Uranium: The Deadliest Metal by Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of CCNR This article appeared in Perception magazine, v. 10 n. 2, 1992 Bombs and Radioactive Waste Dying for a Living Radioactive Daughters Irrefutable Evidence Radioactive Homes A...
Navajo Group to Take Uranium Mine Challenge to Human Rights Commission
Eric Jantz, the attorney in the case, says he is hopeful. His clients and the U.N. both recognize the right to clean, potable, water as a human right. His clients cannot take their claim to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights because the U.S. does not recognize its jurisdiction. Nonetheless, according to the petition and all logic and humanity, "the State has violated Petitioners' human rights and breached its obligations under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man." Let there be justice.
NYTimes l APRIL REESE 12 May, 2011
In a last attempt to deep-six a controversial project to mine uranium near two Navajo communities in northwestern New Mexico, a Navajo environmental group is taking its fight to the global stage.
Tomorrow, Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, with the help of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, will submit a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights arguing that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision to grant Hydro Resources Inc., a license to mine uranium ore near Churchrock and Crown Point, N.M., is a violation of international laws.
The groups contend the mines, first permitted by NRC in 1999, could contaminate drinking water for 15,000 Navajo residents in and around the two communities, which lie just outside the Navajo Nation. In 2005, the Navajo's tribal government passed a law prohibiting uranium mining within its borders.
Read full text
NYTimes l APRIL REESE 12 May, 2011
In a last attempt to deep-six a controversial project to mine uranium near two Navajo communities in northwestern New Mexico, a Navajo environmental group is taking its fight to the global stage.
Tomorrow, Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, with the help of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, will submit a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights arguing that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision to grant Hydro Resources Inc., a license to mine uranium ore near Churchrock and Crown Point, N.M., is a violation of international laws.
The groups contend the mines, first permitted by NRC in 1999, could contaminate drinking water for 15,000 Navajo residents in and around the two communities, which lie just outside the Navajo Nation. In 2005, the Navajo's tribal government passed a law prohibiting uranium mining within its borders.
Read full text
As U.S. Moves Ahead with Nuclear Power, No Solution for Radioactive Waste
Excellent article on the nuclear dilemma worrying everyone except, it seems, the US government and the NRC who have issued another Waste Confidence Rule.
Essentially they are, once again, saying they have no idea what to do about the waste problem, but they are confident that someday they will. See the detailed challenge to the new Waste Confidence rule by the NRDC here. A challenge was also filed by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Riverkeeper, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
In addition the article highlights the issue of the enormous release of chlorofluorocarbons annually produced by the enrichment of uranium:
According to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), which runs the only U.S.-owned uranium enrichment facility in Paducah, Kentucky, the enrichment cycle releases 300,000 pounds, or 150 tons, of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere yearly.
The radiative properties of CFCs make them a dangerous global warming agent — 1,500 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to EPA figures. Ozone-depleting CFCs have been banned in the U.S. except in the processing of uranium ore.
And the dependence of reactors, and enrichment, on coal:
Further, the Paducah plant enriches the yellowcake, a lightly processed form of uranium ore, to produce uranium oxide and make nuclear fission from two 1,500-megawatt, 30-year-old coal plants, which release CO2 and other environmental pollutants.
All the while the industry still maintains that nuclear power is the clean energy solution.
http://www.nuclearfreeplanet.org/categories/nuclear-power/uranium.html
Essentially they are, once again, saying they have no idea what to do about the waste problem, but they are confident that someday they will. See the detailed challenge to the new Waste Confidence rule by the NRDC here. A challenge was also filed by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Riverkeeper, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
In addition the article highlights the issue of the enormous release of chlorofluorocarbons annually produced by the enrichment of uranium:
According to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), which runs the only U.S.-owned uranium enrichment facility in Paducah, Kentucky, the enrichment cycle releases 300,000 pounds, or 150 tons, of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere yearly.
The radiative properties of CFCs make them a dangerous global warming agent — 1,500 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to EPA figures. Ozone-depleting CFCs have been banned in the U.S. except in the processing of uranium ore.
And the dependence of reactors, and enrichment, on coal:
Further, the Paducah plant enriches the yellowcake, a lightly processed form of uranium ore, to produce uranium oxide and make nuclear fission from two 1,500-megawatt, 30-year-old coal plants, which release CO2 and other environmental pollutants.
All the while the industry still maintains that nuclear power is the clean energy solution.
http://www.nuclearfreeplanet.org/categories/nuclear-power/uranium.html
