nuclear-news

No matter where Uranium is mined on this planet the story is the same. The marketeers operate without conscience. Uranium should not be a marketable commodity.

Once fissioned the nuclear waste produced acts to decreate all of creation.  It is lethal to all living things. It cannot be buried and forgotten because 90% of the biomass on this planet exists below ground. Therefore nuclear waste must be perpetually managed and contained above ground forever as it lasts forever. These are the reasons why I continue to call for the ABOLITION OF ALL NUCLEAR FISSIONING APPLICATIONS ASAP!

Uranium should be left in the ground.

Lets commit to make 2014 a better year.

World’s Poorest Suffer From Radioactive Sickness as Areva Mines for Uranium http://ecowatch.com/2014/01/24/worlds-poorest-radioactive-areva-uranium/Brandon Baker | January 24, 2014 More than 60 percent of Niger’s population lives on less than $1 per day, and even more have no electricity.

Still, French company Areva keeps contaminating those residents and their environment while mining away for uranium—one of the few resources the world’s poorest country still has.

Areva has operated in northern Niger for four decades, according to Keith Slack, the global program manager of Oxfam America’s Extractive Industries team. The French government owns about 80 percent of the company, which provides nearly one-third of the uranium consumed by the nuclear power plants that supply most of France’s energy.

Areva has exported hundreds of millions of dollars worth of uranium from Niger over the years, according to a recent briefing note by Oxfam France and Nigerien group ROTAB. In 2010, Greenpeace conducted an analysis with the France-based Research and Independent Information on Radioactivity Commission (CRIIRAD) that found that the uranium contamination in four out of five water samples exceeded World Health Organization safety limits.

Greenpeace and CRIIRAD also found evidence of radon, a radioactive gas dissolved in water. Despite evidence like the interviews and images from the above video by SciDev.Net, Areva vehemently denies that its actions impact Niger and its residents.

Additionally, the company claims that it gives 85 percent of its uranium profits back to the Nigerien government, despite a report from Oxfam and ROTAB showing that the government really only received about 13 percent.

Pushed on the matter, an unnamed Areva spokesman told Le Monde that “two uranium mines alone can’t finance the development of 17 million people.”

According to Oxfam, Areva’s two subsidiaries in Niger, Somaïr and Cominak, receive a slew of exemptions from fuel taxes, value-added taxes and more. One provision for the reconstruction of mines allows the company to set aside 20 percent of its profits, which end up being excluded from corporate taxes.

As a result, Oxfam and ROTAB are calling for more transparency, as well as more of a fight from Niger’s government, encouraging its members to push for agreements to be debated in Parliament and for the publishing of Areva’s audits.

“This situation cannot continue,” Ali Idrissa, coordinator of ROTAB, said at a 2013 protest in front of Areva’s offices in Niamey, Niger, according toReuters.

“France must prove that the time for secret agreements, closed negotiations and pressures is over. African countries should be able to count on fair revenues from French companies extracting their resources.”

Visit EcoWatch’s NUCLEAR page for more related news on this topic.