Nuclear Power Safety Concerns in Michigan amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic; Three-Dozen Groups and 62 Individuals Write Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II

NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR For immediate release, June 22, 2020

Nuclear Power Safety Concerns in Michigan amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

Three-Dozen Groups and 62 Individuals Write Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II

KALAMAZOO, MI -- On June 19, 2020 a coalition of environmental and public interest groups warned Gov. Whitmer and Lt. Gov. Gilchrist about its concerns regarding increased risks at Michigan's nuclear power plants, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter was cc'd to numerous additional MI state, county, and local officials, as well as to MI's U.S. congressional delegation, given their overlapping responsibilities to protect public health, safety, security, and the environment from nuclear risks. In addition, the letter was cc'd to leaders of MI's dozen federally recognized Native American tribes. The letter was signed by a Native American sovereign authority, the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority (CORA), based in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. (CORA is composed of five Native American tribes that have treaty rights in Michigan: 1836cora.org.)   Organizational signatories on the letter include the following Michigan groups, listed in alphabetical order: Alliance to Halt Fermi 3 in Livonia; Ban Michigan Fracking, Charlevoix ; Belle Isle Concern, Detroit; Black Autonomy Network Community Organization, Benton Harbor; Citizens for Peace, Livonia; Citizens' Resistance at Fermi 2, Redford; Coalition to Oppose the Expansion of US Ecology, Detroit; Detroit Independent Freedom Schools Movement; Don't Waste Michigan, Monroe and Sherwood; FLOW (For Love of Water), Traverse City; Freshwater Future, Petoskey; Green Living Science, Detroit; Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents of War (KNOW); League of Women Voters of Michigan, Lansing; Lone Tree Council, Bay City; Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, Mecosta; MI Organic Food and Farm Alliance, Lansing; MI Safe Energy Future-Kalamazoo and Shoreline (Benton Harbor) Chapters; MI Stop the Nuclear Bombs Campaign, St. Clair Shores; MI Wildlife Conservancy, Bath; Palestine Cultural Office-MI, Detroit; Palisades Park Community, Covert; Peace Action of MI, Ferndale; S.E. MI/Michael Gramlich Chapter, Veterans for Peace, Brownstown; Washtenaw350, Ypsilanti. Also, the 62 individuals who signed the letter include residents of dozens of MI communities, in both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas. In addition, national groups Beyond Nuclear and Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), with large numbers of members and supporters in MI, as well as a number of groups in states and provinces downwind and downstream, also signed the letter.   The letter, including all signatories, is posted online here: <http://www.beyondnuclear.org/nuclear-reactors-whatsnew/2020/6/20/nuclear-power-safety-concerns-in-michigan-amidst-the-covid-1.html>. Also pasted online is the briefing paper, "Nuclear Power Safety Concerns in Michigan amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic," linked here: <http://www.beyondnuclear.org/safety/2020/6/22/briefing-paper-nuclear-power-safety-concerns-in-michigan-ami.html>. It includes sections about Fermi nuclear power plant (Monroe County) in southeast MI on the Lake Erie shore, as well as Cook (Berrien County), Palisades (Van Buren County), and Big Rock Point (Charlevoix County) nuclear power plants in west Michigan, on the Lake Michigan shore. Read the entire press release, here.

Nuclear resistance in Russia: The Update

What is it like to resist the nuclear sector in Russia? Russian citizens who have protested Rosatom have been arrested, their homes ransacked, listed as "foreign agents" and even forced to flee into exile overseas. Their new report -- from the Russian Social Ecological Union/Friends of the Earth Russia -- is a startling narrative, a tale of courage, persistence and reslience. Read it here.

6/17/20: Beyond Nuclear on Radio Sputnik's "Loud & Clear"

News, #energy, #environment, #nuclear, #regulation, #safety

Wednesday’s regular segment, Beyond Nuclear, is about nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, and Sputnik news analyst and producer Nicole Roussell, join the show. The webinar for comments on the proposed radioactive waste dump affecting Native and Latino communities in New Mexico is on Tuesday at 5pm EDT, with information posted at www.beyondnuclear.org.

Listen to the audio recording here.

The Update: Black lives and the nuclear sector

Do Black Live Matter to the nuclear power industry? We look at examples of discrimination against African American communities. Read our article on Beyond Nuclear International on this topic.

Our statement on Black Lives Matter

Systemic racism in the nuclear industrial complex has endured for decades. Native Americans mined uranium without protection. The Nevada atomic tests irradiated downwinders, many of them minorities. Atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, not Germany. The US viewed the Marshall Islanders, on whom it “tested” its atomic bombs, as “more like us than mice.”

Hispanic communities are targeted for nuclear waste dumps, while Yucca Mountain, the lone choice for a high-level radioactive waste repository, is on Western Shoshone land. New reactors in Georgia were opposed by a majority black population suffering the health consequences of reactors already there. We stand in solidarity with all of them, and will continue to work on their behalf for a nuclear-free world.

For more on this topic, please see the Beyond Nuclear International article -- Black Lives Matter, but not to the nuclear industry, and From uranium mining to Covid 19.