), Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Turkey, United States, and Vietnam, this year, several guests, including nuclear workers, activists, community organizers, and members of civil society are speaking to share experiences and information about nuclear activities in their respective countries. All share a common diagnostic: from uranium mines to radioactive waste, the entire nuclear chain is extremely dangerous, too polluting, too expensive, too anti-democratic, and cannot be a solution to climate change.

This international dialogue depicts an unforgiving reality of the violence created by the nuclear industry and lobbies all around the world. Simultaneously, this international meeting gives a wonderful optimistic outlook: everywhere, resistance is rising. All around the world, courageous people are struggling against a deadly industry and promoting ecological energy transition.

Michiko Yoshii, a professor at Okinawa University of Japan reflects on her workshop entitled How We Successfully Stopped the Nuclear Project of Vietnam, “I was very happy to speak about my experience to the international audiences, giving some optimistic topics to the international battle against nuclear affairs.”

Hervé Loquais, Organizer of the event and Secretary of Sortir du Nucléaire Aude (11) of France says, “I am proud to host brave activists from all over the world in a peaceful and friendly atmosphere.”

Leona Morgan, an indigenous organizer and activist fighting nuclear colonialism in the United States remarks, “It is imperative to work together across cultures, languages, and borders to make a nuclear-free world a reality.”

For More Information:
http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/
http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/International_Anti-nuclear_Summer_Camp_2018
www.walkingforcountry.com

Filed Under: Environment, Environmental Justice, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Weapons, Radioactive Waste, Uranium Mining

April 2, 2018 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Grand Canyon Threatened by Federal Give-Away to Uranium Multinationals

Foreign Corporations Redraw National Park Boundaries

Spring Quarterly, 2018
By Kelly Lundeen 

If the water was to be contaminated, we believe that the existence of the Havasupai will disappear.
— Carletta Tilousi, Havasupai Tribal Council

We will stand and fight all the way.
— Russell Begaye, Navajo Nation President

The price of uranium is at its lowest in over a decade. Renewable energy production in the US has surpassed nuclear. So why is the Trump administration making it easier to mine uranium? Did the uranium mining companies ask politely? Let’s look at what the first year of Trump has brought uranium mining corporations.

Last March Trump issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to propose ways to remove “burdens” from the nuclear and fossil fuel industry. Use of federally protected lands was one area these “burdens” could be removed. Native American communities were not consulted regarding the “burdened” industries and the false, but common assumption was made, that the fate of federal land should be a matter of the United States government rather than its original inhabitants.

In November the Department of Agriculture responded to Trump’s order, in part, with a recommendation to lift the ban on new uranium mines near the Grand Canyon. The 20-year ban was put in place in 2012 after five years of campaigning by a coalition of tribal and environmental organizations. In December, the ban was upheld by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, a move lauded the world over. However, uranium multinationals have not let the Grand Canyon out of their sight, and the Trump administration may still overturn the ban. On Dec. 20, less than a week after the ban was preserved, another executive order was issued to reduce reliance on foreign imports of “critical” minerals. A draft list of the minerals released in February included uranium.

The same day the Grand Canyon mining ban was upheld, there was a separate ruling against the Havasupai Tribe allowing the Canyon Mine, located on sacred ancestral Havasupai land to open only six miles from the Grand Canyon. The Canyon Mine, owned by a subsidiary of Energy Fuels Resources of Canada, began the licensing process before the ban was in place.

Energy Fuels had another success in December when Trump used the Antiquities Act to slash the size of Bears Ears National Monument (BENM) in Utah by 85%. (The simultaneous reduction in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was related to coal interests.) Although Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke had stated that there was no mine within Bears Ears, the New York Times found 300 claims according to data from the Utah Bureau of Land Management. Just outside of the Monument’s newly drawn boundaries, about one-third of those claims are associated with Energy Fuels.

This is not surprising considering they openly lobbied for the reduction in the Monument and distributed maps to legislators carefully detailing areas they would like removed from protected status. In a letter to Secretary Zinke obtained by the Washington Post, Energy Fuels Chief Operating Officer Mark Chalmers spelled out the company’s areas of concern and added unabashedly, “There are also many other known uranium …deposits located within the newly created BENM that could provide valuable energy and mineral resources.” Despite the overwhelming support (98%) for maintaining or expanding the National Monuments demonstrated in public comments to the Department of Interior, a foreign mining company had more influence.

Communities on the frontlines and nationwide coalitions are actively opposing the special interests and are not giving up without a fight. To help resist Energy Fuel’s Canyon Mine and the transport of uranium is to take Haul No!’s Pledge of Resistance.

— Arizona Public Media, Feb. 6; New York Times, Jan. 13; CNN, Jan. 9, 2018; Energy Fuels Resources, Inc., & Washington Post, May 25; USA Today, Apr. 4, 2017

Filed Under: Environment, Environmental Justice, Newsletter Archives, Quarterly Newsletter, Uranium Mining

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