Navajo uranium mine workers seek health assistance
Navajo uranium mine workers seek health assistance— By Brendan Giusti — The Daily Times 4/22/2009 — A grassroots effort to help uranium mine workers’ children affected by diseases and birth defects is picking up steam on the Navajo Nation.The Navajo Nation Dependents of Uranium Workers Committee will meet for the second time in a month to update community members and hear feedback from residents who suffer from cancer, kidney disease, birth defects and other illnesses resulting from prolonged radon exposure from uranium mines……………………
uranium mine workers were exposed to high levels of radon, which has caused inter-generational bouts of illnesses in communities across the Navajo Nation.
“A lot of people don’t want to talk about this in the public,” Harrison said………………………….
momentum in the fair-compensation movement is growing.
Community members, especially those directly affected by the lingering health issues, are ready to travel to Washington to lobby the federal government for compensation, said Gilbert Badoni, president of the Navajo Nation Dependents of Uranium Workers Committee, a co-sponsor of the meeting.
The group plans to hold meetings across the Navajo Nation before making the trek to the nation’s capital later this year.
Badoni estimates there are 15,000 dependents of uranium mine workers affected today from various diseases and birth defects.
From 2004 to 2005 only 8 percent of Navajo claims were paid, Harrison said.
This, according to Harrison, is because many Navajo don’t have the proper medical records, marital records, birth certificates, proof of residency or work history required under the act.
Navajo uranium mine workers seek health assistance – Farmington Daily Times
NRC turns over depleted uranium documents
NRC turns over depleted uranium documents
By BROCK VERGAKIS Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated PressApril 22, 2009, Houston Chronicle 23 April 09SALT LAKE CITY — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has turned over thousands of pages of documents that might help explain why it recently decided to classify large quantities of depleted uranium as the least hazardous type of low-level radioactive waste.
The NRC’s March decision could open the door for more than 1 million tons of depleted uranium to be disposed of in Utah and Texas at private disposal sites in the rural western parts of both states.
Depleted uranium is different from other low-level radioactive waste because it becomes more radioactive over time for up to 1 million years…………………….
Matheson and Markey contend the NRC erred in its 3-1 decision, which was made along party lines.
The two sit on the subcommittee that oversees the NRC and have called the ruling an “arbitrary and capricious mischaracterization” of the waste.
“The commission’s action to classify depleted uranium as Class A even though it poses more severe risks to health and safety, and requires much greater effort for disposal, seems to be unsupportable and inconsistent with the intent of the law,” they wrote to NRC Chairman Dale Klein.
NRC turns over depleted uranium documents | AP Texas News | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle
Radioactive waste cleanup has hardly begun
Radioactive waste cleanup has hardly begun
Mother Nature Network 21 April 09 “……………………..This 586-square foot relic is the Hanford site—a retired plutonium production complex that the Department of Energy (DOE) considers to be “the world’s largest environmental cleanup project.” Some 525 million gallons of radioactive waste were generated by Hanford between 1944 and 1988, according to a Government Accountability Office report, and at least 56 million gallons of the stuff remains on site in leaky tanks. Already a million gallons of it has seeped into the ground and contaminated the Columbia River. Meanwhile, the DOE is stalling on the clean up and trying to wiggle out of its 2018 commitment for completion. “They’re trying to avoid the option of having to build storage tanks, which are very expensive, but the cost of a catastrophic tank failure is incalculable,” says Robert Alvarez, senior scholar for the Institute for Policy Studies…………………………………Disturbingly, Hanford isn’t a lone case. America’s fear of Communism, its doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction, and its subsequent nuclear weapons buildup over a 45-year span left behind a nationwide toxic waste legacy: 1.7 trillion gallons of contaminated groundwater, 40 million cubic meters of tainted soil and debris, more than 2,000 tons of radioactive spent nuclear fuel, more than 160,000 cubic meters of radioactive and hazardous waste, and more than 100 million gallons of liquid, high-level radioactive waste, according to Max S. Power, author of America’s Nuclear Wastelands: Politics, Accountability, and Cleanup.
“The nuclear arms race left us with 16 major and 100 minor sites all around the country that need to be cleaned up,” says Power.“Our ‘nuclear wastelands’ are a multi-generational legacy.” Sites across the US include Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, and the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island in New York, to name a few.
Radioactive waste cleanup has hardly begun | MNN – Mother Nature Network
New revelations about Three Mile Island disaster raise doubts over nuclear plant safety:
New revelations about Three Mile Island disaster raise doubts over nuclear plant safetyThe truth behind the meltdown indyweek.com
Waste and cost raise doubts about nuclear power:
Waste and cost raise doubts about nuclear power
indyweek.com 22 April 09 “………………………..There is no long-term solution to the problem of what to do with nuclear-generated waste, merely the hope that something will be worked out. Those hopes may dwindle further in the face of what has happened to France, once vaunted as the nation that did nuclear “right.” First, French attempts to build new reactors in France and Finland has been financially disastrous, much like that of the American nuclear industry in the 1980s. The Finnish Olkiluoto reactor is now 55 percent over budget, while the Flamanville project in France has exceeded its budget by $1 billion less than a year into construction.But more important, claims that France had perfected the recycling of nuclear waste are coming under scrutiny. Critics of the French system point to the reprocessing plant at La Hague, which has been discharging 100 million gallons of radioactive waste annually into the English Channel, as well as similarly radioactive gas releases from La Hague. And the French nuclear industry, despite reprocessing, nonetheless has generated 10,000 tons of spent fuel rods like those that now sit in “temporary” storage at Shearon Harris.
On Earth Day, Obama pushes ambitious climate agenda — chicagotribune.com
On Earth Day, Obama pushes ambitious climate agendaB Chicago Tribune y Jim Tankersley | Washington Bureau April 22, 2009 – “……………………A recent analysis by the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity estimated that 770 firms and interest groups hired some 2,340 climate lobbyists in the past year.
Intense negotiations are also under way among the House energy committee, the White House and a key group of moderate Senate Democrats. The outcome of those talks may determine the fate of what advocates and foes alike call the farthest-reaching attempt yet by Congress to limit the emissions scientists blame for global warming
On Earth Day, Obama pushes ambitious climate agenda — chicagotribune.com
Resolve nuclear waste site first
Resolve nuclear waste site first post-Bulletin Jay Youmans 20 April 09
It makes no sense to lift the legal moratorium or build new nuclear power plants in Minnesota until the nuclear industry finds a solution for the radioactive waste produced at nuclear plants.
It makes no sense to pass the costs of electrical production and use on to future generations by leaving them nuclear waste that has to be stored and is dangerous for longer than recorded human history.
How can we justify passing this cost and legacy onto our children?
……………………..Yucca is located in an active earthquake zone with more than 30 known faults in the area (a 5.6 earthquake in 1992 did $100 million damage to the site). Since 1976, there have been 621 seismic events of magnitude greater than 2.5 within a 50-mile radius of Yucca Mountain. Today there is more civilian and military nuclear waste than the Yucca depository’s 70,000 metric ton capacity.
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico?
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico?By Lisa Mascaro Las Vegas Sun April 21, 2009 ·
WASHINGTON — Is a salt formation in New Mexico the new Yucca Mountain?
A trade industry publication reports today that discussions are underway to promote an existing facility in New Mexico as an alternative to storing the nation’s spent nuclear fuel in the desert north of Las Vegas..
The Obama administration has promised to “scale back” funds for the Yucca Mountain project, and the president has vowed it will not open as a waste dump. A report last week indicated the fiscal 2010 funding cut would be severe……………………………
“Nuclear industry officials and policymakers are quietly mounting support for constructing a permanent nuclear waste repository inside a large New Mexico salt formation already used for permanent storage of low-level transuranic waste,” Energy Washington Week reports.
The publication reports former Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, a longtime leader in nuclear issues, recently mentioned the idea……………………Transporting the nation’s civilian nuclear waste to WIPP has its own legislative obstacles. Current law now restricts what can be dumped there and would need to be altered.
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico? – Politics: The Early Line – Las Vegas Sun
Lehman Brothers and yellowcake
Lehman Brothers and Yellowcake BIZMOLOGY by Larry Bills, April 20th, 2009 “………It turns out that Lehman Brothers, the powerful investment bank which collapsed last year and signaled the beginning of the economic meltdown, owns 500,000 pounds of uranium “yellowcake,” slightly less than what’s needed to make one nuclear bomb……………….. I don’t know if I’m crazy about a bankrupt company — struggling to pay off creditors — stockpiling uranium.
Bizmology » Blog Archive » Lehman Brothers and yellowcake
Nuclear power still has the problems that led to a moratorium
Nuclear power still has the problems that led to a moratorium
: April 20, 2009 The Minnesota Senate recently approved an amendment to overturn the state’s moratorium on new nuclear power plants. Meanwhile, the nuclear industry has launched a savvy national campaign to convince citizens that conventional nuclear power is a silver-bullet solution to our energy and climate crisis.
Even the best PR campaign can’t change the reality that nuclear power remains as uneconomical and environmentally unsafe as it was 40 years ago. Conventional nuclear technology is expensive, creates few new jobs and poses long-term environmental hazards. It is a costly distraction from real energy solutions.
The current moratorium was put into place in 1994 because there was no permanent national solution to the problem of how to solve nuclear waste. That problem persists today……………………………… NASA’s top climate scientist James Hansen recently reported, even with the highest levels of priority funding, fourth-generation reactors will not be ready for deployment for 10 to 15 years. We need global warming solutions much sooner. The nuclear moratorium protects us against the development of new power plants based on outdated and risky technology.
In the midst of an international economic crisis, we should also be wary of the economic costs of nuclear power. New nuclear power is only cost effective with massive taxpayer subsidies. Current federal law caps the liability claims that can arise from nuclear accidents and passes that liability on to taxpayers. We have already shelled out billions of dollars to insure commercial nuclear reactors; we shouldn’t be forced to shell out billions more…….
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Yankee nuke extension increases risk
Yankee extension increases risk
Kewaunee nuclear power plant shut down
Kewaunee nuclear power plant shut down
By Rick Romell of the Journal Sentinel
April 20, 2009 The Kewaunee nuclear power plant remains out of operation after being shut down late Thursday night because of an instrumentation problem.
………………….. An event report posted on the site of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission indicates that a problem with calibration procedures was discovered about 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The problem was considered reportable to the NRC under three regulations, including one covering “any event or condition that results in the nuclear plant being in an unanalyzed condition that significantly degrades plant safety.” http://www.jsonline.com/business/43179997.html
Italian Nuclear Waste to be Dumped in Utah
Italian Nuclear Waste to be Dumped in Utah AllGov News by Noel Brinkerhoff April 17, 2009 A uranium isotope is a uranium isotope, regardless of its country of origin. But for two Democratic congressmen, there’s a problem with low-level nuclear waste from Italy being dumped in Utah………………………….
Since the NRC won’t help, Matheson and Gordon have decided to sponsor a bill that would ban the importation of low-level radioactive waste unless the nuclear material originated in the U.S. or the waste was imported for a strategic national purpose. The two congressmen have been joined by Utah’s Republican governor,. Jon Huntsman, who is opposed to the waste coming to his state.Huntsman can’t get legislation passed in his own state banning the importation of nuclear waste, thanks to the numerous political donations that EnergySolutions has spread around among state lawmakers, and its army of lobbyists. In fact, one of the company’s former lobbyists is Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT), whose district includes the dump site.
Taxpayers own nuclear problems
Muskogee Phoenix April 17, 2009 02:45 pm -THE PEOPLE SPEAK: Taxpayers own nuclear problemsOklahoma Republicans are being very hypocritical in supporting taxpayer guarantees in funding to build massively expensive nuclear plants………………..
We do not need nuclear plants. Solar thermal (not the same as solar panels) and wind could supply the energy without the dangerous polluting of uranium mining.
Who will pay for the medical expenses for the increased cancer rates around Muskogee if the plant is built here? Who will pay for the decommissioning of these plants when they age?
I think the people will pay and big corporations will benefit. What about contaminated nuclear groundwater as has happened in France? We need a town meeting about this important issue before the Republicans rush things through.
Jean McMahon
Fort Gibson
MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK – THE PEOPLE SPEAK: Taxpayers own nuclear problems
Oyster Creek an accident waiting to happen
Oyster Creek an accident waiting to happen Brick Township Bulletin Sidney J. Goodman 17 April 09 Anuclear plant reactor tries to safely contain more radioactivity than is in the fallout of 1,000 Hiroshima atom bombs.The Oyster Creek spent fuel rod pool contains much more deadly radioactivity. The pool has a flimsy roof that could easily be penetrated to cause a fuming meltdown.Who would have thought that the World Trade Center could be destroyed so easily? As for nuclear power plants, we haven’t seen anything yet.There is an official rule. It says that a mere 10-mile evacuation zone is perfectly adequate. This is idiotic.The poisons from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident traveled all around the world. Decades after, only 20 percent of the children born in Belarus are healthy. The poisons from the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station traveled hundreds of miles………………………
There is a federal law called the Price Anderson Act. It limits the liability of a nuclear utility to a microscopic fraction of the damage it can cause.
Oyster Creek is afraid to operate without the protection of this law. If there is no risk, as nuclear promoters always say, there is absolutely no justification for the existence of this law.
This law abolishes your property rights to protect the property rights of nuclear utilities. Their insistence that we need this law proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that big guns in the industry do not believe one word of their assurances about health and safety.
Why should you believe them or their agents?……………………. The Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant must be closed immediately — not in nine years, not in one year, not in one month, but now.
Oyster Creek an accident waiting to happen | bulletin.gmnews.com | Brick Township Bulletin
1 This Month
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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