When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
Cree Prophecy
Suffolk City Council unanimously approved the city’s legislative agenda during its meeting on Wednesday.
Chief among the city’s concerns on the federal level is transportation funding, leaders said. Council also discussed various ways to fund road improvements during its meeting.
Finally, Suffolk wants the state to designate a portion of the Blackwater River as a component of the Virginia Scenic Rivers System. Council passed a resolution earlier in the year supporting the river’s inclusion in the program, which helps protect rivers and streams that possess scenic and historical significance.
In addition, the city will monitor statewide issues that especially affect the city, including stormwater regulations anduranium mining.
“We want to monitor any legislation that’s proposed pertaining to uranium mining, because it may have potential downstream impact to our water supply,” Hunt said.
By Eric Tlozek Posted Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:00pm AEDT
A group of Alice Springs doctors say they will leave the town if a uranium mine goes ahead in the area.
Uranium company Cameco (Canadian Mining Corp) is exploring a uranium deposit 25 kilometres south of Alice Springs.
"The prompt for writing the letter was borne out of concern, out of deep concern, for the implications of having a uranium mine here, especially in terms of the loss of workforce which could be one of the consequences of having a mine here in town," said one of the signatories, Dr Koen de Decker.
Dr.S.P.Udaykumar is an anti-nuclear activist from Tamil Nadu. He is the coordinator of National Alliance For Anti-Nuclear Movements(NAAM) which enjoys the support of organizations like Human Rights Forum (HRF), National Alliance For People’s Movement (NAPM) and Khasi Student’s Union (KSU).
Question (Vinayak): What is NAAM? What are the objectives of your organization?
Answer (Dr. S.P.Udaykumar): NAAM is a platform where all the organizations fighting for a nuclear free India come together. We try to eradicate the nuclear threats that could haunt our children and grandchildren and successive generations. We struggle not to sell India and Indians to foreigners in the name of deals, development, globalization and energy security.,
Question: What inspired you to join this movement? How did you become a part of it?
Answer: Three of my grandparents died of cancer, I have seen the ill-effects of uranium mining from my very own eyes, I do not want my children to die like this. For a matter of fact I myself do not want to die like this. That is the fire which drives me to fight tirelessly. This is inhumane and I don’t want anybody to witness such a death or even worse live in such an environment which paves way for a slow and painful end to human life.
Question: What has been the government’s response to your protests?
Answer: The government has been evasive. It has never paid much heed to our demands. The shameful thing is that the government is exploiting its own people’s illiteracy to serve its monetary interests all in the name of energy security, paying no attention to the health security of itss citizens. It is sad and it hurts.
Question: Everyone is brooding about how great a solution nuke actually is, why do you differ?
Answer: Do you know the waste produced emits radioactive waves which fail to die even after 24,000 years of their onset. They continue to harm us and can have far reaching consequences resulting in cancer and diseases which can become congenital thereby not just harming you as an individual but also generations which you are going to bring in this world. What is the use of such a solution which is not safe?
Question: What do you suggest then if not nuke, what are the options available to us to meet our growing energy needs?
Answer: Renewable and Green technology is capable enough to satisfy human needs and as Gandhi ji said” Nothing can satisfy a man’ greed” be it nuke, thermal, anything. Solar energy has great potential in India. It can cater the needs of the entire country including the northern sates like Punjab, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and states of north east India. Wind mills can be installed in states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and other places where wind flows at a speed greater than 15km/hr. Tidal and hydro power have got great potential too, options are infinite to be harnessed but only when the government is willing to do the same.
Comment: People of Virginia, demand our state to ban uranium mining and milling because we do not want to be the future SuperFund Site! No to uranium mining!
GRANTS - On Oct. 20 agencies from the state, nation and tribes focused on some of what was left behind because of little regulation - abandoned mines and issues involving the environment, people's health and water.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency is the primary agency that is organizing the effort to gather legacy information in the Grants Mineral Belt from a variety of sources, including the public. A listening session, a first of many more to come, according to EPA Superfund Division Project Manager John Meyer of Dallas, Texas, was held at the Cibola County Complex on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
Nearly 30 state, federal and tribal agencies are joining the EPA to assess the legacy - the damage, what should be done, who's paying for what, and other concerns.
Head had many specific questions in regard to the legacy. “Why is it that migratory birds do not land in the clean-up ponds at the Homestake site?” Head asked in which no specific answer was given.
Components of the five-year plan are: assess and remediation of contaminated residential structures; water contamination sources assessment; assessment and remediation of abandoned area mines (130, according to the EPA) in the area; assessment and long term management of mills; and assess impact to human health and the environment.
A five-year plan is scheduled to be released in the spring of 2010, according to the EPA.
Bill Brancard of the state Mining and Minerals Division was also at the meeting. “In regard to the legacy,” Brancard said, “there are 259 uranium mines in the state, 95 percent of them are within the Grants Mineral Belt.
Some have been reclaimed, some not. There are 130 mines that we have no record of reclamation.” The Grants Mineral Belt is described by the EPA as being from Prewitt on the west to Tohajillee on the east and from the Cibola/McKinley County line to the southern border of Acoma Pueblo.
A representative of the BLM announced at the meeting that the agency has $400,000 for assessment and can possible invest $3 million the following year to actually help cleanup.
Kelly Gallagher from the state Department of Health informed attendees that a recent study done by her department indicated that there are several spots in the state that have a high level of uranium in their water and it is affecting person's kidneys. However, only 1,000 people were tested and no one within the Grants Mineral Belt. (See next week's Beacon for more information on this study.)
Head asked if another study can be done specifically in Cibola County and asked if the EPA could pay for it? The question raised a discussion between agencies as to how the study can be paid for.
"Every agency has its own purpose and they do not work together. So, to see them, the EPA, the health department, BLM, NMED, tribal representatives, the Mining and Minerals Division, and so on… all here, to find solutions to the uranium mining legacy issue, it is great.”
Brancard noted during his speech that local legislators Ken Martinez, David Ulibarri and Linda Lovejoy need to be recognized for raising the importance of the legacy issue. “They are the leaders that are working behind the scenes saying that something needs to be done,” he said.
A date for the next public meeting has not yet been scheduled.
Posted By Green Prophet On October 23, 2009 @ 12:44 pm
The news that Jordan “strikes it rich” by recent discoveries of high-grade uranium ore only five feet below the surface may come as a mixed blessing for this energy strapped country of 6 million inhabitants.
In a recent article by the Jerusalem Post [1], the amount of uranium deposits said to be available for mining, and of course its easy proximity for open pit mining operations [2], may wind up being a environmental nightmare for a country that already has a severe water shortage problem and a very delicate ecological balance in regards to its plant and animal life; as has often been noted by representatives of Jordan [3]Environmental Society established back in 1948 to preserve Jordan’s unique desert and mountain environment.
Jordan has entered into agreements with the French energy giant AREVA [4], which specializes in nuclear energy plants in Europe and other parts of the world, including Asia.
The Kingdom has also made agreements with Canada [5], the USA and France for the peaceful development of nuclear energy.
Votes and half-truths The News & Record / October 22, 2009 Dear Viewpoint:
The Richmond Times-Dispatch published a letter last month entitled “Mined Uranium Is Harmless Mineral” written by William Schmidt, a long-time power company employee. We at SCC have found that Schmidt’s half truths and distortions are typical of many paid nuclear power proponents. Schmidt spoke about weeks of exposure, a U.N. study showing no increased risk of lung cancer in uranium miners, and alpha radiation being harmless. Here is what he didn’t tell us:
Alpha radiation lasts forever (millions of years) and it accumulates in the body.
“Uranium in groundwater leads to health hazards.”
“Normal functioning of kidney, brain, liver, heart and other systems can be affected by uranium exposure, because, in addition to being weakly radioactive, uranium is a toxic metal. Uranium is also a reproductive toxicant.”
“...absorbed uranium tends to bioaccumulate and stay for many years in bone tissue...”
“Alpha radiation is not dangerous to life unless it is inhaled or ingested - it is the most destructive form of ionizing radiation - and can cause any or all of the symptoms of radiation poisoning.”
“It is estimated that chromosome damage from alpha particles is 100 times greater than that caused by equivalent amounts of other radiation.”
“Not only do alphas themselves cause damage, but approximately equal ionization is caused by the recoiling nucleus after alpha emission, and this energy may in turn be especially damaging to genetic material.”
“Miners who worked in uranium filled mines have a very high incidence of cancer relative to the rest of the United States population. Through the Navajo workers and families noticed this in the 1950s, bureaucrats dragged their feet and companies ignored their warnings.”
SO MUCH FOR MINED URANIUM BEING A HARMLESS MINERAL!
(Quotes are from Wickipedia’s research of available worldwide information. Also note that our govt. won’t release much health information related to uranium for liability reasons.)
Let me repeat the above revelation concerning alpha radiation: Alpha radiation is dangerous to life when it is inhaled or ingested!
Well, Duh! Guess what Uranium mining does? It blasts and crushes solid bedrock into a fine powdery state, which creates the following problems:
1. How can the dust be confined to the site during the 40 year mining period?
2. How can a mountain of toxic, radioactive, powdery waste 200 ft. by 400 ft. wide and 14.2 miles long be kept out of our streams?
3. How can millions of cubic feet of deadly radon gas be confined to the site?
The answer to each of these questions is the same: it cannot be done.
It is also important to remember that aside from being radio-active in all its configurations, uranium is a toxic heavy metal which has proven to poison and genetically alter humans and animals.
Imagine the devastation to the farming community. Who would buy crops from tainted fields? Who would buy meat products raised on tainted fields or tainted waters? Imagine the blow to tourism.
Now guess who would be the first candidate for a high level (and low) uranium waste repository (dump)?
ABOUT THE ELECTION
Our Governor has the power to veto any legislation passed by the General Assembly; and that makes this year’s election so very important. Creigh Deeds is a past member of SCC who has studied the uranium mining issue in depth and has vowed to oppose any uranium mining legislation that threatens the health, safety and welfare of the people.
Sincerely, Jack Dunavant, P.E., Chairman Southside Concerned Citizens, Inc.
Read whole letter click below: http://www.thenewsrecord.com/index.php/opinion/article/votes_and_half-truths
Danny Marshall, incumbent, (R) 14th District Delegate Candidate: "Safety of our citizens is the most important issue. Citizens who live near and down stream, the farmers, Chatham Hall, Hargrave, the companies we are trying to locate here. As to mining uranium, is it in their best interest? Safety is the number one issue."
Seward Anderson (D) 14th District Delegate Candidate: "If there is any possibility that the mining and milling of uranium is going to harm the health, property, or proserity of southern Virginia, we are going to have to recognize that and keep the moritorium in place. I believe it's going to be hard to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt, that this is safe."
Read all comments at: http://www.wset.com/news/stories/1009/671087.html
Comment: No to Nuke Power and Uranium Mining anywhere in the world!
Editorial Posted On Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The contention that nuclear power is indispensable to meet future energy needs is false; for energy demand, and "need", is obviously a function of the development paradigm chosen and pursued -Bobby Ramakant
There is a growing civil society movement against the new uranium mining and nuclear power plants in India. The National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements (NAAM) is mobilizing citizens to protest against the reported decision of the government of India to take a quantum leap in installed capacity for nuclear power generation, from the current level of 4, 120 MW to 63,000 MW by 2032. "This decision is but an invitation to disaster" says activists.
"Nuclear power, contrary to orchestrated hypes, is actually costlier than power from conventional sources like coal, gas and hydro. And once all the hidden costs are factored in, it would be costlier than even from renewable sources, like wind, in particular" says the NAAM petition that is swelling with citizens signing and endorsing the petition addressed to Ms Pratibha Patil, President of India; Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India and Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment and Forests, Govt of India.
"More importantly, it is also intrinsically hazardous, as large amount of radiation is routinely released at every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle.
An even more intractable problem is that of safe storage of nuclear waste and safe disposal of outlived power plants, given the fact that the half-lives of some of the radioactive substances involved are over even millions of years" further reads the petition.
"Even more disconcerting is, considering the complexity of the technology of a nuclear reactor; there is no way to ensure that a major accident at a nuclear power plant will never take place. And a major accident, given the nature of things, will just turn catastrophic affecting a very large number of people, over a large territory, over a very long period. The disastrous accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in the Ukraine province of the then USSR, on April 26 1986 is a chilling illustration."
"The promise of nil greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is also nothing more than a myth if the entire fuel cycle - including mining, milling, transportation and construction of the power plant - is considered. Moreover, nuclear energy with its highly centralized power production model would only further aggravate the problem by accentuating the current development paradigm reliant on mega-industries and actively blocking any possibility towards ecologically benign decentralized development. The strong linkage between nuclear power and weapons - in terms of large overlaps in technology, in turn triggering strong political push - of which India itself is a graphic illustration can also be overlooked only at our own peril given the genocidal, and suicidal, character of the nuclear weapon" reads the signature petition of NAAM.
The NAAM petition further adds: As nuclear power is economically unattractive and socially unacceptable, on account of radiation hazards and risks of catastrophic accidents, no order for new nuclear reactors was placed in the USA and most of West Europe during the last 30 years, since the Three Mile Island accident in the US in 1979.
US and European companies in nuclear power plant equipment and nuclear fuel business are thus looking to Asia for markets - India, China and Japan spearheading the current expansion programme. It is unfortunate that the Indian government is becoming their willing collaborator in this in pursuit of its megalomaniac hunt for nuclear power and weapon. It has thus, over a period of just one year, rushed to enter into agreements with as many as seven countries, viz the US, France, Russia, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Mongolia and Argentina.
Nuclear power production capacity in India is very small, only about 3 per cent of the total electricity generation capacity; and the veil of secrecy surrounding the existing nuclear power plants in the country, and absence of any truly independent monitoring agency, has seriously hindered dissemination of information on accidents - large and small - at these plants and their public scrutiny. That explains the current low level of popular awareness as regards the grave threats posed by the nuclear industry.
Taking advantage of this, the government of India is now set to steamroll its massive expansion program. The contention that nuclear power is indispensable to meet future energy needs is false; for energy demand, and "need", is obviously a function of the development paradigm chosen and pursued. And "energy security" is not an autonomous entity or objective, but must be in alignment with other chosen objectives which must include equitable growth and concerns for ecology. Viewed thus, "energy security" may be achieved by: (I) Increasing efficiency of electricity generation, transmission and distribution. (II) Doing away with extravagant and wasteful use of energy. (III) Pursuing a path of low-energy intensity and decentralised development. (IV) Making optimum use of alternative energy options. (IV) Radically raising investment in development of sustainable and renewable energy sources and technologies, especially wind and solar energy.
As a part of its expansion program, the government of India has announced plans to expand the nuclear power plant coming up at Koodankulam (Tamil Nadu). Additional four reactors from Russia of 1,200 MWe each, in the immediate or near future, are to come up over and above the two of 950 MWe each, presently under construction. The process for setting up a nuclear plant at Jaitapur (Ratnagiri district, Maharashtra) has also reached an advanced stage. The French company Areva is set to supply two new generation reactors of 1650 MWe each, to be followed by another two. Land acquisition notices have been served on the local people to acquire 981 hectare of land.
The government has reportedly already approved 15 new plants at eight sites. These sites are Kumharia in Haryana - meant for indigenous reactors; Kakrapar (indigenous reactors) and Chhayamithi Virdi (reactor from US) in Gujarat; Kovvada (reactor from US) in Andhra Pradesh; Haripur (reactor from Russia) in West Bengal; Koodankulam (reactor from Russia) in Tamil Nadu; and Jaitapur (reactor from France) in Maharashtra.
The mad rush for more and more power plants is matched by an accelerated drive for uranium mining in newer areas: Andhra and Meghalaya, in particular.
And this, despite the horrible experience of uranium mines in different parts of the world, as also in our own Jadugoda - where appalling conditions continue despite strong popular protests, spanning decades.
The signatories of this NAAM petition demand that the government of India put a complete stop to the construction of all new uranium mines and nuclear power plants, and radically jack up investments in renewable and environmentally sustainable sources of energy.
"What we say is we want long-term protection. We have been here for seven generations, and we want to stay. And we want this to be a safe place for the seven generations that come after us." – Teddy Nez
For Teddy Nez — a Vietnam veteran, OSHA-certified hazmat operative, traditional native healer, and resident of one of the most contaminated residential areas on the Navajo Nation — the first half of 2007 has been a wild ride.
“all a new territory for me,” Nez said, reflecting on the whirlwind of events that by May saw heavy machinery removing radium-contaminated dirt from his front yard while he and his family spent two weeks in a Gallup motel while crews tested his home for radioactive dust. “Getting into the nitty-gritty of all the uranium issues in the Eastern [Navajo] Agency has been an eye-opener.”
By the end of February, he was leading a group of family members and neighbors to Santa Fe to testify against a pro-uranium mining memorial, explaining what it was like to live with the constant threat of exposure to contaminants from two large-scale abandoned mines that sandwich the community on both sides of Red Water Pond Road in Coyote Canyon Chapter.
Field studies by the Church Rock Uranium Monitoring Project (CRUMP) in 2003 had revealed high levels of gamma radiation next to mine waste dumps and close to residences. Soil samples collected by Stanford University student Christine George working with CRUMP and the DiNEH Project in 2004 and 2005 showed uranium in soils near the Nez home and the homes of several of his neighbors nearly 20 times higher than normal. An unreclaimed and largely uncontrolled mine waste pile that towers 45 feet above the landscape is located less than 1,000 feet from Teddy Nez’s front door.
Then, during the first week of April, Navajo Nation EPA and USEPA officials came by to deliver some bad news: Further soil testing by contractors to United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) — the past operator of the nearby Northeast Church Rock Mine and now a subsidy of General Electric Company (GE) — last November revealed levels of radium-226 (a human carcinogen associated with bone cancer) along roads and near homes high enough to merit emergency cleanup. Within six weeks, the residents were told, a USEPA emergency response team would descend on the community to scrape up six to 12 inches of contaminated soil and replace it with clean dirt. Teddy Nez and his family, and three other families, would be temporarily moved to motels in Gallup while the contaminated dirt was removed.
In the weeks that followed, the livingroom of Nez’s home became a meeting hall for weekly updates for community members, for discussions with on-site federal and tribal officials planning and eventually conducting the soil removal, and as a haven for elected officials and dignitaries touring the area on days when strong spring winds were nudging 70 mph. On one day in June, the same livingroom was turned into a medical clinic, with three nurses from the University of New Mexico and a nephrologist from the University of Texas Houston Medical Center collecting blood and urine samples from residents participating in the DiNEH Project’s Kidney Health Study.
While information on the extent of contamination around the neighborhood had been communicated by CRUMP, DiNEH Project and SRIC staffs to residents on several occasions over the past three years, USEPA’s findings and announcement of the emergency cleanup turned the Red Water Pond Road area, and Teddy Nez in particular, into something of a poster child for the impacts of abandoned uranium mines. One of four segments of a Los Angeles Times series on uranium impacts in Navajo Country in November 2006 featured the “Church Rock Mine Area” as an example of the failure of the federal Superfund law to deal with the unique conditions of abandoned mines in Navajo communities. Since the soil removal began in early May, reporters from Al Jazeera International, the Gallup Independent, the Navajo Times, and the French television station Channel 24 visited the community, interviewing Nez and other residents about their reactions to the events unfolding around them.
San Francisco. Members of the Indian Affairs Committee of the New Mexico Legislature visited on July 10, greeted by community members, including children, holding signs calling for health studies and demanding “no new uranium mining.”
“I wouldn’t live here,” said one state senator from Albuquerque, observing the close promixity of one of the mine dumps to the Nez resident.
“What we say is we want long-term protection,” Teddy Nez repeats to each successive group of officials that passes through. “We have been here for seven generations, and we want to stay. And we want this to be a safe place for the seven generations that come after us.”
“The kids are now saying, ‘We didn’t know how this was affecting us,’” he said. “Now they have some information about it and they’ve been talking about it. It’s like education for them, like a government history test. And they can talk about the exposure to these contaminants.”
While USEPA remains in negotiation with UNC and GE to develop plans for cleanup of the Northeast Church Rock Mine site, concern remains among community members, scientists, and elected officials that the soil removal was just a first step in cleaning up the area.
Harry Allen, USEPA’s on-site coordinator for the soil removal, admitted in a meeting with the community in April that the agency may have to revisit the cleanup in the residential area, especially if cleanup of the adjacent site over the next two years re-contaminates land around the homes. He also acknowledged the CRUMP findings that uranium was still present in the soils at depths greater than 12 inches.
“It’s not been safe to live in these areas for a long time,” he told the Gallup Independent in May.
THE NAVAJO NATION — A URANIUM HISTORY
The uranium industry started in the 1940s and continued until the 1980s across the Navajo Nation.
In August 1949, the Bureau of Mines, the Colorado Department of Health, the U.S. Surgeon General, and the Indian Health Service came together in Colorado and agreed to retain 3,450 miners as a unique study group. When we initiated the Stewart Udall lawsuit back in the early 1970s, we dug up records of 779 Navajo miners that were included in those studies. The study was two-fold. The first one was to evaluate the effects of radiation on miners and how much damage it would cause. The second component was to develop guidelines for the industry for worker protection and the general public. The miners were never told about these studies.
Uranium workers weren’t warned. There are no words in Navajo for a lot of things you and I throw around -- alpha, beta, gamma. And then there is the issue of death and dying.
We have to keep in mind that for indigenous nations like the Navajo Nation, everything we do is tied back to our universe, our nature, and our environment. There has to be moderation and balance. There has to be a holistic approach, spiritual approach, and we have to understand it. There is a Navajo saying that you should not probe the earth with anything sharp. By the same token, as Navajo’s we should never intentionally probe Mother Earth as we call it, because in doing so there will be some major disruptions. Ore was mined, so it disrupted the balance between earth and sky, and it was disrespectful to the earth. And because of that illness it was created. There was a huge unbalance in our lives – a holistic healing concept was disrupted. How do we get back to this holistic approach? How do we get back in harmony with one another? You have to know what it is you’re fighting, and you back to go back to the Navajo concept: Give it a name.
New Mexico was one of the largest producers of uranium. Thirty-nine million dry tons of uranium oxide was mined -- the majority of it in the Grants Mineral Belt. Currently, the Navajo Nation has over 1,200 abandoned mines on the reservation. Radioactive waste has scattered down mountainsides. Mining in the Grants Mineral Belt started in 1950, mostly around Paguate (Laguna) and around areas in Churchrock (Navajo). In July 1979, millions of gallons of highly acidic and contaminated water, as well as radioactive waste, washed down the Rio Puerco (Churchrock Uranium Mill Tailings Spill), all the way, almost to the Grand Canyon. This is our sad legacy of mining. These mines dot the landscape, our lands and our sacred sites, the areas where people work, live and play. It’s in the deserts, such as in the Cameron area, to the beautiful mountains: Chuska Mountain, Razor Mountain, and Monument Valley. The list goes on and on. These are the things that we had to live with for many years.
A lot of mining companies want to get back on the reservation. In Colorado they are waiting for the next boom to start. There is actual ongoing mining happening outside the reservations. How are we going to handle it if this should ever happen again? We have mining corporations that are ready to come back to the Navajo Nation. We need to stand firm and educate our people.
The sad legacies of uranium mining are birth defects, cancers, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and the health and safety aspects. We have various types of lung cancer that, in my opinion, has not begun peak among miners. Science has developed in medicine, so there is a lot of hope.
I am head of a project in Diné College where we are naming cancer terminology. We have survivors if the cancer is detected well in advance, so we had to rename the concept. That is what we are doing, we are beginning to attack this monster. This is the Navajo concept of trying to get back to harmony. If we understand, and if we know how to address it, we can better educate not only the young ones, we can educate the medical people, the health educators, the technical people out there, the social workers, our teachers, our college students, and what have you.
In Navajo, we say that we need to know our enemy, we need to know this monster. We need to know how it grows in order to battle it. All of this was disrupted because of ignorance by the industry.
— Perry Charley is an educator and researcher at Diné College.
"I was also an underground mine surveyor for United Nuclear Corp. (UNC) from 1975 to 1982. I was employed at the UNC mine when the July 16, 1979 uranium spill happened which released millions of gallons of radioactive waste down the Rio Puerco, eventually going down into Arizona, and from what I understand it reached the little Colorado River. UNC when they flooded the mine and left the area. During the time I was working there, the water pumped out of the mine was being released down the arroyo to eventually meet up with the tailings ponds at the mill site, which released more water down the Rio Puerco. That stream ran for more than twenty years and encircles my grazing area. That same water ran through the city of Gallup and down to Arizona, past Holbrook and beyond. We had that stream running for 20 years. The mine told everybody that the water was bad for human consumption, but it is okay for livestock. Being Natives, we have several families along the Rio Puerco that have flocks of sheep and grazed cattle they use for food. So if it's okay for the livestock to drink, yet we still consume the meat off of our cattle, then people still consumed the contaminates."
— Larry King
"At the age of fifteen I moved to a place just east of Tuba City. I thought we were honored to live in a three-bedroom house for $50 a month. On weekends friends used to come out and visit me. By that time they closed the old mill down in that pit (Rare Metals Mine). We lived in the houses that used to house the employees, becuase housing was short in Tuba City. We would take the drum down to the old mine building. It had nice acoustics and we would sing with the drum down there in the night. We thought it was so cool, so fascinating to see the earth in the nighttime when it was glowing. It looked like it was breathing, never knowing what it was. As time went on, there was a scare saying we have to get out, it's contaminated. Later on we were told it's okay, it's just a scare. This went on back and forth. Then we saw the signs on the fence — they were radiation signs."
— Vanessa Brown Community Action For Children and Youth (CACY)
"Some of the problems with uranium open pits are standing water, which were used by the local people for swimming and also by livestock. Another problem is some open pits are used for trash dumping. Some of these areas are unstable and unsafe. Uranium mines have been used been used for livestock containment within the mine openings."
— Madelaine Roanhorse Navajo Abandoned Minelands Program
"Fifteen years have passed since the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was enacted. In 2003 we had a meeting in Shiprock because of the concerns brought up by the Navajo workers: Our claims are in Washington at Department of Justice and Department of Labor. We’re not getting compensated. This law is too stringent. We went to Washington, D.C. and confronted the Department of Justice and the Department of Labor: Why aren’t you paying the Navajo workers? The law is very stringent, to the point that they’re asking for original records, original birth certificates, and original marriage certificates. Many Navajos were born in the rural areas. A lot of them are saying, “Who was there when I was born in the hogan? was there to document this?” These are some of the things that we’re encountering."
— Phil Harrison
SRIC is a non-profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible. Thank you. Southwest Research and Information Center 105 Stanford SE,PO Box 4524 Albuquerque, NM 87196 505/262-1862 fax: 505/262-1864
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.
Comment: The Canadians are banning uranium mining but our local and Virginia leaders are allowing Candians down to Virginia and they will blowup our hillsides for uranium! Do what? No To Uranium Mining and milling now!
THE CANADIAN PRESS
HALIFAX, N.S. - A moratorium on the exploration and mining of uranium in Nova Scotia will be turned into law by the provincial government.
The ban has been in place since 1981, but was only in the form of a cabinet policy statement. He says a legislated moratorium will make it more difficult for future governments to rescind or change the law.
Comment: Yes, we all need to fight uranium mining in Virginia, Colorado and all over America and the world! Sign their petition! No to Nuke Power, No to Uranium mining!
October 14, 2009
The results are in. Every city and town around has passed resolution against Powertech Uranium Corporation. Many prominent special interest groups have as well.
The petition against Powertech (www.nunn glow.com) keeps growing. Nearly 20,000 strong.
Yet, Powertech continues to fly under the radar, boring 3,000 holes into the aquifer, and preparing to file permits to begin the mining process early next year. They lurk around in unmarked trucks (sometimes at night) and operate from buildings and offices that have no signs. They know they are not wanted.
The information regarding uranium mining (of any kind) and power plant waste storage is overwhelming. It can't be, never has been and never will be done safely. Get the facts for yourself, and then sign the petition. It needs to grow into the 100,000s before the permits are presented to Weld County and the state of Colorado. Only we can stop it.
Comment: A wee bit dated but history is repenting itself when it comes to uranium mining all over America! The uranium corporations will be foreign, mostly Canada and maybe France later! France is becoming a Nuke friend to Virginia! France may be chasing uranium in Virginia! Demand our leaders to stop the uranium mining madness and support clean and green power!
By JOHN CORRY Published: November 15, 1983
''THE FOUR CORNERS: A NATIONAL SACRIFICE AREA?'' is not just another documentary, thank goodness, about the march of technology and its savage effect on the environment. The documentary, even though it comes down heavily on the side of the environmentalists, is more thoughtful than that.
The documentary was produced for public television by three film makers - Christopher McLeod, Glenn Switkes and Randy Hayes.
Whatever the controversy means - not much, one suspects - ''Four Corners'' raises an important question: whether the hidden costs of uranium mining, coal strip-mining and oil- shale projects on the Colorado Plateau outweigh the short-term gains.
The 90,000-square-mile Colorado Plateau, taking in parts of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, the so-called Four Corners area, is rich in coal, uranium and oil shale, all of which produce energy. It is also rich in a history of boom-or-bust economies, some of which have violated the land and its people.
Uranium mines and mills, for example, have left millions of tons of radioactive wastes scattered about the plateau. Although the documentary suggests that these wastes have led to an increase in birth defects, miscarriages and infant deaths. ''Something is going on,'' a doctor says in the documentary. ''There's a good possibility it's more serious than we thought it was.''
In response, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory has suggested that land in which uranium mining and milling is conducted be rezoned ''so as to forbid human habitation.'' Whatever the scientific or humanitarian impulses for the suggestion, it is clear that energy production is a high-stakes game.
Meanwhile, a National Academy of Science report found that coal strip- mining could permanently damage the plateau, resulting in ''national sacrifice areas'' for energy. A few years ago, the chairman of Exxon suggested that northwest Colorado, rich in oil shale, be declared ''a national energy zone,'' in which the usual environmental protection rules would not apply.
On the one hand, it's easy to deplore all this; on the other, we're still left with the question of how we can best meet our energy needs. The documentary doesn't really have the answer, but it at least asks the question.
''Four Corners'' includes an interview with a representative of Utah International, which wants to mine in Bryce Canyon National Park. He says people would spend more time looking at the ''fantastic panorama'' if they could also see a coal mine. He says ''it would add to the interest.''
The documentary is making us pay attention to a problem.
What is this ore called Uranium? Why is almost everyone keen to be the Agent of UCIL? Why is it that, even the educated, knowing its danger to life, try to fool the illiterate with deception? This shows their greed for power and money.
I never knew any thing about Physics but since my inception into social work I had to know about Uranium in lay man terms. Uranium is said to be the heaviest metal. To extract this material, sulphuric acid has to be used and from an approximate one tonne of this rock, only 2 pounds of uranium can be extracted. The rest is waste which in fact is 85% still radioactive.
Whenever uranium disintegrates, it turns into a material called Protactinium which is radioactive and this in turn, turns to Thorium (Emits Gamma Rays). Then Thorium turns into Radium which then turns to Radon gas which is also radioactive and produces the Radon Daughters which are also radioactive. These multiply and are decay products.
An early suspicion of the danger of radiation from Radon and its daughters came from Europe where Uranium and Radium were being mined. In one district where concentration of Radon daughters were very high and ventilation very poor about half of the deaths among the miners were from cancer. It was also assumed that the early miners in America had a similar exposure to Radon daughters. Studies by the US Public Health Service later indicated that the Radon daughters can be a health hazard, in the form of Lung Cancer.
In open pit mining, mines are dug and the water collected in the pits has to be let out into the hills and streams, and in the process, some of the sand that we use for construction of houses, contain Radon Gas too.
Slow intake of this Radon gas can cause cancer of the lungs, breast cancer, and Uranium can cause deformity in the human body besides causing
The half life of Thorium which is a gamma emitter is 80,000 years, and that of Radium, an alpha emitter is 1600 years. So the present radioactive elements will go on increasing and one can just imagine what an epidemic it would be with all the waste from tailing ponds that will multiply for thousands of years if the UCIL is allowed to go ahead with the proposed mining.
Cancer cases among Aboriginal people living near Australia’s biggest uranium mines is doubling, a study by the Federal Governments leading Indigenous Research body shows, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, of the 23rd November 2006. There have also been many Uranium Tailing disasters, in Australia, Canada and the United States, even though these countries are armed with the most “State of the Art” tailing dams.
According to the AFP news, a French physicist Bruno Chareyron of France’s CRIIRAD laboratory, which measures radioactivity in the environment, has joined representatives of indigenous peoples from Africa, Australia and the United States to send US lawmakers a stark warning about the dangers of uranium mining. He spoke in a conference in Washington DC in the month of Feb 2009 where he stated that that he wants the US lawmakers to understand that uranium mining is highly pollutant and that there is presently no scientific answer to the question of radioactive waste containment. He mentioned that the information given by mining companies is not entirely reliable.
It seems that the UCIL too, is bluffing the people. They, through their agents, the Government, publicize that they would like to develop the area at Kylleng Pyndensohiong Mawtahbah. When you have a look at the map where uranium is found in the country there are many indications of where Uranium is available. The pertinent question here is, why mine in the tribal areas of the North East?
To say that people from outside can not be effected is wrong as the toxic waste and gases carry hundreds of miles and also contaminate water bodies. .
One can not blame the people from the West who have become frustrated as there has truly been no development in their areas and the roads there are pathetic if there are any.
It is true and sad and we all learn through mistakes, but united we can fight all this without having to sell off our land to UCIL who will leave the area high and dry, when they have replenished their thirst for greed and we will be left with the toxic waste for thousands of years, that will cut short the life of our beloved children. Short term monetary gain will leave us with long-term deadly waste for generations to come. Agnes Kgarshiing
Comment: Why is Virginia chasing nuke power, you should have seen the bunch I saw today that is supposed to represent the people of VA. They are willing to blow up our hills for uranium mining for nuke plants! No to Nuke Power and No to Uranium Mining!
This is a documentary that had to be made! Twice Academy award nominee and five times AFI winner David Bradbury’s latest contribution, A Hard Rain, explores the ‘other side’ of the nuclear debate.
Governments and most mainstream media are promoting that nuclear is now an attractive alternative to fossil fuels .
Traversing five countries – China, France, UK, Japan and Australia, and using what Bradbury learnt from his previous three nuclear documentaries (Public Enemy Number One, Jabiluka and Blowin' in the Wind), A Hard Rain takes a closer look at the global nuclear industry in its entirety – from the mining of uranium through to the nuclear power plant to the radioactive waste and weapons manufacturing. It exposes the hidden agendas behind this latest push for Australia to go nuclear.
Included are interviews with some of the world's top scientists and environmentalists on the subject such as Dr Rosalie Bertell from Canada, Dr Chris Busby from the UK, and from Australia, Dr Mark Diesendorf (Ex CSIRO) from the Environmental Institute at the University of NSW, Prof. Ian Lowe, President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, and Dr Gavin Mudd from the Monash University Engineering Department.
By looking at the experience of countries overseas that have gone nuclear, A Hard Rain debunks some of the myths of the nuclear industry: that nuclear is safe, cheap, health and green with little chance of another Chernobyl happening.
If you want vital and factual information to debate the issue intelligently and overthrow the myths that the nuclear and pro uranium mining lobby has so successfully implanted in the media, in the government and the Labor Party, then this documentary is a must see.
Comments: Thanks for your service during WWII! However, uranium mining and nuclear power are not good things! Uranium mining cannot be compared to tobacco because it seems the people of this community will not have a chance to vote on uranium mining or a choice to stop uranium mining but people chooses to smoke! Please read the comments listed below because they inform us with the problems of uranium mining!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 8:55 AM EDT Letter to editor:
I have lived in the Sheva community all of my life except time in the Merchant Marines during World War II.
I would like to relate some of my experiences.
I was raised on a tobacco farm in the Mill Creek community.
My three sons operate the dairy on my home place.
I now live in the old Sheva Church of Christ building at Sheva.
Much of the land that is used by the dairy is within a three mile radius of Coles Hill where the deposit of uranium is located.
My family owns stock in Virginia Uranium. This gives us some voice in future developments.
We are now directly involved in the nuclear industry. We have members of our family that work at B&W, a nuclear facility in the Lynchburg area, and the energy used to operate the dairy comes from a nuclear power plant.
There is no place that I would rather live than in the Sheva community.
I have taken no position for or against the mining.
As I recently celebrated my 84th birthday I realize that I know less and less about more and more things.
I don't have answers to the many problems facing our community and nation. I will try to meet the challenges in a positive way.
If and when the uranium is mined, I would like to see the money used to replace the tobacco money.
The issue of growing tobacco has been an issue for most of my life. All of my family including myself have raised tobacco.
My parents and grandparents that I knew raised tobacco. They thought it was all right to grow but wrong to use it.
I have heard my parents pray for rain for the tobacco crop and also pray for the Lord to heal people suffering from the use of tobacco. I also heard similar prayers at church.
There are some questions that I would like to have answered.
What other sources of energy on the large scale provided by nuclear energy are available to us in the area?
How much damage would other sources do to the environment. I know solar energy and wind power are available but are they available to this area in the quantity now provided by nuclear energy.
There are contradictions in my own life. I used money from tobacco to develop the dairy. We have been producing Grade A milk at the homeplace since 1947.
What kind of an example are we setting for our young people?
I have never heard a person encourage their young people to use tobacco.
How do we want people to remember us?
Our record of how we used resources will follow us beyond the grave.
I have misused resources. I have asked the Lord to forgive me.
J. Fuller Motley Chatham
Comments:
HowMuch wrote on Oct 8, 2009 2:45 PM:
" Mr Motley and/or his sons are investors in the uranium mining and milling so they say. To what is he now confessing? That he is adding Uranium to his cows diet and milk? Tell us Fuller how much $ has your family "invested"? "
Yellowcake Anyone wrote on Oct 7, 2009 10:37 PM:
" Mr. Motley, Forgive me, sir, for I don't want to be disrespectful to an elder, but if you've invested in Virginia Uranium, I dare say, you've taken a position on uranium mining.
Like living in Sheva?
At 84, I know you may not be around by the time the blasting actually starts at Coles Hill, but if you are, you best pick a new spot to live. I seriously doubt you'd be able to tolerate living next to the North and South mines where miners will surface blast uranium all day, all week, all year, out of the ground with radioactive dust accompanying it, up into the atmosphere--over food crops, livestock, waterways, etc...
It won't be safe for you or your loved ones--no matter the drivel VUI has told you--to live nearby a uranium mine. In fact, the entire Sheva community, as beautiful as it is, will suffer as people began to move away to protect themselves.
We're told not to worry for the EPA and the NRC will monitor and regulate every aspect of the industry: uranium mines, tailings piles, mill, and even the future cleanup of the site. (Think Superfund.)
Do keep in mind the EPA & the DEQ monitor and regulate the coal industry. How well did these regulatory agencies protect the people and waterways around Kingston, Tenn., in Dec. of 2008, when toxic coal sludge breached its dam? Re: http://earthblips.dailyradar.com/story/dam_breach_in_tennessee_releases_tsunami_of_toxic_coal/
Considering the outcome, ask the Kingston, Tenn. folks if they had been really, really protected by the EPA and DEQ's oversight of the coal industry.
What do you mean, "I have asked the Lord to forgive me."? Does this mean, if you've hurt the environment and your fellow man by investing in a company that will destroy the very place you love, Sheva, will God forgive you?
I'd like to think God would. The Holy Bible says He forgives all evil-doers who seek His forgiveness.
Investing in a company that will displace families (your long-time neighbors) and pollute the air and water for at least 2000 school-age children in the area of Southside Virginia could be considered a sin.
You also mention how your family grew tobacco for income and felt conflicted when it made some folks sick.
The difference, here, sir, is that people won't have to actively light up a cigarette or chew a plug of tobacco to get sick. They simply have to inhale the air--whether this is a smoker's lungs or that of a tot on his tricycle--and wait for the radioactive sleeper cells to do their work. The question is, will it be a few years or a few decades before the sickness becomes apparent?
I like that you're concerned about the future, sir, but I don't think your children or their children will get the privilege of growing up and living out their days in the Sheva community as you have so far enjoyed, if uranium mining is ever allowed at Coles Hill. (God Bless your time away and contribution to WWII.)
In the scheme of things, time grows short for life as we now know it in Southside Virginia.
Comment: Thanks to TD for the song! Remember the song listed below: "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is a song written by Canadian musician Robbie Robertson, first recorded by The Band in 1969", sing the song by TD with the same tune!
Song: THE TIMES THEY PULVERIZED OLD DIXIE GROUND
DEATH & PAIN IS THE NAME, AND I REMEMBER THE DANVILLE TRAIN 'TIL SO MANY NUKES & MINERS CAME AND BLEW UP THE EARTH AGAIN. IN THE WINTER OF TWENTY FIVE, WE WERE GLOWING, JUST BARELY ALIVE. BY MAY A LOT OF VIRGINIA WILL BE DEAD; WE WONDER WHAT IN GOD’S NAME WAS IN OUR LEADERS HEADS...
THE NIGHT THEY PULVERRIZED OLD DIXIE GROUND AND NO RESIDENT WAS SINGING', THE NIGHT THEY PULVERRIZED OLD DIXIE GROUND AND ALL THE NUKES WERE SINGIN'! THEY WENT... RA$$$$, RA$$$$-RA$$$$
SURROUNDED BY A POISONED ENVIRONMENT, WHEN ONE DAY MY WIFE SAID TO ME, "DEAD MAN, QUICK, COME SEE: THERE ARE FOREIGN COMPANIES AND THERE GOES THE LAST MOUNTAIN & TREE!" NOW, I DON'T MIND CREATING FEW JOBS AND I DON'T CARE IF CITIZEN’S & TAXPAYER’S VOICES ARE NO GOOD. JUST DO TO THE ENVIRONMENT GENTLY AND LEAVE THE REST BUT YOU SHOULD NEVER DESTROY GOD’S BEST.
THE NIGHT THEY PULVERRIZED OLD DIXIE GROUND AND NO RESIDENT WAS SINGING', THE NIGHT THEY PULVERRIZED OLD DIXIE GROUND AND ALL THE NUKES WERE SINGIN'! THEY WENT... RA$$$$, RA$$$$-RA$$$$
LIKE MY FATHERS BEFORE US, WE LOVE THE LAND. AND, LIKE MY BROTHERS BEFORE ME, WE AGAINST EVEIL AND TYRANNY WE TOOK A STAND. WE WERE NOT PROUD BUT BRAVE, WHEN SHORT SIGHTEDNESS AND GREED LAID US ALL IN THE GRAVE. I SWEAR BY THE HEAVY METALS BELOW MY FEET, YOU CAN'T RAISE THE ENVIRONMENT BACK UP WHEN ITS TOTALLY DEPLETE.
THE NIGHT THEY PULVERRIZED OLD DIXIE GROUND AND NO RESIDENT WAS SINGING', THE NIGHT THEY PULVERRIZED OLD DIXIE GROUND AND ALL THE NUKES WERE SINGIN'! THEY WENT... RA$$$$, RA$$$$-RA$$$$
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
Mines are blamed for pollution as they sit unused.
That's why a group of activists in Rapid City is fighting uranium-mining proposals in South Dakota.
The Western Mining Action Network brings nearly 200 people from all over North America to Rapid City to network with other anti-mining activists.
"People from South Dakota who are here and are concerned about this particular project, they'll be able to talk to people in other in situ mining regions," said Doctor Paul Robinson and environmental scientists.
Right now, there are in situ mining projects in Wyoming, Texas and Nebraska.
By Published by The Editorial Board Published: October 2, 2009
To the editor:
Please read “How could mining study be unbiased?” (Sept. 30, page A8), if you haven’t already done so! The letter’s author is accurate about the bias of Virginia Tech.
“Where does your water come from?” That is what a University of Virginia physician asked us when my 3-month-old grandson went to the hospital there for rhabdomyosarcoma of the spine and pelvis last week.
Wake up, people. Is it worth the risk for a company to make money and poison your water? Save God’s green Earth. We are poisoning ourselves and our Earth with uranium mining.
I want my representatives to know I am opposed to uranium mining. Do people refuse to believe the health risks are real? Save the Earth; save your own lives. Explore wind and solar energy instead.
Nuclear Industry’s Latest LIES: SB 1138, STOP The Nuke Con Job! Call or Write the Governor Now!
Email the Governor: http://www.governor.virginia.gov
Mailing Address: Office of the Governor, Patrick Henry Building, 3rd Floor , 1111 East Broad Street , Richmond, Virginia 23219
Phone Numbers: Office: (804) 786-2211, Fax: (804) 371-6351
TTY/TDD (For the deaf or hard-of-hearing): 1-800-828-1120, or 711 :
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/CommunityRelations/
SB1138/HB1790 - Nuclear Energy Consortium bills headed to VA Governor Bob McDonnell -
We do not want more Nuclear Power in VA, nuke power is not green or clean, starts with uranium mining to nuke rods which last 4ever!
The General wording allows for a lack of transparency and public accountability, and that that may have been deliberately written into the bill to give VNECA unchecked powers, including the authority and power to promote and expand cradle to grave nuclear industries using taxpayer’s monies for grants.
SB 1138 Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority;
Introduced by: Jeffrey L. McWaters
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+sum+SB1138
SUBSCRIBE to VA Against Uranium Mining Blog Now ! Keep up with latest info delivered to your email!
“Visit the Keep The Ban Coalition website and sign the petition.”
