Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Uranium mining in Meghalaya
Ragi Kana Ko Bonga Buru ( Buddha weeps in Jadugoda ) documents the devastating effects of uranium mining by Uranium Corporation of India Limited in Jadugoda. For the last thirty years, the radioactive wastes have been just dumped into the rice fields of the Adivasis according to the film. The complete neglect of the authorities to radioactive waste management rules wreaks havoc in the daily lives of the villagers and children with genetic deformities become quite common.
Comment: Uranium mining has hurt and killed people all over the Earth and what for: Pure Greed and heck with the people around the mining. Why is Virginia starting in Pittsylvania County, Virginia for the proposed uranium mining? Uranium is located all over Virginia but the first proposed mine would start in one of the poor counties, our county but later would spread to the richer counties where movie stars have horse farms! Demand the world to ban uranium mining and our state to protect her citizens from Greed!
by deathvirgo16, India
by jeffrey kharsyntiew
Published on: Oct 29, 2009
Dear all,
I think all of us know about uranium and its consequences. The real question is, “Are we really concerned about this issue?” Many countries worry about nuclear energy, not for their scientific development, but out of greed for power.
Uranium mining for peace and development is a contradiction. Many states that fall into the trap of uranium mining are now under great threat.
Within them, there exist only poverty, health hazards and a threat to the environment.
Till now we have not seen any development in these areas. Where is the promise of progress and development?
India is a nuclear power.
This has encourages uranium mining in the country.
Due to its position in the global hierarchy, India needs a lot of uranium in order to aspire for the top, but is India aware of the risks it is are going to which it is going to subject its own citizens?
The documentary film, "Buddha weeps in Jadugoda", shows Jadugoda, the place where uranium mining takes place under critical conditions.
Before mining, the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) promised the people development and safety in terms of health and the environment. But where are these?
Due to uranium mining, the health of the people has been largely affected by radiation. This radiation causes cancer and many serious illnesses and it also affects the genes (and, of course, the next generation). People have begun to suffer from various deformities and physical and mental disorders. The saddest part is that there is no treatment for these.
Even water bodies have been poisoned and polluted due to the flow of uranium waste. There is only misery and poverty in Jadugoda today. Is the government aware of all this? Does it feel pity for these people? Why does the government make false promises?
We all know about the current situation in Meghalaya, India. Law and order were disturbed due to the 209 crore UCIL development, which clearly marks the beginnings of a uranium project in the state.
However, our political leaders are not paying attention to the impact that we, the people, will suffer once the mining begins.
Naturally they know about the threat posed by uranium, but they were so blinded to it, perhaps because of the money which they will get in benefit from the project.
Part of the 209 crore will flow into the bank accounts of our leaders.
This is the main reason why they want to start this project without even consulting the public.
They don’t mind putting our lives in danger just for the sake of money.
They can settle anywhere in the country later, but what will happen to the poor people living near the uranium mines? Where will they go? Who will take responsibility for them? Who will carry their burdens and difficulties? Who will provide the answers to all these questions?
If we want to stop this nightmare before our state becomes the next Jadugoda, now is the time.
As concerned citizens of the state, we should make efforts to uproot all the evil elements of society and to stop irresponsible leaders from playing with the lives of the people.
Our lives should not depend on them.
Once again, say “No” to Uranium mining in Meghalaya.
Thank you.
J. Kharsyntiew,
Dum Dum, Nongthymmai,
Shillong, Meghalaya,
INDIA.
Read more:
http://www.takingitglobal.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=26661
http://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=26661
Friday, November 13, 2009
Australia evolving its position on uranium sales to India?
Jyoti Malhotra / New Delhi
November 14, 2009, 0:34 IST
India and Australia seem to have overcome several thorny issues that have bedevilled their relationship, including the recent attacks on Indian students in that country, by forging a security and strategic partnership that ranges from maintaining the safety and security of sea-lanes in the Indian Ocean to starting a CEOs forum to consolidate the relationship.
It is not clear, however, if Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who ended his visit to India yesterday, bit the bullet and told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he would work on his Labour Party back home and convince them to slowly withdraw its ban on the sale of uranium to India.
Rudd had waxed eloquent about growing cooperation in energy and mineral resources between both countries, and at a public speech at the Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA) yesterday, admitted that Australia’s long-standing ban on uranium sales was not directed at India.
Click Title or Link to whole post:
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/australia-evolving-its-positionuranium-sales-to-india/376441/
November 14, 2009, 0:34 IST
India and Australia seem to have overcome several thorny issues that have bedevilled their relationship, including the recent attacks on Indian students in that country, by forging a security and strategic partnership that ranges from maintaining the safety and security of sea-lanes in the Indian Ocean to starting a CEOs forum to consolidate the relationship.
It is not clear, however, if Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who ended his visit to India yesterday, bit the bullet and told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he would work on his Labour Party back home and convince them to slowly withdraw its ban on the sale of uranium to India.
Rudd had waxed eloquent about growing cooperation in energy and mineral resources between both countries, and at a public speech at the Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA) yesterday, admitted that Australia’s long-standing ban on uranium sales was not directed at India.
Click Title or Link to whole post:
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/australia-evolving-its-positionuranium-sales-to-india/376441/
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Meghalaya puts on hold UCIL's pre-mining development (uranium mining)
Sat, Nov 07, 2009 11:10:28 IST
Giving in to pressure from agitating organisations, Meghalaya government has decided to put on hold the UCIL's pre-mining developmental works in the uranium-rich areas of the state and formed a committee to look into the apprehensions.
The decision was taken by the government during a meeting with representatives from the agitation organisations led by the Khasi Students Union (KSU). “The Joint Committee on Uranium mining to be chaired by Deputy Chief Minister (in charge mining) BM Lanong, will comprise members from the agitation groups, scientists, environmentalists and other experts. It will try to address the concerns expressed by the organizations,” Meghalaya Chief Minister DD Lapang said after the meeting. The committee has been given three months for the exercise and after it submits its recommendations, the government will decide whether to go ahead with the proposed UCIL’s pre-mining developmental works, Lapang said.
Lapang also dismissed claims by the protesting groups that the pre-project developmental activities by the UCIL were meant to facilitate the uranium mining project. “As per an agreement with the UCIL, the project was divided into two phases – one the developmental works and the other the actual mining.
The mining issue in Meghalaya has been hanging fire for more than two decades now with some prominent NGOs and political parties vehemently opposed to the proposal on the grounds that it would lead to degradation of the environment besides opening the floodgates for outsiders into the tribal state. Explorations by Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research done two decades back estimated there could be over 16,000 tonnes of uranium ore in the Mahadek Basin of the state.
Click Title or Link to whole post:
http://www.merinews.com/article/meghalaya-puts-on-hold-ucils-pre-mining-development/15787751.shtml
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Women's body formed to voice protest against uranium mining
Shillong, Oct 5 : Women's organisations from various parts of Meghalaya have formed a new body under the banner of Women Against Uranium Mining (WAUM) to voice protest against the uranium mining in the state.
WAUM was formed in a meeting held here yesterday to go all out to stop the government's effort to mine uranium in West Khasi Hills district of the state.
Chairperson, Secretary and spokesperson of the newly formed WAUM were also elected during the meeting.
The state government has put the pre-mining developmental works on hold for three months after a meeting with KSU and other NGOs leadership held here yesterday.
Click Title or Link to whole post:
http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-144568.html
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Is this what you want? (Uranium Mining in Virginia)
India: Breathing, Eating and Drinking Radiation in Jadugoda,A documentary film called ’Jadugoda - The Black Magic’,by JOAR,
Comment: Great Letter Anne and thanks for the facts! Please read the article following the letter!
Is this what you want?
Oct 13, 2009 - 09:39:06 pm CDT
Virginia Uranium Inc. assures the people of Southside Virginia it will mine safely, and perhaps the mining company will mine in the most safest manner possible, but the end result will still be contamination of the air, water and land, leading to millions of dollars being spent on post-mining reclamation activities and the maintenance of a Superfund site around Coles Hills and other sites if more mines open.
Is this really what we want for the people of Virginia? Will we, as peoples in other lands, hear mining companies' assurances of safe mining practices along with the promise of jobs, be left to deal with the contamination of air, water, land and people? (Uranium Corporation of India Limited: Wasting Away Tribal Lands by M. Basu, Oct. 7, 2009. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15450)
Anne Cockrell
Danville, Virginia
Uranium Corporation of India Limited: Wasting Away Tribal Lands
by Moushumi Basu, Special to CorpWatch
October 7th, 2009
Creative Commons Licensed: Adapted by Ionia Kershaw for Truthout.org (via Flickr)
“I have had three miscarriages and lost five children within a week of their births,” says Hira Hansda, a miner’s wife. “Even after 20 years of marriage we have no children today.” Now in her late forties, she sits outside her mud hut in Jadugoda Township, site of one of the oldest uranium mines in India.
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.
Incorporated as a public sector enterprise under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in 1967, UCIL has sole responsibility for mining and processing all of India's uranium. And since the strength of the Jadugoda region's uraninite ore is extremely low, it takes many tons of earth as well as complex metallurgical processes to yield even a small amount of useable uranium ore—along with tons of radioactive waste, disposed of in unlined tailing dams.
UCIL processes the ore into yellowcake and sends it to the Nuclear Fuel Complex in Hyderabad, where it is officially designated for use in nuclear reactors. But it is an open secret that some of the nuclear material becomes the key ingredient in India's nuclear arsenal. (India is one of only three states—along with Israel and Pakistan—that are not signatories to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. North Korea withdrew from the Treaty in 2003.)
Unhealthy Villages
Radiation and health experts across the world charge that toxic materials and radioactivity released by the mining and processing operations are causing widespread infertility, birth defects and cancers. A 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), found that “primary sterility was found to be more common in the people residing near uranium mining operations area.”
Jadugoda residents Kaderam Tudu and his wife, Munia, considered themselves fortunate when their infant was born alive, until, “I found that my baby son did not have his right ear and instead in its place was a blob of flesh,” says Tudu, a day worker in his late thirties. Their son, Shyam Tudu, now eight, has a severe hearing impairment.
Even children who appear healthy are impacted. "The youths from our villages have become victims of social ostracism," says Parvati Manjhi, and cannot find spouses. "And a number of our girls have been abandoned by their husbands, when they failed to give birth,” Now middle-aged, Parvati and her husband, Dhuwa Manjhi, who used to work for UCIL, are childless.
Harrowing tales fill the region around the mines, and add irony to the area's name, Jharkhand, which in the local tribal language means “forest endowed with nature’s bounties.” If the lush land was the indigenous population's boon for centuries, its rich mineral reserves have become their bane. Six decades of industrialization has depleted the forest cover, degraded the environment, displaced tribal peoples—who along with Dalit ("untouchables") form an oppressed underclass—and devastated a way of life deeply interwoven with nature.
Despite India's economic boom and proximity to one of the country's richest mineral reserves, the villages in Jharkhand are now among the poorest in the country, according to the Center For Science & Environment’s (New Delhi) 2008 report “Rich Lands Poor People.”
Uranium Corporation of India Limited in Jharkhand
UCIL’s underground mines in Jadugoda, Bhatin, Turamdhih, Narwapahar, and its open cast mine at Banduhurang extract 1,000 tons per day (TPD) of uranium ore. Two underground mines in the pipeline at Baghjata and Mahuldih will boost that amount. The ore is processed at the Jadugoda and Turamdih mills with a combined capacity of 5,000 TDP. The company earned $64 million in 2007-08, and made a $3 million profit.
The 20-year lease for UCIL's mines was up in 2007, and a new application is being processed. Under it, the company wants to add 6.37 hectares to tailing dam capacity and expand production, according to UCIL Chairman and Managing Director Ramendra Gupta. This move requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Management Plan (EMP) drawn up by the Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research (CIMFR), along with a public hearing.
Addressing the affected community at the May public hearing in Jadugoda, the company represented the local plans as “a marginal expansion.” But the UCIL website promises “a quantum leap in UCIL’s activities” that includes plans to "deepen the existing mines, expand its processing facilities,” and “not only opening new mines, but also the development of the community around its operations.”
While the company has created local schools and provides jobs and social services, villagers who attended the hearing argued that these provisions do not compensate for the health effects and destruction of their way of life.
“Why are we being made to pay such a heavy price, for so many decades”? Asks Hira Hansda, speaking of her three miscarriages and birth to five infants that quickly died. Her husband Sonaram worked at the tailing dam as a casual employee between 1984-87, and like many villagers, he links the deterioration in local health conditions to the arrival of the uranium mines. The last three surveys conducted in the area found increased radiation levels.
Heavy Security at UCIL’s Public Hearing Keeps Villagers Out
The public hearing on UCIL's new application took place at the heavily fortified camp of the Central India Security Force (CISF) within the UCIL colony at Jadugoda. Conducted by the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board, the proceedings were marked by restrictions on personal liberties under sections of a law applying to situations with the potential to cause civil unrest.
Leaving little room for the public or protesters, the hall was packed with hundreds of UCIL workers and other company beneficiaries who held placards reading: “When compared to hunger, pollution is a small issue," and "Save UCIL.”
Those who had lost their lands and health to the mines were physically barred from the tent. Outside the proceedings, protesters shouted: “Do not destroy our land," “No uranium, no uranium waste, no weapons, care for the future." Many indigenous villagers waved the banner of the Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR), winner of the Germany-based Nuclear Free Future Award for its long crusade against the hazards of uranium mining in Jadugoda. The protesters denounced the hearing as "a farce" and demanded that it be immediately stopped.
Villager and JOAR president, Ghanashyam Biruli, issued the demands: no new uranium mines, bring the existing mine under international safety guidelines, return unused tribal land, provide livelihood and rehabilitation to displaced people, clean up the contamination, commission an independent study of environmental contamination and health effects, and monitor water bodies to ensure that the radionuclides do not seep into the aquifer that is the lifeline of more than 100,000 people. The activists also argued that since the country can buy uranium on the international market, there is no compelling need to expand UCIL's capacity.
The real compelling need, they asserted, was protecting health and the environment. The 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) provided clear evidence, finding that:
* Couples living near the mines were "1.58 times more vulnerable to primary sterility" with 9.6 percent of couples in study villages unable to conceive after three years of marriage, compared with 6.27 percent in a reference (control) group.
* Birth defects followed a similar pattern with 1.84 times higher incidence: “[B]abies from mothers, who lived near uranium mining operation area, suffered a significant increase in congenital deformities,” according to the report. While 4.49 percent of mothers living in the study villages reported bearing children with congenital deformities, only 2.49 percent of mothers in reference villages fell under this category." The national rate for people with disabilities (including congenital deformities) is 3 percent, according to official government statistics.
* Deformed babies near the mining operations are almost 6 times more likely to die, with 9.25 percent mothers in the study villages reporting congenital deformities as the cause of death of their children. In the reference village, mothers reported 1.70 percent of babies died of deformities.
* Cancer deaths were also higher: 2.87 percent of households in study villages attributed the cause of death to be cancer, compared to 1.89 percent in the reference village.
These factors contributed to a lowered life expectancy. In the study villages 68.33 percent of the population died before reaching the state's average life expectancy: 62 years old.
UCIL Denies Contamination
Despite such alarming reports, radiation data are not made public because they fall under the purview of the Atomic Energy Act of 1962. UCIL / DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) also cites security concerns for refusing to release data on health of the workers. But Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda, a 1999 award-winning film by Shri Prakash documented that, despite a law mandating regular monitoring, in the last five- to ten-year period few workers underwent blood and urine tests to assess the impact of radiation.
Independent scientists have confirmed the danger. Professor Hiroaki Koide, from the Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University, Japan, sampled soil and air in the surrounding villages and documented that “The circumference of tailing ponds is impacted with uranium radiation. The strength of the radiation is of 10 to 100 times high in comparison to places without contamination. ...There are places where uranium concentration is high in the road or the riverside, and it is thought that tailings are used for construction material,” including on villagers' houses." Tailings are production waste material that, according to critics are unsafely stored, dumped, and used for landfills, roads and construction.
UCIL Technical Director D Acharya denied that the company was responsible for radiological contamination. “UCIL’s safety and pollution control measures are at par with the international standards, comparable at any point of time,” he said. The company is dealing with naturally occurring materials, he noted, the very low grade ore extracted is a minimal environmental hazard, and the company is not enriching the ore in Jadugoda.
But tacitly acknowledging the risks, UCIL head, Gupta, noted in the 2008 Annual Report that "External gamma radiation, Radon concentration, suspended particulate matters, airborne long lived Alpha activity and concentration of radio nuclides- uranium and Radium in surface and ground water, in soil and food items etc are monitored regularly."
Although he presented no evidence, UCIL Technical Director Acharya said that allegations of health problems are canards spread by anti-uranium lobbies, and that the physical fitness of the employees can be gauged the UCIL football team's success in winning the DAE tournaments for the past five years.
“From time to time we have also conducted structured health surveys and examinations, by independent sources," said Acharya. "One was done by the erstwhile Bihar Assembly, about ten years ago, but the findings are absolutely normal.” (The area was part of Bihar at the time.) "The effects of radiation are being constantly monitored by independent watchdogs, and there are health physics experts who are always with us, for round-the clock-vigil of the situation. Hence, there is really no cause of concern,” he added.
That is not the experience of many villagers, who link serious health problems to the mines. Like many of the women in the surrounding areas, Hansda's pregnancies were a time of terror. “It fills within us fear and apprehensions of the possible ordeal that may be in store. Who knows what would be the fate of the baby,” she said.
http://www.caswellmessenger.com/articles/2009/10/13/opinion/opinion02.txt
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15450
http://www.sacw.net/article904.html
Comment: Great Letter Anne and thanks for the facts! Please read the article following the letter!
Is this what you want?
Oct 13, 2009 - 09:39:06 pm CDT
Virginia Uranium Inc. assures the people of Southside Virginia it will mine safely, and perhaps the mining company will mine in the most safest manner possible, but the end result will still be contamination of the air, water and land, leading to millions of dollars being spent on post-mining reclamation activities and the maintenance of a Superfund site around Coles Hills and other sites if more mines open.
Is this really what we want for the people of Virginia? Will we, as peoples in other lands, hear mining companies' assurances of safe mining practices along with the promise of jobs, be left to deal with the contamination of air, water, land and people? (Uranium Corporation of India Limited: Wasting Away Tribal Lands by M. Basu, Oct. 7, 2009. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15450)
Anne Cockrell
Danville, Virginia
Uranium Corporation of India Limited: Wasting Away Tribal Lands
by Moushumi Basu, Special to CorpWatch
October 7th, 2009
Creative Commons Licensed: Adapted by Ionia Kershaw for Truthout.org (via Flickr)
“I have had three miscarriages and lost five children within a week of their births,” says Hira Hansda, a miner’s wife. “Even after 20 years of marriage we have no children today.” Now in her late forties, she sits outside her mud hut in Jadugoda Township, site of one of the oldest uranium mines in India.
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.
Incorporated as a public sector enterprise under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in 1967, UCIL has sole responsibility for mining and processing all of India's uranium. And since the strength of the Jadugoda region's uraninite ore is extremely low, it takes many tons of earth as well as complex metallurgical processes to yield even a small amount of useable uranium ore—along with tons of radioactive waste, disposed of in unlined tailing dams.
UCIL processes the ore into yellowcake and sends it to the Nuclear Fuel Complex in Hyderabad, where it is officially designated for use in nuclear reactors. But it is an open secret that some of the nuclear material becomes the key ingredient in India's nuclear arsenal. (India is one of only three states—along with Israel and Pakistan—that are not signatories to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. North Korea withdrew from the Treaty in 2003.)
Unhealthy Villages
Radiation and health experts across the world charge that toxic materials and radioactivity released by the mining and processing operations are causing widespread infertility, birth defects and cancers. A 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), found that “primary sterility was found to be more common in the people residing near uranium mining operations area.”
Jadugoda residents Kaderam Tudu and his wife, Munia, considered themselves fortunate when their infant was born alive, until, “I found that my baby son did not have his right ear and instead in its place was a blob of flesh,” says Tudu, a day worker in his late thirties. Their son, Shyam Tudu, now eight, has a severe hearing impairment.
Even children who appear healthy are impacted. "The youths from our villages have become victims of social ostracism," says Parvati Manjhi, and cannot find spouses. "And a number of our girls have been abandoned by their husbands, when they failed to give birth,” Now middle-aged, Parvati and her husband, Dhuwa Manjhi, who used to work for UCIL, are childless.
Harrowing tales fill the region around the mines, and add irony to the area's name, Jharkhand, which in the local tribal language means “forest endowed with nature’s bounties.” If the lush land was the indigenous population's boon for centuries, its rich mineral reserves have become their bane. Six decades of industrialization has depleted the forest cover, degraded the environment, displaced tribal peoples—who along with Dalit ("untouchables") form an oppressed underclass—and devastated a way of life deeply interwoven with nature.
Despite India's economic boom and proximity to one of the country's richest mineral reserves, the villages in Jharkhand are now among the poorest in the country, according to the Center For Science & Environment’s (New Delhi) 2008 report “Rich Lands Poor People.”
Uranium Corporation of India Limited in Jharkhand
UCIL’s underground mines in Jadugoda, Bhatin, Turamdhih, Narwapahar, and its open cast mine at Banduhurang extract 1,000 tons per day (TPD) of uranium ore. Two underground mines in the pipeline at Baghjata and Mahuldih will boost that amount. The ore is processed at the Jadugoda and Turamdih mills with a combined capacity of 5,000 TDP. The company earned $64 million in 2007-08, and made a $3 million profit.
The 20-year lease for UCIL's mines was up in 2007, and a new application is being processed. Under it, the company wants to add 6.37 hectares to tailing dam capacity and expand production, according to UCIL Chairman and Managing Director Ramendra Gupta. This move requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Management Plan (EMP) drawn up by the Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research (CIMFR), along with a public hearing.
Addressing the affected community at the May public hearing in Jadugoda, the company represented the local plans as “a marginal expansion.” But the UCIL website promises “a quantum leap in UCIL’s activities” that includes plans to "deepen the existing mines, expand its processing facilities,” and “not only opening new mines, but also the development of the community around its operations.”
While the company has created local schools and provides jobs and social services, villagers who attended the hearing argued that these provisions do not compensate for the health effects and destruction of their way of life.
“Why are we being made to pay such a heavy price, for so many decades”? Asks Hira Hansda, speaking of her three miscarriages and birth to five infants that quickly died. Her husband Sonaram worked at the tailing dam as a casual employee between 1984-87, and like many villagers, he links the deterioration in local health conditions to the arrival of the uranium mines. The last three surveys conducted in the area found increased radiation levels.
Heavy Security at UCIL’s Public Hearing Keeps Villagers Out
The public hearing on UCIL's new application took place at the heavily fortified camp of the Central India Security Force (CISF) within the UCIL colony at Jadugoda. Conducted by the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board, the proceedings were marked by restrictions on personal liberties under sections of a law applying to situations with the potential to cause civil unrest.
Leaving little room for the public or protesters, the hall was packed with hundreds of UCIL workers and other company beneficiaries who held placards reading: “When compared to hunger, pollution is a small issue," and "Save UCIL.”
Those who had lost their lands and health to the mines were physically barred from the tent. Outside the proceedings, protesters shouted: “Do not destroy our land," “No uranium, no uranium waste, no weapons, care for the future." Many indigenous villagers waved the banner of the Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR), winner of the Germany-based Nuclear Free Future Award for its long crusade against the hazards of uranium mining in Jadugoda. The protesters denounced the hearing as "a farce" and demanded that it be immediately stopped.
Villager and JOAR president, Ghanashyam Biruli, issued the demands: no new uranium mines, bring the existing mine under international safety guidelines, return unused tribal land, provide livelihood and rehabilitation to displaced people, clean up the contamination, commission an independent study of environmental contamination and health effects, and monitor water bodies to ensure that the radionuclides do not seep into the aquifer that is the lifeline of more than 100,000 people. The activists also argued that since the country can buy uranium on the international market, there is no compelling need to expand UCIL's capacity.
The real compelling need, they asserted, was protecting health and the environment. The 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) provided clear evidence, finding that:
* Couples living near the mines were "1.58 times more vulnerable to primary sterility" with 9.6 percent of couples in study villages unable to conceive after three years of marriage, compared with 6.27 percent in a reference (control) group.
* Birth defects followed a similar pattern with 1.84 times higher incidence: “[B]abies from mothers, who lived near uranium mining operation area, suffered a significant increase in congenital deformities,” according to the report. While 4.49 percent of mothers living in the study villages reported bearing children with congenital deformities, only 2.49 percent of mothers in reference villages fell under this category." The national rate for people with disabilities (including congenital deformities) is 3 percent, according to official government statistics.
* Deformed babies near the mining operations are almost 6 times more likely to die, with 9.25 percent mothers in the study villages reporting congenital deformities as the cause of death of their children. In the reference village, mothers reported 1.70 percent of babies died of deformities.
* Cancer deaths were also higher: 2.87 percent of households in study villages attributed the cause of death to be cancer, compared to 1.89 percent in the reference village.
These factors contributed to a lowered life expectancy. In the study villages 68.33 percent of the population died before reaching the state's average life expectancy: 62 years old.
UCIL Denies Contamination
Despite such alarming reports, radiation data are not made public because they fall under the purview of the Atomic Energy Act of 1962. UCIL / DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) also cites security concerns for refusing to release data on health of the workers. But Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda, a 1999 award-winning film by Shri Prakash documented that, despite a law mandating regular monitoring, in the last five- to ten-year period few workers underwent blood and urine tests to assess the impact of radiation.
Independent scientists have confirmed the danger. Professor Hiroaki Koide, from the Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University, Japan, sampled soil and air in the surrounding villages and documented that “The circumference of tailing ponds is impacted with uranium radiation. The strength of the radiation is of 10 to 100 times high in comparison to places without contamination. ...There are places where uranium concentration is high in the road or the riverside, and it is thought that tailings are used for construction material,” including on villagers' houses." Tailings are production waste material that, according to critics are unsafely stored, dumped, and used for landfills, roads and construction.
UCIL Technical Director D Acharya denied that the company was responsible for radiological contamination. “UCIL’s safety and pollution control measures are at par with the international standards, comparable at any point of time,” he said. The company is dealing with naturally occurring materials, he noted, the very low grade ore extracted is a minimal environmental hazard, and the company is not enriching the ore in Jadugoda.
But tacitly acknowledging the risks, UCIL head, Gupta, noted in the 2008 Annual Report that "External gamma radiation, Radon concentration, suspended particulate matters, airborne long lived Alpha activity and concentration of radio nuclides- uranium and Radium in surface and ground water, in soil and food items etc are monitored regularly."
Although he presented no evidence, UCIL Technical Director Acharya said that allegations of health problems are canards spread by anti-uranium lobbies, and that the physical fitness of the employees can be gauged the UCIL football team's success in winning the DAE tournaments for the past five years.
“From time to time we have also conducted structured health surveys and examinations, by independent sources," said Acharya. "One was done by the erstwhile Bihar Assembly, about ten years ago, but the findings are absolutely normal.” (The area was part of Bihar at the time.) "The effects of radiation are being constantly monitored by independent watchdogs, and there are health physics experts who are always with us, for round-the clock-vigil of the situation. Hence, there is really no cause of concern,” he added.
That is not the experience of many villagers, who link serious health problems to the mines. Like many of the women in the surrounding areas, Hansda's pregnancies were a time of terror. “It fills within us fear and apprehensions of the possible ordeal that may be in store. Who knows what would be the fate of the baby,” she said.
http://www.caswellmessenger.com/articles/2009/10/13/opinion/opinion02.txt
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15450
http://www.sacw.net/article904.html
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The Jadugoda sample of disregard (Uranium Mining)
Comment: We are fighting against uranium mining all over the world! No to uranium mining!
By Patricia Mukhim
THE uranium mining venture in Meghalaya is set to be a stormy one even as groups for and against mining of the strategic ore take intransigent positions on the issue.
It appears that land compensation is still due to many whose lands are with the Ucil today.
Reports of leakage of effluents from the mines into the surrounding areas have not been addressed by the Ucil. Although the journalists have come across people suffering from various diseases in and around Jadugoda, it was difficult for them to establish whether those were in any way related to release of radon gas into the atmosphere and people ingesting high levels of radiation. What is an indicator, however, is that there were many who were suffering from cancer in that area.
The newspapers in Meghalaya have predictably gone to town on the issue. Of the journalists who visited Jadugoda, one represented an English daily and two were from the vernacular press, including the electronic media.
To talk of objective reporting at this juncture seems rather absurd. Should the media practitioners listen to the stories of the suffering tribals and the horrible narratives of their four-decade-old struggle against one of the biggest corporations of the government of India or should they write about what the Ucil has achieved in terms of generating nuclear energy for this country from mines in Jadugoda? Obviously journalists love a good story even if it is of suffering and damnation.
The narratives were accompanied by incriminating photographs showing children and adults with freak abnormalities. This was done to substantiate the veracity of their stories. These reports have wide readership across the state so people are today better informed about the horrendous impacts of uranium mining and in a better position to make an informed choice. Those with access to the Internet have been reading up accounts of uranium mining disasters from the developed countries of the world.
And the conclusion generally is that India is nowhere near that league in so far as world safety standards are concerned. The Ucil’s activities in Jadugoda show no concrete evidence that it engages in state of the art mining.
I received a letter from a concerned reader after the last write-up on uranium mining in these columns. The letter, evidently written by a scientist, says the nuclear industry, as a whole, comes down to the field of activity in the shape of Nuclear Fuel Cycle, which starts with mining.
The milling or extraction of uranium is, usually, conducted in the vicinity of a mining region which, in the end, also becomes the last resort of the milling waste. This waste, inevitably, contains a considerable amount of radioactive isotopes which are generally treated as very short-lived and are allowed to remain in heaps without any proper protection, owing to which the waste is dispersed by high velocity winds and rainfall.
Meanwhile, the Ucil has sent disclaimers to the newspapers about their reports on Jadugoda. The corporation claims to be an ISO:9001 listed company with impeccable operating procedures. This is expected. The Ucil, which is now ready to release Rs 209 crore out of the Rs 1,000 crore pre-project development package for the uranium rich areas in the West Khasi Hills, cannot be seen to be on the back foot.
It would have to defend the indefensible as long as it can get the green signal to mine uranium from this part of the world. The tribes, whether in India, the USA or Africa, face this existential dilemma that precious ores are located in their territories and yet they are also the poorest on the face of the earth and suffer the consequences of irresponsible mining procedures. Everything is ultimately exploited by extractive companies who pay a pittance to mitigate the ill-effects of such ruthless exploitation of mineral wealth.
A single isotopic-atom is sufficient to cause carcinomic, teratogenic and mutagenic change, if provided with opportunity to make its headway into the food-chain. As far as Meghalaya is concerned, out of 9.22 million tons of ore, the amount of uranium is 9,500 tons and the amount of milling waste is settled to be 9.125 million tons till the complete exhaustion of the deposit. So in opening the uranium mines in Meghalaya, what may happen to the people there is a mirror image of Jadugoda in Jharkhand. Knowledgeable sources say the disaster does not end here. The milling waste is not as undefiled as is claimed by the proponents of nuclear power.
The plight of uranium ore miners is more appalling. When a miner starts his life in an underground compartment congested with radon gas, he cannot comprehend immediately what is going to happen to him in future. The Ucil’s arguments to the contrary, therefore, ring woefully hollow. In fact, there is no known method in any part of the world to tackle the hazards arising from uranium mining.
For the people of Meghalaya, the conundrum today is that an elected government, which is supposed to represent the best interests of the people, is now in no mood to accommodate any views against uranium mining. But has this not been the sordid history of democracy? The moment MPs and MLAs are elected, they begin to represent their own business interests and that of the bourgeoisie, at the cost of the socio-economic and political interests of their constituents. Representative democracy is therefore a major challenge. The elected, whether they come from backward tribal communities or the forward classes, represent the ruling elite. This ruling class tries its best to jettison democracy by pushing across its own agenda. The argument has always been that the rulers know best what is good for the people.
Of course, it is easier to rule over dumb cattle than over an opinionated population. But that is the beauty of democracy. And it is good that dissenting voices against uranium represent that facet of democracy that needs to be kept alive. Javeed Alam in his book, Who Wants Democracy? writes, “Democracy in India does not depend on a notion of a ‘disengaged person’. Democracy in India has been transcribed by particularities assuming voice and being allowed to make claims.” Alam says that in India, all that modernity represents is to be won through a battle of persuasion in an open democratic contest and not, as Foucault terms, “a fatal combat”.
The rapidity at which decisions regarding uranium mining are taken by the government of Meghalaya shows that it wants to adopt the “fatal combat” mode. Voices of reason on uranium mining are sought to be delegitimised. So what form of democracy is DD Lapang practising here? Is this the democracy that the UPA propounds? Is silencing dissent the only way forward? Don’t communities have the right to decide their own fates and futures? Should it be uranium mining at the cost of the health and survival of the Khasi people?
The writer is editor, The Shillong Times, and can be contacted at
patricia17@rediffmail.com
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=14&id=302941&usrsess=1
By Patricia Mukhim
THE uranium mining venture in Meghalaya is set to be a stormy one even as groups for and against mining of the strategic ore take intransigent positions on the issue.
It appears that land compensation is still due to many whose lands are with the Ucil today.
Reports of leakage of effluents from the mines into the surrounding areas have not been addressed by the Ucil. Although the journalists have come across people suffering from various diseases in and around Jadugoda, it was difficult for them to establish whether those were in any way related to release of radon gas into the atmosphere and people ingesting high levels of radiation. What is an indicator, however, is that there were many who were suffering from cancer in that area.
The newspapers in Meghalaya have predictably gone to town on the issue. Of the journalists who visited Jadugoda, one represented an English daily and two were from the vernacular press, including the electronic media.
To talk of objective reporting at this juncture seems rather absurd. Should the media practitioners listen to the stories of the suffering tribals and the horrible narratives of their four-decade-old struggle against one of the biggest corporations of the government of India or should they write about what the Ucil has achieved in terms of generating nuclear energy for this country from mines in Jadugoda? Obviously journalists love a good story even if it is of suffering and damnation.
The narratives were accompanied by incriminating photographs showing children and adults with freak abnormalities. This was done to substantiate the veracity of their stories. These reports have wide readership across the state so people are today better informed about the horrendous impacts of uranium mining and in a better position to make an informed choice. Those with access to the Internet have been reading up accounts of uranium mining disasters from the developed countries of the world.
And the conclusion generally is that India is nowhere near that league in so far as world safety standards are concerned. The Ucil’s activities in Jadugoda show no concrete evidence that it engages in state of the art mining.
I received a letter from a concerned reader after the last write-up on uranium mining in these columns. The letter, evidently written by a scientist, says the nuclear industry, as a whole, comes down to the field of activity in the shape of Nuclear Fuel Cycle, which starts with mining.
The milling or extraction of uranium is, usually, conducted in the vicinity of a mining region which, in the end, also becomes the last resort of the milling waste. This waste, inevitably, contains a considerable amount of radioactive isotopes which are generally treated as very short-lived and are allowed to remain in heaps without any proper protection, owing to which the waste is dispersed by high velocity winds and rainfall.
Meanwhile, the Ucil has sent disclaimers to the newspapers about their reports on Jadugoda. The corporation claims to be an ISO:9001 listed company with impeccable operating procedures. This is expected. The Ucil, which is now ready to release Rs 209 crore out of the Rs 1,000 crore pre-project development package for the uranium rich areas in the West Khasi Hills, cannot be seen to be on the back foot.
It would have to defend the indefensible as long as it can get the green signal to mine uranium from this part of the world. The tribes, whether in India, the USA or Africa, face this existential dilemma that precious ores are located in their territories and yet they are also the poorest on the face of the earth and suffer the consequences of irresponsible mining procedures. Everything is ultimately exploited by extractive companies who pay a pittance to mitigate the ill-effects of such ruthless exploitation of mineral wealth.
A single isotopic-atom is sufficient to cause carcinomic, teratogenic and mutagenic change, if provided with opportunity to make its headway into the food-chain. As far as Meghalaya is concerned, out of 9.22 million tons of ore, the amount of uranium is 9,500 tons and the amount of milling waste is settled to be 9.125 million tons till the complete exhaustion of the deposit. So in opening the uranium mines in Meghalaya, what may happen to the people there is a mirror image of Jadugoda in Jharkhand. Knowledgeable sources say the disaster does not end here. The milling waste is not as undefiled as is claimed by the proponents of nuclear power.
The plight of uranium ore miners is more appalling. When a miner starts his life in an underground compartment congested with radon gas, he cannot comprehend immediately what is going to happen to him in future. The Ucil’s arguments to the contrary, therefore, ring woefully hollow. In fact, there is no known method in any part of the world to tackle the hazards arising from uranium mining.
For the people of Meghalaya, the conundrum today is that an elected government, which is supposed to represent the best interests of the people, is now in no mood to accommodate any views against uranium mining. But has this not been the sordid history of democracy? The moment MPs and MLAs are elected, they begin to represent their own business interests and that of the bourgeoisie, at the cost of the socio-economic and political interests of their constituents. Representative democracy is therefore a major challenge. The elected, whether they come from backward tribal communities or the forward classes, represent the ruling elite. This ruling class tries its best to jettison democracy by pushing across its own agenda. The argument has always been that the rulers know best what is good for the people.
Of course, it is easier to rule over dumb cattle than over an opinionated population. But that is the beauty of democracy. And it is good that dissenting voices against uranium represent that facet of democracy that needs to be kept alive. Javeed Alam in his book, Who Wants Democracy? writes, “Democracy in India does not depend on a notion of a ‘disengaged person’. Democracy in India has been transcribed by particularities assuming voice and being allowed to make claims.” Alam says that in India, all that modernity represents is to be won through a battle of persuasion in an open democratic contest and not, as Foucault terms, “a fatal combat”.
The rapidity at which decisions regarding uranium mining are taken by the government of Meghalaya shows that it wants to adopt the “fatal combat” mode. Voices of reason on uranium mining are sought to be delegitimised. So what form of democracy is DD Lapang practising here? Is this the democracy that the UPA propounds? Is silencing dissent the only way forward? Don’t communities have the right to decide their own fates and futures? Should it be uranium mining at the cost of the health and survival of the Khasi people?
The writer is editor, The Shillong Times, and can be contacted at
patricia17@rediffmail.com
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=14&id=302941&usrsess=1
Saturday, May 9, 2009
India: Breathing, Eating and Drinking Radiation in Jadugoda
This documentary uncovers the health effects of radiation exposure on the people who live in the viscinity to the uranium mining town of Jadugoda
This short documentary by Shriprakash is based on a study conducted by the Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD Patna chapter) in and around villages of Jadugoda uranium mine with help of JOAR (www.jadugoda.net). IDPD is Indian chapter of Germany / US based International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW - A Noble Peace prize winning organization).
http://www.sacw.net/article904.html
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