Will USA’s EPA continue allow radioactive wastes to be injected into groundwater
The situation at Christensen Ranch underscores the overlaying problem of the sheer number of underground waste and injection wells. According to the UIC Well Inventory of 2011, there are 659,345 injection wells across the nation. Even in water-strapped states like California there exist a staggering 67,302 underground waste wells
former EPA officials are concerned of well leaks and that completely removing pollutants from water is not possible.
EPA Approved Underground Waste Dumping for 
Uranium Mine Giant IVN, By Christopher Davis-Garland | 01/04/2013 | ProPublica recently published journalist Abraham Lustgarten’s special project series covering injection wells. The latest story in the series converges on Christensen Ranch in Wyoming where industry giant Uranium One mines for uranium and disposes of its waste in an aquifer with EPA permission.
Early start for secret shipments of radioactive weapons fuel to Nevada
DOE: Uranium shipments to Nevada could start soon, knoxnews.com, Associated Press December 31, 2012 OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) — A U.S. Department of Energy official says stocks of radioactive uranium could start shipping from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to Nevada in 2013.
However, The Knoxville News Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/WVktTK ) that agency officials will not discuss exact dates of the shipments because of safety and security reasons because of the fissionable material’s potential use in nuclear weapons. DOE’s Environmental Manager Mark Whitney said in an interview with the newspaper this fall that the DOE wanted to start the shipments to the Nevada National Security site in early 2013 pending approvals to ship. Continue reading
The exploitation of indigenous peoples by uranium mining companies
Nuclear dangers real and widespread
BY HELEN CALDICOTT, THE STARPHOENIX NOVEMBER 9, 2012
Caldicott is founding president of Physicians for Social
Responsibility and was featured in the Oscar winning film, If You Love
This Planet.
I write to reply to the allegations made about me in John Gormley’s
column, More private liquor stores, less Caldicott (SP, Nov. 2).
First, it is important for me to stress that the aboriginal people in
Northern Saskatchewan are being exploited by the uranium and nuclear
power industry, as they have routinely been in the United States and
Australia.
People who have lived benignly with nature for tens of thousands of
years have been forced to allow mining companies to extract uranium
from beneath their feet and to work in the mines.
Ample evidence abounds in the scientific literature that one-fifth to
one-half of uranium miners in North America have suffered from lung
cancer. Furthermore, uranium miners are also exposed to carcinogenic
whole body gamma radiation as well as the ingestion of radium – the
element that induced leukemia in Madame Marie Curie.
Many indigenous people who live near uranium mines are also exposed to
radioactive elements, and newly elevated rates of cancer are now
reported in these populations. We don’t know exact numbers because the
Saskatchewan government has not performed a baseline health study on
the populations affected.
As if this ecological danger were not enough, the nuclear industry is
proposing to bury 37,000 tonnes of extremely toxic, high level
long-lasting radioactive waste from Canadian nuclear reactors among
this vulnerable group of people, which, it is claimed will give them
jobs.
As the isotopes inevitably leak, they will contaminate the food chain
for evermore inducing more malignancies and genetic disease over
future generations…..http://limitlesslife.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/nuclear-dangers-real-and-widespread/
A Faustian bargain, uranium mining’s radioactive pollution of groundwater
A Decades-Old Deal With Uranium Miners Is Causing Trouble For The EPA Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica | Dec. 26, 2012, GILLETTE, Wyo. — On a lonely stretch at the edge of the Great Plains, rolling grassland presses up against a crowning escarpment called the Pumpkin Buttes. The land appears bountiful, but it is stingy, straining to produce enough sustenance for the herds of cattle and sheep on its arid prairies.
“It’s a tough way to make a living,” said John Christensen, whose family has worked this private expanse, called Christensen Ranch, 
for more than a century.
Christensen has made ends meet by allowing prospectors to tap into minerals and oil and gas beneath his bucolic hills. But from the start, it has been a Faustian bargain.
As dry as this land may be, underground, vast reservoirs hold billions of gallons of water suitable for drinking, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Yet every day injection wells pump more than 200,000 gallons of toxic and radioactive waste from uranium mining into Christensen’s aquifers. Continue reading
Drinking water threatened as EPA allows uranium miners to inject radioactive wastes into groundwater
Environmental groups say the EPA should not be letting mining companies write their own rules.
Similar disputes are erupting across the country.
“This is a health issue as much as a water supply issue,”
A Decades-Old Deal With Uranium Miners Is Causing Trouble For The EPA Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica | Dec. 26, 2012, GILLETTE, Wyo.“…….The problems and pressures the EPA is facing at Christensen Ranch are not unique.
With uranium mining booming, the agency has received a mounting number of requests for aquifer exemptions in recent years. So far, EPA records show, the agency has issued at least 40 exemptions for uranium mines across the country and is considering several more. Two mines are expanding operations near Christensen Ranch.
In several cases, the EPA has struggled to balance imposing water protections with accommodating the industry’s needs.
In South Dakota, where Powertech Uranium is seeking permits for a new mine in the Black Hills, state regulations bar the deep injection wells typically used to dispose of mining waste. The EPA is weighing whether to allow Powertech to use what’s called a Class 5 well u2014 a virtually unregulated and unmonitored shallow dumping system normally used for non-toxic waste u2014 instead….. Continue reading
High rates of birth defects in Iraq, where depleted uranium was used
in Iraq, and Afghanistan, too, the idea of sicknesses related to depleted uranium does not seem in much doubt, from what we can tell. In Iraq, as we have reported many times, doctors are even advising women in certain areas not to have children because the chances of birth defects are so great
Depleted Uranium Receives More Attention , The Daily Bell
December 21, 2012
Mystery in Iraq – Are US Munitions to Blame for Basra Birth Defects? … The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently assembling a report on DU ammunition. It will reflect the current state of research on the issue, but it will hardly provide any new insights. With the help of the University of Greifswald, a cancer registry has been developed for the Basra region and will serve as the basis for all future study. Still, even as further research is needed, if only for the children’s sake, it will come too late for many. The guns have been silent in Iraq for years, but in Basra and Fallujah the number of birth defects and cancer cases is on the rise. Locals believe that American uranium-tipped munitions are to blame and some researchers think they might be right. – Der Spiegel
Dominant Social Theme: US munitions are harmless except to the bad guys.
Free-Market Analysis: The WHO (see above) is finally getting around to seeing if depleted uranium weapons used by NATO and the US are responsible for the many birth defects in Iraq. From what we can tell, the outcome will be a preordained “no.”
US officials, military or otherwise, have already ruled out the idea that depleted uranium dust could possibly be responsible for these birth defects or for US ailments that are much in dispute – having to do with immune deficiencies, etc. Continue reading
Doubts on uranium market’s future add to environment fears in Virginia
Charles Ebinger, the director of the energy security initiative at the Brookings Institution, a research center in Washington. thinks, though, that the United States is moving away from nuclear energy as cheap natural gas and flat electricity demand make nuclear power less competitive. That makes it tougher to argue in favor of the mine, said Ebinger, who’s a supporter of nuclear energy
Proposed Coles Hill uranium mine: Buried treasure or hidden threat? By Sean Cockerham and John Murawski | McClatchy Newspapers
CHATHAM, Va. 23 Dec 12, — “….. pitting neighbor against neighbor and North Carolinians against Virginians. North Carolina is only about 20 miles from the proposed uranium mine and residents, public officials and lawmakers there worry that a catastrophic release of radioactive waste could poison Kerr Lake, the drinking water source for more than 118,000 North Carolinians, as well as contaminate the fishing- and recreation-rich Roanoke River as far east as Pamlico Sound.
“My concern is the catastrophic impact it could have on North Carolina’s water, and it could be major,” said state Rep. Mitch Gillespie, a McDowell County Republican. “This is brand new for North Carolina.” Continue reading
Coles Hill uranium decision depends on Virginia legislature
Virginia alone can’t approve the mine. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a federal agency, also would have to sign off on it. The agency would do an environmental impact statement that might take more than two years.
When asked, Larry Camper, the head of environmental protection for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said he wasn’t aware of his agency ever fully rejecting such an application. So the mine’s fate might rest entirely on whether Virginia lifts its moratorium on uranium mining.
Proposed Coles Hill uranium mine: Buried treasure or hidden threat? By Sean Cockerham and John Murawski | McClatchy Newspapers
CHATHAM, Va. 23 Dec 12NORTH CAROLINA PROTESTS
Opposition in North Carolina has spread from towns near the potentially affected areas to the state capital. Eighteen towns, counties and economic groups have passed resolutions in opposition, including Henderson, Creedmoor and the Roanoke River Mayors Association. Continue reading
Keep the ban on uranium mining in Virginia
Feeling The Heat On Uranium Mining In Virginia Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers December 21, 2012 Uranium mining is a hot topic right now in Virginia. You might remember that American Rivers listed the Roanoke River as one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2011 due to a proposed uranium mine. Since that time, the Virginia legislature has been talking about whether or not to lift a 30-year ban on uranium mining in Virginia.
Recently, the Virginia Pilot’s Editorial Board issued a clear and concise summary of recent activity with this issue. Their ultimate conclusion is key— that the local taxpayers will ultimately have to shoulder the burden of maintaining the radioactive waste from this mine in perpetuity. Thirty years or so of mine production is not worth thousands of years of radioactive waste maintenance. The Roanoke Times Editorial Board agrees.……
The fight is not over.
- If you are a resident of Virginia, tell your legislator that you care too much about the Roanoke River and the water it supplies to thousands of area residents to allow the ban on uranium mining to be lifted! Also, you can sign this petition from Keep The Ban to retain the momentum on this important issue.
If you would like to have more information before forming your own opinion on this issue, Keep The Ban has compiled a list of scientific studies to examine the issue of uranium mining in Virginia. http://www.americanrivers.org/newsroom/blog/jblate-20121221-feeling-the-heat-on-uranium-mining-in-virginia.html
Lynas radioactive waste plans: unsafe?
Lynas’ waste plans a toxic pipe dream Aliran, 19 December 2012 by Wendy Bacon ” ……While Lynas says it is confident in the current by-product plans, they are yet to be tested. Dr Peter Karamoskas, who has been a nuclear radiologist for 13 years and represents the Australian public on the Radiation Safety Committee of Australia’s nuclear safety agency, shares none of that confidence.
Speaking on his own behalf, Karamoskas said that to be safe more than a million tons of WLP residue with a radioactive reading of 6Bq have to be mixed with five times the amount of aggregate to reduce its reading to 1Bq. While he said that a similar process had been used in the Netherlands, the waste was far less radioactive, sitting near 1Bq, which is the threshold for safety.
Karamoskas said it has never been used with material with the Lamp WLP reading of 6Bq. He says that it is extremely unlikely to be a long term solution from a safety or economic point of view: “If this was all ready to go they would be trumpeting it in the public arena … already it looks slippery. If this was possible wouldn’t most countries around the world be doing it?” He thinks it is extremely unlikely that the road mix could be imported, other than to a country with “lax standards” because it would breach international best practice standards. Continue reading
Lynas rare earths project – the saga in Malaysia
The IAEA also recommended that Lynas proceed no further until it had filed comprehensive plans for the permanent disposal of waste, decommissioning of the plant and remediation of the site at the end of its life.
Lynas’ waste plans a toxic pipe dream Aliran, 19 December 2012 Scientists and community leaders are concerned about radioactive waste from Lynas’ Malaysian plant but the company representative who took Wendy Bacon’s questions brushed off the criticism. This is the second of two articles about Lynas by Wendy Bacon.Read the first here.http://aliran.com/11005.html
Australian rare earth company Lynas has always known it had a waste problem.
It plans to process rare earth concentrate, imported from its mine at Mount Weld in Western Australia, at its Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp) in Malaysia. It will not only produce rare earths for export but also a huge amount of waste, including more than a million cubic metres of low level radioactive material. Continue reading
Shutting down the critics of Lynas rare earths Malaysain project
Lynas’ waste plans a toxic pipe dream Aliran, 19 December 2012 Scientists and community leaders are concerned about radioactive waste from Lynas’ Malaysian plant but the company representative who took Wendy Bacon’s questions brushed off the criticism. This is the second of two articles about Lynas by Wendy Bacon “………Shutting down the critics
New Matilda asked to interview Lynas Executive Chairperson Nick Curtis but he was not available. Instead we interviewed a Lynas spokesperson who insists that the waste products of the Lamp project are “not hazardous in any way”. He refers to the safety record of Lynas which in “all of its constructions … has been achieved with zero lost time injury”.
When New Matilda suggested that problems are more likely to arise in the long term, even 20 or 30 years away, he replied: “I would be lying if I categorically tell you there is no risk in 20 or 30 years time from anything. What I can tell you is that the unanimous conclusion of all of the scientific experts from all of the different organisations that have investigated this material and everything else is that there will be no discernible risk for the public or anyone else from this facility.”
But this is far from true.
For example, in April this year, the National Toxic Network (NTN), a community-based network “working to ensure a toxic-free future for all”, published a preliminary assessment of the waste steam of Lynas’s Lamp project. It was prepared by Lee Bell, a qualified environmental scientist with 20 years experience in analysis of industrial process plants, groundwater monitoring and contaminated sites. He co-chaired the Core Consultative Committee on Waste under the former Labor government in Western Australia, which reformed the state’s hazardous waste sector. Readers of his 29 page NTN report (pdf), which was reviewed by another scientist, are likely to be concerned about the company’s environmental plans.
I asked Lynas’ spokesperson about the NTN report: “Whatever you think of it, it [the report] is a solid document. It appears to be academically referenced and it also appears to have had some form of review. If you read it, on a number of scores, you would be concerned?”…..
The Lynas spokesman rejected an NTN claim that Lamp’s location on a reclaimed swamp with a high rainfall is relevant to disposal of low level radioactive waste. Asked if he was aware it was a “marshy site”, he said, “I have no idea”. He explained that although there is a pristine fishing village and beach at Kuantan three and a half kilometres away on the coast, “if there is a risk there, it is much wider than just Lynas because the Lamp is in a petrochemical zone”. In fact, the site is on a reclaimed peat swamp……..http://aliran.com/11018.html
“Uranium widows country” – prolonged task of cleaning up Navajo land
Uranium cleanup on Navajo Nation complicated by scope, history of problem 19, 2012 By MARYANN BATLLE Cronkite News WASHINGTON – For seven weeks this fall, workers and scientists labored from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., six days a week, digging up and hauling off thousands of cubic yards of uranium-tainted soil in Cove, Ariz., and sealing what remained.
The $1.5 million project by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was an emergency measure to clean up two former uranium transfer stations because of their proximity to a day school, a house – which sat on top of one station – and a highway on the Navajo Nation.
The goal was to remove the immediate threat of uranium contamination, stabilize the soil and keep uranium from becoming windborne.
It’s a stopgap measure on two tainted sites among at least 500 – possibly more than 2,000 – that pose a threat to people on the Navajo reservation that spans parts of Utah, New Mexico and Northern Arizona.
More than six decades after the first mines opened on Navajo lands, it is still unclear how many sites need to be cleaned up, how many people may be suffering from the effects of uranium exposure and what can be done to contain all the hazardous material in these communities – if that’s even possible.
What everyone can agree on is that overcoming the legacy of uranium mining will take a long, long time.
“They say it’s a widow community,” Eugene Esplain said of Cove, where this fall’s cleanup took place. “So many men have died from the impacts of uranium mining.”….. http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2012/12/uranium-cleanup-on-navajo-nation-complicated-by-scope-history-of-problem/
.Mining uranium – A recent history of uranium on Navajo lands
Uranium cleanup on Navajo Nation complicated by scope, history of problem 19, 2012 By MARYANN BATLLE Cronkite News “…..
• 1940s: The mining and milling of uranium ore for U.S defense and energy begins on the Navajo Nation. Continue reading
Malawi protest against uranium mining company called off. Why?
Malawi group gets Paladin’s K0.9 million to publicize aborted protest … The Maravi Post-14/11/2012 Malawi group gets Paladin’s K0.9 million to publicize aborted … MZUZU–Paladin (Africa) Limited has provided funds amounting to K900, 000 … subscribers only
Paladin accuser recants threat allegation; Kyungu’s point man ... The Maravi Post-26/11/2012 MZUZU–Karonga Youth for Justice and Development (KYJD) has recanted the allegation made against Paladin (Africa) Limited, owners of … subscribers only http://www.maravipost.com/malawi-news/society/2331-paladin-accuser-recants-threat-allegation-kyungu%E2%80%99s-point-man-praises-mining-firm.html
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