National Day of Remembrance for Downwinders on 61st anniversary of first nuclear weapons blast at Nevada Test Site

Radioactive Iodine-131 fallout across U.S.from the Nevada Test Site, by county, measured in radsAs reported in the Salt Lake Tribune, January 27th, 2012 marked the 61st anniversary of the first nuclear weapons detonation at the Nevada Test Site in 1951. 928 full-scale nuclear weapons tests were eventually carried out in Nevada alone, including more than 100 above-ground (certain underground tests also discharged radioactivity to the atmosphere, and "sub-critical" blasts continue today). 

This commemoration was marked by a U.S. Senate resolution, sponsored by Idaho Republicans Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, and co-sponsored by Democrats from Colorado (Mark Udall and Michael Bennett) and New Mexico (Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall), designateing January 27, 2012, as a "national day of remembrance for Americans who, during the Cold War, worked and lived downwind from nuclear testing sites and were adversely affected by the radiation exposure generated by the above ground nuclear weapons testing."

The resolution, along with companion legislation, seeks to significantly expand compensation for nuclear weapons test site Downwinders, as well as uranium miners and mill workers. Qualifications for radiation exposure compensation would be broadened, post year 1971 uranium workers would be covered, and the recognized downwind nuclear testing area of impact would be widened to include seven states, and one U.S. territory: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Utah for the Nevada Test Site; New Mexico for the Trinity Test Site; and Guam for Pacific tests.

Downwinders such as J. Preston Truman and Eve Mary Verde called for an end to nuclear weapons testing and a world free of nuclear weapons, as well as health studies, health care, and compensation for Downwinders. Groups such as Idaho's Snake River Alliance marked the commemoration.

Fire on Russian nuclear submarine

The BBC reported on December 29, 2011 that a dockside fire had spread to a nuclear power and nuclear armed Russian submarine at the Naval base near Murmansk, requiring a land-based, water-borne, and air-borne fire fighting response, as well as the partial submersion of the vessel to bring the raging inferno under control. Russian autorities claimed that the nuclear weaponry had been removed before the fire started, and assured that the reactor was shut down. However, they did not mention that irradiated nuclear fuel still filled the core of the reactor, not the mention the radioactive contamination throughout the nuclear power system -- all vulnerable to a fire spreading to its compartents.

IAEA's Amano helps beat war drums against Iran

Who, really, is the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, and why is he so supportive of the U.S. and Israeli governments' accusations that Iran's nuclear program is aiming for the bomb? Amano's position is in marked contrast to the previous IAEA director general, Mohammed ElBaradei. ElBaradei was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for confronting false U.S. and U.K. claims that Iraq had a covert nuclear weapons development program in the lead up to the 2003 invasion, as well as his skepticism toward U.S. and Israeli claims of nuclear proliferation in Iran. A Wikileaks cable revealed coordination between the U.S. government and Amano on Iran policy. Robert Parry, an investigative journalist who broke many of the Iran-Contra scandal stories of the 1980s, now warns we may be "Slip-Sliding to War with Iran," despite the lessons that should have been learned from our recent debacle in Iraq -- a very deadly and expensive war that was based on false accusations about secret WMD (weapons of mass destruction) development, including nuclear weaponry.

In a Christmas Eve article entitled "America's Debt to Bradley Manning," Robert Parry reports that the Wikileaks revelations about Amano's close ties to U.S. and even Israeli schemes towards Iran may be just the information needed to avert another false war over non-existent WMDs.