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ARTICLE ARCHIVE

Radioactive Waste

No safe, permanent solution has yet been found anywhere in the world - and may never be found - for the nuclear waste problem. In the U.S., the only identified and flawed high-level radioactive waste deep repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada has been canceled. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an end to the production of nuclear waste and for securing the existing reactor waste in hardened on-site storage.

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Tuesday
Apr242018

UN Side Event Webcast April 23: Radioactive Waste and Canada's First Nations

Message from Dr. Gordon Edwards of CCNR (Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility):

The following is a link to the United Nations archived webcast of a special event, “Radioactive Waste and Canada’s First Nations”,  held on April 23, 2018, on the occasion of the 17th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. 

Speakers are:

1. Candace Neveau, youth and mother, Bawating Water Protectors, Anishinabek Nation.
2. Grand Chief Joseph Norton, Mohawk Nation of Kahnawà:ke, Iroquois Caucus.
3. Grand Chief Patrick Madahbee, Anishinabek Nation, Union of Ontario Indians.
4. Dr. Gordon Edwards, President, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.
5. Chief April Adams-Phillips, Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, Iroquois Caucus.
6. Dr. Ole Hendrickson, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area, Ottawa, Ontario.
7. Chief Clinton Phillips, Mohawk Nation of Kahnawà:ke, Iroquoid Caucus.
8. Chief Troy Thompson, Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, Iqoquois Caucus.

Wednesday
Feb142018

President Obama honored Grace Thorpe re: her resistance to nuke waste dumps...and Marjory Stoneman Douglas re: Everglades protection

Grace ThorpeFor Women's History Month in March, 2009, President Barack Obama honored Grace Thorpe (10 December 1921 – 1 April 2008, see photo, left), a Sauk and Fox and Pokagon Potawatomi Indian anti-nuclear activist, for her successful work to protect her own, and other, Native American reservations targeted for highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel de facto permanent surface storage parking lot dumps.

Obama's proclamation began:

With passion and courage, women have taught us that when we band together to advocate for our highest ideals, we can advance our common well-being and strengthen the fabric of our Nation. Each year during Women's History Month, we remember and celebrate women from all walks of life who have shaped this great Nation. This year, in accordance with the theme "Women Taking the Lead to Save our Planet," we pay particular tribute to the efforts of women in preserving and protecting the environment for present and future generations...

It continued:

...Women have also taken the lead throughout our history in preserving our natural environment.

Re: Grace Thorpe, President Obama proclaimed:

Grace Thorpe, another leading environmental advocate, also connected environmental protection with human well-being by emphasizing the vulnerability of certain populations to environmental hazards. In 1992, she launched a successful campaign to organize Native Americans to oppose the storage of nuclear waste on their reservations, which she said contradicted Native American principles of stewardship of the earth. She also proposed that America invest in alternative energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar power, and wind power.

Thorpe served as a board of directors members of NIRS (Nuclear Information and Resource Service). Her primary organizational affiliation was NECONA (National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans).

See Thorpe's Wikipedia entry, to learn more about her most remarkable life. She once told Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, in summer 2002, that her motivation to fight nuclear power and radioactive waste came from her experiences in Nagasaki, Japan in the immediate aftermath of the atomic bombing there. As the Wiki entry relates, Thorpe won a Bronze Star for her service in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs, pronounced "wax") in World War II.

Re: Marjory Stoneman Douglas, President Obama proclaimed:

Marjory Stoneman Douglas dedicated her life to protecting and restoring the Florida Everglades. Her book, The Everglades: Rivers of Grass, published in 1947, led to the preservation of the Everglades as a National Park. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas's name appears in news headlines today, for the most dark and tragic of reasons: the high school in Parkland, FL where the shooting deaths of 17 students and teachers at the hands of a former classmate took place is named after her.

Here is a link to the full proclamation. Note that it also honors Rachel Carson of Silent Spring fame. Beyond Nuclear board of directors member Bob Musil is executive director of the Rachel Carson Council, and keeps the memory alive that Carson was both anti-nuclear weapons and anti-nuclear power, and was very ahead of the curve in that regard, too!

Sunday
Feb042018

Beyond Nuclear op-ed in Toledo Blade: Davis-Besse is a curse on future generations

As posted online at the Toledo Blade.

The headline refers to the forever deadly, highly radioactive, irradiated nuclear fuel.

Friday
Feb022018

Proposed Amendments Would Store High-Level Radioactive Waste in New Mexico and West Texas and Accelerate Yucca Mountain Licensing

A Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS) news update and action alert. Listen to the audio recording, read the written transcript, see photos, and find links for more info., here.

Tuesday
Jan302018

Documentary film "Atomic Homefront" premieres on HBO Mon., Feb. 12

Just Moms STL founders Dawn Chapman and Karen Nichols with their children and neighbors, protesting the radioactive contamination of their community in St. Louis in 2015.As reported on the film's website, where you can watch the trailer and a few clips.

Watch for screenings at cinemas near you (including Annapolis, MD on 2/11; St. Petersburg, FL on 2/22; and at the Washington, DC Environmental Film Festival sometime between 3/15-25, TBA).

Learn more about the film at "Atomic Homefront's" website.

(Beyond Nuclear board president Kay Drey of University City, MO has been a decades-long watchdog on the radioactive West Lake Landfill near St. Louis. Beyond Nuclear board member Lucas Hixon has published primary research on the radioactive contamination dumped there, and its escape into surrounding residential neighborhoods. Enter <West Lake Landfill> into this website's search field, for scores of posts about these Manhattan Project radioactive wastes, some of the very oldest of the Atomic Age, dumped illegally in the Missouri River floodplain, upstream of major metropolitan drinking water supplies.)