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.

New Mexico Congressional Delegation, Governor Send Letter To Energy Secretary Opposing Nuclear Waste Interim Site

NEWS FROM THE NEW MEXICO U.S. CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION:

CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION NEWS

U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, and U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham sent a letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm opposing the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level waste (HLW) in New Mexico.

“We are strongly opposed to the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level waste (HLW) in New Mexico.  There is currently no permanent disposal strategy for SNF and HLW in place at the Department of Energy.  This leaves us extremely concerned that ‘interim’ storage sites with initial 40-year leases, like one proposed for Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing in New Mexico, will become the country’s de facto permanent nuclear waste storage facilities.  We cannot accept that result,” they wrote.

There are currently two pending applications before the NRC for licenses to construct and operate consolidated interim storage facilities (CISFs) - one in Andrews, Texas, and one in Lea County, New Mexico. 

“Without a strategy in place at the Department of Energy for permanent waste disposal, any CISF constructed in or near New Mexico could become a waste storage site that is, in essence, permanent.  New Mexico has not and will not consent to such a situation,” they continued.

The New Mexico lawmakers cautioned that, “We cannot repeat such harms by establishing interim nuclear waste storage sites, especially without a permanent waste disposal strategy.  We would welcome collaborative work to establish a coherent, consent-based federal policy on managing and disposing of SNF and HLW, and look forward to engaging in that work with you.”  

Last month, Senator Heinrich raised his concerns about interim storage directly with Secretary Granholm during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing to review the President’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget request for the U.S. Department of Energy.

The full text of the letter is available here, and at this link.