October 5, 1992
To the Department of Energy of the United States Government:
Findings of Healing Global Wounds Indigenous Peoples/Human
and Environmental effects of Radiation exposure conference
We come to you today, Participants of the Healing Global
Wounds Forum held in Las Vegas, October 2-4, 1992, as people from
around the globe who are threatened and endangered by the
poisoning of radiation.
We are representatives from indigenous sovereign nations from
the Pacific and North America, from the Republic of Kazakhstan,
>From European Nations, from Atomic Veterans deliberately exposed
to nuclear experimentation, from the Scientific and Medical
profession, and concerned citizens of the United States.
We are being contaminated by radiation throughout the
nuclear cycle, from mining uranium out of the earth, through
processing and production of Nuclear materials, from testing,
deploying, and finally dismantling of weapons and facilities that
should not have been built in the first place.
Some are suffering from cancers and other disease; are
children are born deformed or already dying. We are faced with
genetic mutations of generations yet unborn. In a very short
period of human history vast tracts of the earth have been made
uninhabitable for untold generations to come. The water, the
earth, and the sky above, the sources of life that sustain all
peoples are threatened and poisoned by unsound energy and
military policy.
The young people are the future, our hope, and we must
protect them. The words of the Shoshone and Northern Arapaho
students from the Wyoming Indian High School here with us speak
for all:
"The Department of Energy and the nuclear industry have been
killing people and using "acceptable risk" as an excuse. We
believe peoples lives, the animals, the plants, and the water,
should not be put at risk to promote toxic technology. Listen to
the people, listen to the earth. Stop Nuclear Testing and energy
production."
RESPECTING INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGN NATIONS
Much of the damage of radiation has been done to indigenous
peoples throughout the world, as though they are more expendable,
their lands and lives worth less than yours. The sovereignty of
all peoples affected by mining, production, testing, and waste
must be honored and upheld.
As Senator Anjain of the Marshall Islands has told us:
"For indigenous people, the land we live on is everything.
It connects us to the Great spirit, to our ancestors, to each
other. Without our land, we are no one--as a people or as
individuals. Thus, the radioactive contamination of indigenous
people's land is but the indirect killing of people.
Your policies here in Nevada are in complete violation of
the Treaty of Ruby Valley, drawn up with the Western Shoshone
Nation in 1863. Odessa Ramirez, Co-chair of the Southwest Network
for Environmental and Economic Justice speaks for all of us when
she says:
"We support the Western Shoshone Nation, in opposing any future
nuclear testing and the placement of a high level nuclear waste
repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This is Shoshone Territory
This land was never transferred to the United States. The U.S.
Does not hold title to this land. We charge the Department of
Energy with trespassing and invasion of sovereign land, a
violation of sovereign land, a violation of international law."
JOBS, SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, PUBLIC HEALTH AND CLEANUP:
For us , the Forum we have participated in this weekend is
just another stop forward in our work together. Dr. H. W. Cummins
and others have presented material about the Hanford (WA)
veterans Study on cancer mortality. This study is a good example
of the success that can be achieved by a grass roots, privately
funded study of the health effects of radiation exposure at just
one of the Dept. of Energy's thirteen nuclear weapons plants.
Final results are expected in late 1993. We intend to pursue
similar studies that will not be funded or controlled by those
with a high stake in concealing the truth from the public.
The Cold War has been a very "hot" war for the victims of
radiation exposure. With at least temporary moratorium on nuclear
testing in place, we must turn our attention to rectifying the
damage already done in every phase of the nuclear industry.
Funding used in the past for production can now be directed to
cleanup and dismantling. Displaced scientists (especially from
the former Soviet Union) can now be utilized to help with the
dismantling, instead of new production. Immediate research and
implementation of sustainable, non destructive sources of energy
must begin. We must take every necessary step to end the use of
nuclear energy and the production, testing, and deployment of
nuclear weapons for all time.
Here in Nevada, over 9,000 people are employed by you in this
industry, and they have been placed in terrible risk. Instead of
threatening them with job loss, they can be employed in
researching and implementing clean-up and restoration wherever
possible, and their concerns must be protected. In Hanford,
Washington, between 13,000 and 14,000 people are currently
employed in the cleanup process.
In the words of Robert Alvarez:
"In the United States, the cleanup, dismantling and
decommissioning represents the largest civil works project in
history, estimated to cost upwards of $200 billion over 30 years.
As well as being a major risk to the environment and public
health and safety, the contaminated sites and facilities and
their cleanup are a unique health and safety problem for the
workers themselves, many of whom will be unemployable outside of
the federal nuclear complex because of their inability to get
private health insurance [due to their radiation exposure]. These
displaced workers should be provided health insurance out of the
cleanup funds." These workers, and other radiation victims, must
be provided with follow-up monitoring and health care as well.
The public, and particularly the victims, must be involved in
helping develop national radiation standards and cleanup policies
and practices. This must be done in every phase of the nuclear
cycle, from where radioactive materials have been taken from the
earth, to where they have been returned.
STORAGE OF NUCLEAR WASTE
We believe that it is necessary to change how radioactive
wastes are defined and reclassify wastes and their disposal
according to longevity and hazard level. A complete restructuring
of long-lived waste management and disposal is necessary. We
recommend providing for extended on-site storage for up to 100
years, delaying dismantling in some cases, and stabilizing
military, high-level, long-lived low level, and transuranic
wastes.
We insist that the Dept. of Energy cease shopping Indian
Nations for Monitored Retrieval Storage sites. The office of the
Nuclear Waste Negotiator should be eliminated altogether.
LEGAL ACCOUNTABILITY:
An entirely new manner of international accountability for
radiation exposure is obviously necessary. We advocate following
the proposal of Kitty Tucker, of the Health and Energy Institute,
and the National Committee for Radiation Victims:
We are aware that the International Commission on
Radiological Protection (ICRP), the United Nations advisory body
promulgating radiation exposure standards is largely funded by
nuclear nations, and its members must be approved by the
International Congress of Radiologists. Therefore, we ask:
1) That the United Nations establish a Public Health Commission
to provide governments with information about radiation exposure
effects, to establish better radiation exposure standards, and to
promote the end of radiation pollution of the planet, and
2) That Public Health Commission members be approved by an
advisory panel representing non-nuclear nations and radiation
victims, and
3) That nuclear governments such as the United States establish
similar national public health commissions to provide advice
geared to public health and environmental protection rather than
the radiation promotion.
At this time , we understand that no level of exposure to
ionizing radiation can be considered safe, and therefore any
continued nuclear contamination constitutes pre-meditated random
mass murder, and is in violation of United States and
international law. The nuclear industry has raised many legal
and political barriers to avoid responsibility. However, we
intend to hold you individually and collectively accountable for
your acts.
The original people of these lands hold to a simple principle
which,if followed, will guarantee the "life , liberty , and
pursuit of happiness of all":
Look to the future, to the needs of the seventh generation of the
unborn, in considering the consequences of any act you make. We
ask of you, please adopt this policy in your hearts and minds,
and join with us in a future of hope,in a future where all
children , ours and yours, may grow up healthy, happy, and free
from disease, fear, or despair.