Human Rights

The entire nuclear fuel chain involves the release of radioactivity, contamination of the environment and damage to human health. Most often, communities of color, indigenous peoples or those of low-income are targeted to bear the brunt of these impacts, particularly the damaging health and environmental effects of uranium mining. The nuclear power industry inevitably violates human rights. While some of our human rights news can be found here, we also focus specifically on this area on out new platform, Beyond Nuclear International.

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Entries by admin (383)

Friday
Sep172021

Media release by Ian Zabarte, Secretary, Native Community Action Council, re: NRC's licensing of ISP's CISF in TX

Saturday
Sep112021

New Beyond Nuclear fact sheets opposing Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities

See Beyond Nuclear's new fact sheet series, here.

The intended audience for the fact sheets are Members of Congress and their staff, as well as other officials at all levels of government -- federal, state, county, local, and Indigenous. (Please feel free to use the fact sheets as hand outs in your meetings with officials, whether face-to-face and hardcopy, or Zooms and links to PDFs!) But the fact sheets can also serve as important educational tools for citizens and activists concerned about highly radioactive waste, the general public, as well as the news media.

The author of the fact sheets is Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste specialist, Kevin Kamps. Legal support for the fact sheets was provided by Diane Curran of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, L.L.P.

Beyond Nuclear would also like to thank numerous respected colleagues who provided peer review on these fact sheets. However, Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear remains responsible for any errors of commission or omission.

Monday
Jul192021

Winona LaDuke Among 7 Women Arrested Today at the Shell River; ENBRIDGE TO DRILL LINE 3 UNDER THE SHELL RIVER IN ANISHINAABE TREATY LANDS

Winona "No Nukes" LaDukeAs reported by Honor the Earth.

For a very long time now, Winona "No Nukes" LaDuke (pictured) has worked with Beyond Nuclear, NIRS, and others to block high-level radioactive waste dumps targeted at Native American reservations and treaty lands, such as Skull Valley Goshutes in Utah, Mescalero Apache in New Mexico, and Yucca Mountain on Western Shoshone land in Nevada. See the NIRS/Public Citizen backgrounder about the targeting of Native American communities and lands for high-level radioactive waste dumps.

This threat may well be rearing its ugly head again, as President Biden's Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, has recently spoken repeated about "financial incentives packages" to entire "Native American tribal governments" to consider "consent-based siting" for high-level radioactive waste consolidated "interim storage" facilities on their lands. As Keith Lewis, environmental director for the Serpent River First Nation, said in the mid 1990s, "There is nothing moral about bribing a starving man with money." Serpent River was ravaged by the radioactive and toxic contamination resulting from a half-century of uranium mining and milling near Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada.

Decades ago, LaDuke did groundbreaking work in opposition to uranium mining and milling on Indigenous lands, and has exposed the nuclear power industry's targeting of Native sacred sites for facility construction and operation.

Last January, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps traveled out to northern Minnesota, after Winona LaDuke put out the call for folks to stand in solidarity with the Water Protectors.

Thursday
Apr222021

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues, April 26-30

NATIVE NUCLEAR FORUM

5-Day Speaker Series, April 26 to 30

The Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues focuses on the impacts that nuclear has on Native American communities across the country, including uranium mining and milling, nuclear weapons production and testing, atomic reactor operation, radioactive waste transport and dumping, etc. Join them from 5 to 7pm PT each day (8 to 10pm ET; 7 to 9pm CT; 6 to 8pm MT). Speakers include Winona LaDuke, Steve Newcomb, Carletta Tilousi, Dr. Tommy Rock, Manny Pino, Myron Dewey, Joe Kennedy, and Ian Zabarte. Featured artists and performers include Jack Malotte, Sarah Caligiuri, and Bryan Hudson. This virtual event is brought to you by Native Community Action Council in partnership with Native Americans for Restorative Stewardship. Pre-registration is required for each day's session.

REGISTER

Monday
Apr122021

This land is sacred to the Apache, and they are fighting to save it

Native Americans want to protect Oak Flat, a sacred site 60 miles east of Phoenix, from a mining operation

As reported by the Washington Post.