Worldwide indigenous organising against nuclear industry

Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum a Success Indybay by Anna Rondon Oct 27th, 2009 This past weekend Indigenous Peoples from Alaska, North America, Bolivia and Japan converged near Acoma Pueblo for the 7th Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum in Sky City, New Mexico. Continue reading →

October 28, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, 2 WORLD, indigenous issues | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

Uranium poisoning of the Navajo

The Forgotten Navajo: Uranium contamination —Pavement Pieces By Rachel Morgan on October 14, 2009

CHURCH ROCK, New Mexico — Teddy Nez’s home sits 500 feet from the mouth of abandoned uranium mine.

Since 1982, Nez and his family have been breathing in uranium particles and drinking uranium-contaminated water. They didn’t know the land that surrounded their home in Church Rock, N.M. – located on the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Reservation – was slowly killing them. Continue reading →

October 27, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, radioactive, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

Navajos anxiety over uranium mining

A new demand for uranium power brings concerns for Navajo groups
Mining planned at a mountain considered sacred

By Kari Lydersen

Washington Post
October 25, 2009

Indian people gathered in Acoma, N.M., for the Indigenous Uranium Forum over the weekend decried future uranium extraction, especially from nearby Mount Taylor, considered sacred by many tribes. Continue reading →

October 26, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, cancer, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, radioactive, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

Governments infringe on indigenous rights

RIGHTS: Govts Failing Indigenous Declaration, U.N. Expert Says By Haider Rizvi UNITED NATIONS, Oct 19 (IPS) – A top U.N. expert on human rights law called Monday for governments to match their words with deeds and make good on promises to respect indigenous communities’ right to live as they wish. Continue reading →

October 21, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, 2 WORLD, indigenous issues | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear | 1 Comment

France making it hard for Polynesian nuclear victims

Nuclear payments blow to French Polynesia

By Geraldine Coutts for Radio Australia

ABC News Oct 15, 2009

Activists fighting for victims of French nuclear testing in the Pacific are stunned by conditions imposed in a compensation bill by France’s upper house………….Roland Oldham, president of the Mororua e Tatou Association representing French Pacific nuclear test workers, told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat the actions of the French Senate reflected arrogance in metropolitan France towards its territories. Continue reading →

October 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, indigenous issues, OCEANIA | antinuclear, cancer, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, wastes | Leave a comment

uranium mining degradation of tribal lands, India

Uranium Corporation of India Limited: Wasting Away Tribal Lands

by Moushumi Basu, Special to CorpWatch
October 7th, 2009 – “………..The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) operates that mine, part of a cluster of four underground and one open cast mines and two processing plants, in East Singbhum district in the Eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. The deepest plunges almost one kilometer into the earth. Continue reading →

October 8, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, indigenous issues | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

Taiwan Aboriginal Village Targeted for Nuclear Waste Disposal

Taiwan Aboriginal Village Targeted for Nuclear Waste Disposal Tom’s Blog 4 Oct 09 Because failing to sell its nuclear waste to North Korea and China. (What the hell do these two countries want this staff? making nuclear weapons?) Now, the goverment of Taiwan is seeking a burial place at home. The top choice is a poor aboriginal community, Nantian village in Taitan county, the Southeastern of Taiwan……………… Continue reading →

October 5, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, indigenous issues, Taiwan, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Malawi water supply threatened by Paladin uranium mine

Catholic Commission wary of uranium contaminated water in Karonga
By Nyasa Times September 25, 2009 Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) have expressed concern that people around Kayelekera mine and processing plant in Karonga, northern Malawi are drinking uranium contaminated water which is life threatening. Continue reading →

September 26, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, AFRICA, indigenous issues | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

Cancer rates anong Navajo from uranium mining, New Mexico

Nukes mean mines
Are we digging a new toxic legacy before the last one’s filled in?
CURRENT By <!– –>Greg Harman16 Sept 09
“………….When it comes to open-pit carnage, some of the worst damage has been done to indigenous lands, like the Navajo territory in New Mexico, where workers dug uranium ore in underground mines without the benefit of safety equipment. Continue reading →

September 17, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

Australian uranium royalties scheme damaging for aborigines

Royalties scheme hurts Indigenous: Greens

ABC News By Kirsty Nancarrow

Sep 8, 2009

The Australian Greens have accused the Federal Government of bowing to the uranium mining industry at the expense of the Northern Territory’s Aboriginal people over the issue of mining royalties.

The Senate is debating a bill that would extend the system whereby miners only pay royalties in the Territory if they are making a profit. Continue reading →

September 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, indigenous issues | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, indigenous, nuclear, uranium | Leave a comment

Shock of indigenous people on uranium exploration agreement

Lutselk’e shocked by chief’s support of Ur-Energy exploration

CBC NewsSeptember 3, 2009

Some residents in Lutselk’e, N.W.T., were surprised Wednesday to hear their leadership is supporting a uranium company that’s exploring for uranium in the Upper Thelon area.

Members of the Lutselk’e Dene First Nation, which has long opposed uranium mining there, say they were shocked when Chief Steve Nitah told CBC News the First Nation signed an agreement allowing Ur-Energy Inc. to conduct a small exploration project this summer at its Screech Lane property, just south of the Thelon Game Sanctuary.

……….. Lutselk’e residents have been apprehensive about uranium mining for good reason: toxic waste tailings from a uranium project there in the 1950s were reportedly dumped into nearby Stark Lake.

People in the area have said that as a result, fish in the lake have since become deformed and infested with parasites.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/09/03/lutselke-ur-reax.html

September 4, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

U.N. Condemns Australia’s Policyin Aboriginal Communities

Australia U.N. Condemns ’07 Policyin Aboriginal Communities

By REUTERS

August 27, 2009

A senior United Nations official on Thursday condemned Australia’s intervention in remote Aboriginal communities in 2007, describing the measures as discriminatory. The official, James Anaya, the special rapporteur on indigenous people, made the findings after a 12-day trip to Australia, where he visited indigenous communities and held talks with the government.

World Briefing – Australia – U.N. Condemns ’07 Policyin Aboriginal Communities – NYTimes.com

August 28, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, indigenous issues | AUSTRALIA, indigenous | Leave a comment

Indigenous people fight uranium mining in the Grand Canyon

Havasupai Gather to Halt Uranium Mining in the Grand Canyon

Brenda Norrell | August 26, 2009

Indigenous Havasupai people held a gathering to stop uranium mining in the Grand Canyon and protect ancestral Havasupai Territory, at the south rim of the Grand Canyon, in July of 2009. Indigenous peoples and activists came from the four directions, from Arizona Hopi land and from as far away as Hawaii, to participate with sacred songs and ceremonies.

For four days, Havasupai elders gathered on sacred Red Butte and listened to the legacy of uranium mining on Indian lands. They heard directly from the victims of the trail of death and cancer left behind by uranium mining corporations that were never held responsible on Pueblo and Navajo lands in the Southwest United States. They also listened to the promise of solidarity from the hundreds who gathered here to stand with them: Navajos from Big Mountain, Hualapai, Hopi, Kaibab Paiute, Paiute, Aztecs, and other American Indians from throughout the Americas.

The Havasupai Nation, with the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and Grand Canyon Trust, sponsored the gathering to halt uranium mining on Red Butte, July 23-26, 2009. Supai elders gave testimony for official U.S. records in their Havasupai (Pai) language and in English. Supai traditional singers sang as a camp was established on this mesa where Toronto-based Denison Mines is threatening to reopen a uranium mine.

Recent congressional legislation protects the Grand Canyon from new mining claims, but does not deter mining under existing claims held by Denison and others………………

………. “In Numbers, There is Strength”

During the panel, Larry King, Navajo from Church Rock, NM, told the gathering how he worked for the United Nuclear Corporation from 1975 to 1983 as an underground mine surveyor. King said he has lived all his life in Church Rock and still raises his cattle on the land where he grew up. Now, a community activist, he said Navajos in the communities of Church Rock, Pinedale, Coyote Canyon, and Iyanbito, NM, have suffered greatly from uranium mining.

…………… Speaking of the corporations who have contaminated this region for decades, Pino said, “Why would they want to mine uranium in one of the natural wonders of the world like the Grand Canyon? If they will mine uranium here, they will mine uranium anywhere. They have no heart, they have no soul.”

http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6386

August 27, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Uranium contamination haunts Navajo country

THE NEW YORK TIMES by Luis Hipolito on 07/26/2009

“………….The legacy wrought from decades of uranium mining is long and painful here on the expansive reservation. Over the years, Navajo miners extracted some four million tons of uranium ore from the ground, much of it used by the United States government to make weapons.

Many miners died from radiation-related illnesses, and some, unaware of harmful health effects, hauled contaminated rocks and tailings from local mines and mills to build homes for their families.

Now, those homes are being demolished and rebuilt under a new government program that seeks to identify what are very likely dozens of uranium-contaminated structures still standing on Navajo land and to temporarily relocate people living in them until the homes can be torn down and rebuilt.

Stephen B. Etsitty, executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, and other tribal officials have been grappling for years with the environmental fallout from uranium mining.

“There were a lot of things people weren’t told about the plight of Navajos and uranium mining,” Mr. Etsitty said. “These legacy issues are impacting generations. At some point people are saying, ‘It’s got to end’”.

Uranium Contamination Haunts Navajo Country « The Blogger

July 27, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

No nukes for Taidong

No nukes for Taidong
David on Formosa 16 July 09 a”………………………About the search for a nuclear waste storage site in Taiwan. ………….. it is no accident that nuclear waste is imposed on the poorest and most marginalised communities. The pattern of buying off people with promises of infrastructure and jobs continues.

The process of developing a nuclear waste storage site also shows a frightening disregard for democratic process. In December the Presbyterian Church reported that the government was spying on church activities in Taidong. In particular government authorities made enquiries about church activities opposed to nuclear waste. At a public hearing on nuclear waste storage in Taidong in April two environmental activists were illegally detained by police for two hours to prevent them from protesting or speaking at the meeting.

I offer no solutions to the intractable problem of nuclear waste storage. The continuing presence of nuclear waste on Orchid Island is an abomination. The relocation of the waste to another indigenous community on the mainland is also unacceptable. How can governments allow the construction of nuclear power plants when they have no clear plan for the long-term storage of nuclear waste?

No nukes for Taidong – David on Formosa

July 17, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | ASIA, indigenous issues | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radioactive, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment