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New manager and new fights for Cancer Society

radiation-warning

New manager and new fights for Cancer Society  Meridian Booster  By Allison Wall q12 March 09

The Lloydminster Canadian Cancer Society is taking an unprecedented stand against a possible nuclear power facility near Paradise Hill.

Although the Saskatchewan government recently issued a release encouraging Bruce Power to continue laying groundwork for a possible facility in northwest Saskatchewan, the Canadian Cancer Society Lloydminster unit has developed a policy to educate the public about the health risks associated with nuclear facilities.

“The start is to educate people about it before they can make a decision on it … and people can voice their opinions,” said Wendy Clague, new manager of the Society’s Lloydminster unit.

The policy is the first of its kind for the Cancer Society in Canada……………………ncreased cancer risk has been associated with nuclear power facilities in some studies – a fact that made some at the meeting uneasy.

“We know there are many benefits to nuclear power, but we also know that nuclear facilities create many situations that affect the human health, plant life and the earth itself,” said Don Retzlaff, a guest at the Canadian Cancer Society Lloydminster unit annual general meeting. “There has been a considerable amount of research in the United States and Europe that indicated that nuclear power plants can create serious health problems.”

Retzlaff said statistics in United States and Europe have indicated a sharp increase in breast cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer and pancreatic cancer, particularly in women and children.

“In Germany and Ireland, women and children living within 50 kilometres of a nuclear facility have a one in six chance of developing leukemia,” said Retzlaff.

New manager and new fights for Cancer Society – Lloydminster Meridian Booster – Alberta, CA

March 12, 2009 Posted by | Canada, environment | Leave a comment

Anti-nuclear, not anti-development

Anti-nuclear, not anti-development FAIRVIEW POST 26 Feb 09 “………………….. I am all for the development of renewable energy sources — wind, solar, bio-gas and smart grids. I am definitely not in favor of more money spent on nuclear power. I am against being responsible for the costs associated with the storage of the nuclear waste associated with this proposal. The nuclear industry should pay those costs, the taxpayer shouldn’t have to. I am against being responsible for any capital cost overruns that a nuclear facility runs up. They should have to foot the bill just like any other industry, the taxpayer shouldn’t have to. How many people are even aware of the fact that capital cost overruns for the nuclear industry in Canada come right out of taxpayer’s pockets? The nuclear industry in Canada has been operating at a loss since it’s inception, relying on constant taxpayer handouts to stay afloat.

Putting a leaky nuclear facility in the midst of 25,000 area residents is not a good idea. According to the information sessions I attended, Bruce Power is planning on storing radioactive waste on site. What guarantee can they give us that our groundwater will not be affected? According to a site called the Bruce Centre for Energy Research and Information, which is located in the heart of Bruce County, the Bruce nuclear complex has two radioactive waste storage sites that are leaking tritium into groundwater monitoring wells. Groundwater sampling holes from Site 1 have in the past exceeded 203,500 Bq/L for tritium. The report states that the waste from site 1 is being moved to site 2, and that one groundwater sampling hole at site 2 has recently exceeded 12,000 Bq/L. In Canada the “safe” amount of tritium in drinking water is 7,000 Bq/L (versus 740 in the States, and 100 in Europe). I, like many people in our area, get my water straight from the ground. What would a leak like those mentioned do to the local water supply?

So, am I anti-development? Not on your life. Bring on all the green, renewable, clean energy sources we can develop, like solar, and wind, and bio-gas. Am I anti nuclear? You bet I am. Nuclear power in Ontario has shown itself to be a money-sucking black hole, relying on a constant stream of taxpayers’ cash to stay afloat. So why would anyone but a bunch of business people want a toxic dinosaur erected here? Develop something modern, stop flogging a dying horse.

Dan Streeter, Grimshaw

Anti-nuclear, not anti-development – Fairview Post – Alberta, CA

February 26, 2009 Posted by | business and costs, Canada | Leave a comment

Leaky Nuclear Research Facility Stirs Debate in Canada

Leaky Nuclear Research Facility Stirs Debate in Canada The New York Times By Ian Austen February 25, 2009

A Canadian nuclear facility that produces at least of half of the world’s supply of medical isotopes has a long history of leaks and unanticipated maintenance delays. And little wonder. The reactor — part of the Atomic Energy of Canada’s Chalk River Laboratories in Eastern Ontario — has been in operation for nearly 52 years.

Two successor reactors which were to replace it have been abandoned because of engineering and financial problems. And recently, the reactor at Chalk River has gone through a particularly bad patch. There have been three leaks at the facility since December.

Leaky Nuclear Research Facility Stirs Debate in Canada – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com

February 26, 2009 Posted by | Canada, safety | Leave a comment

Radiation in Ottawa waste may have come from patients

Radiation in Ottawa waste may have come from patients TIM WIECLAWSKI, METRO OTTAWAF ebruary 25, 2009 There is a strong possibility that the radiation detected in Ottawa biowaste last month came from the waste of medical patients, but the city’s director of Water and Wastewater Services said it’s impossible to know for sure……………………….

The radioactive material is very likely the medical isotope iodine-131, but an investigation of the facilities known to use it failed to produce a source.

Similar situation have occurred in other cities in North America and Weir said the research points to “normal excreta that comes from people undergoing medical treatments.”

“The situation is that what we have found, after much investigation, the biosolids here in Ottawa are consistent all over North America.

Metro – Radiation in Ottawa waste may have come from patients

February 25, 2009 Posted by | Canada, environment | Leave a comment

Green Glow Renaissance: Global Nuclear Genocide

The nuclear industry seized on the “peak oil” and “global warming” crisis which they created and turned it to their advantage.  They call nuclear a “green”, “clean”, “renewable” resource because they can reuse the deadly waste to make nuclear weapons.  They lump it under with wind and solar.  The theme of the Canadian Nuclear Association CNA convention and trade show from February 25 to 27 at the Westin in Ottawa is “the reality of renaissance”.  [Is that crazy or what?]  Yes, they rely on our ignorance and naivety. ………………..They want to build dozens of nuclear reactors all over the world in Indigenous communities along and dump the nuclear waste for us to “manage”!!  We live in remote areas far from any place they would want to even visit. …………………….

Meanwhile, Canada helps set up private organizations as government fronts like CNA (Canadian Nuclear Association), NWMO (Nuclear Waste Management Organization) and CAP (Congress of Aboriginal People) and OMAA (Ontario Metis and Aboriginal Association).  The latter two are so-called “aboriginal” organizations.  NWMO and CNA are funding the Assembly of First Nations, another government set up, and CAP to talk us into managing and storing nuclear fuel waste on our territories.  Meetings have gone on for years to get Elders and “leaders” on side.  Canada has even sent in Mother Joan Holmes to turn non-natives into “Indians” who can then sign away our inherent rights.  Nuclear salesmen are courting “Aboriginal partners” to sign away our birthright and existence.

So-called 34-year old “aboriginal”, Patrick “Fabio-Wannabe” Brazeau, was recently appointed Senator by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen “Ford-Modelling-Agent” Harper.  What was this all about?  Brazeau’s rap sheet looks like the antithesis of anything anyone would want in the Senate.  He was rewarded for fronting the phony CAP to try to destroy Indigenous nations and sovereignty.

CAP has arrangements with NRC (Natural Resources Canada) and NWMO to consider nuclear waste management on or near our communities.  Brazeau proposed, “… the 633 native communities in Canada be reduced to between 60 and 80. The 10 Algonquin reserves in Quebec and Ontario, for example, would become one.  Same for the Cree. The Mohawk. And so on”.   The guy didn’t consult  any of us or visit any of our communities.  Now, if he has any sense, he’d be afraid to come.  He wants to redirect the flow of nearly $10 billion in federal funding for “aboriginal” programs and services in Canada.  He thinks we wont need it because we are going to liquidated.  So he wants the money to go to the many “aboriginal” that he and Mother Jones have created.    …………………………NWMO wants to store nuclear waste in Indigenous communities in the Canadian Shield.  Sites in NAN (Nishnaabe Aski Nation) in northern Ontario appear to be the most likely. ………………………………A telling example of these “courtships” with the Indigenous is the recent attempted seduction of the Navaho.  Areva, the French nuclear power company, took the council on a recent trip to Paris.  Areva “owns” uranium mines in northern Saskatchewan.  They want the Navaho to put a nuclear reactor and to do more uranium mining in their territory in the U.S. southwest.

The Navaho know about the devastation of uranium tailings.  Most want nothing to do with nuclear development.  The same is true of the Ojibwe, Cree and Metis who have been targeted in northern Canada.  Nishnaabe are fully aware of and suffering from the ongoing poisoning at Blind River and the tons of nuclear waste at Elliot Lake.

Nuclear promoters like AECL (Atomic Energy Canada Ltd) and CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) will coo soothingly, in their brushed suits, carefully coiffed hair [if they have any] and manicured hands, “There’s no risk”…………………………

We all have to drastically cut back on our materialistic lifestyle.  Every household could be generating enough clean energy to power their own grid.  We Indigenous understand this basic and practical way of taking only what we need and leaving little or no footprint.

The elders are concerned about the future based on our traditional knowledge.  The youth are concerned with living with the legacy of nuclear waste disposal.  Women are concerned with protecting the clean and safe water for all people and the environment as this is our traditional role.

http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/3738-green-glow-renaissance-global-nuclear-genocide.html

February 20, 2009 Posted by | Canada, indigenous issues | Leave a comment

Medical isotopes the likely cause of radiation in Ottawa waste

Medical isotopes the likely cause of radiation in Ottawa waste, CBC Canada February 4, 2009

The sludge that was recently quarantined near the Canadian border tested positive for radiation because of the presence of a medical isotope, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

The biosolids, which were being transported from the Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre in Ottawa for disposal in New York State, were turned away at the border last Thursday because the truckloads had registered low levels of radiation.

Since then, the sludge has been stored at Third High Farms, a waste storage facility Iroquois, Ont., and consultants have been called in to investigate.

The culprit appears to be the isotope iodine 131.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has said the isotope, which is used for medial procedures, is most likely the source of the radiation detected in the sludge.

The commission also said that the presence of medical isotopes in sludge is not unusual.

Medical isotopes the likely cause of radiation in Ottawa waste

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February 5, 2009 Posted by | Canada, environment, NORTH AMERICA | Leave a comment