Valerie Taliman taliman@unssun.scs.unr.edu
This article is from the twice monthly newspaper, News From Indian
Country. It is published by Indian Country Communications, Inc.
with offices at Rt.2 Box 2900A, Hayward, WI 54843. They may be
contacted by calling (715) 634-5226; FAX (715) 634-3243.
It can also be found in the publication:
The Circle, 1530 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55404 (612) 871-4555.
Subscription - $15/yr; $25 2 yrs. Voted BEST NATIVE AMERICAN MONTHLY
NEWSPAPER - 1991, 1993 by the Native American Journalists Association
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Mid August 1993
THE NATION'S DUMPING GROUNDS
by Valerie Taliman
Part 1
The U.S. Department of Energy is looking for 'temporary" (40-50 years)
housing for 22,000 metric tons of radioactive nuclear waste that has
been accumulating since the 1940's, when America began producing nuclear
fuel for atomic weapons. It is some of the deadliest waste on Earth and
exposure to it can cause cancer and death.
Would you offer your home? How about your grandchildren's home? That's
the basic question that the American government is asking Native Nations.
The waste has to go somewhere, and at present, all paths seem to lead to
Native lands. The proposed "solutions" for temporarily and permanently
storing nuclear waste involve native people, just as the mining, milling,
enriching and processing of uranium for nuclear fuel involved - and
contaminated - indigenous peoples.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has spent millions on plans to construct
a "temporary" nuclear waste dump, called a Monitored Retrievable Storage
(MRS) site, that would store the nation's waste until a permanent dump
can be built, allegedly within the next 50 years. The only entities
even considering the government's proposal are nine Indian tribes - no
states, no counties, no municipalities.
Mainstream American has clearly said "NO!" to nuclear waste in their
backyards.
But reservations' realities are another story. The U.S. Nuclear Waste
Negotiator is not only asking tribes to take nuclear waste for the short
term, but perhaps forever.
The permanent dump site, called a high-level nuclear waste repository,
is slated for Yucca Mountain, Nevada, on traditional homelands of the
Western Shoshone.
Shoshone land was taken in the 1950's to create the Nevada (nuclear
weapons) Test Site, adjacent to Yucca Mountain, where more than
800 bombs hav been exploded in the atmosphere and underground,
releasing radiation into the biosphere in at least half of the tests,
according to DOE records. In protest, Western Shoshone Chief Raymond
Yowell complains that "we are the most bombed nation in the world."
Now their land is being carved up so that an underground labyrinth of
tunnels can permanently store a mountain-full of nuclear waste,
military and commercial nuclear waste, most of it generated by nuclear
power plants.
The irradiated nuclear fuel that DOE must find a home for is presently
stored on site at about 70 of the 110 commercial nuclear reactors
operating in the country, most of which are east of the Mississippi
River. The irradiated fuel is in the form of 12 to 14-foot long
uranium-filled rods that are used in the reactor's core for 12 to 36
months before becoming waste for thousands of centuries.
The extremely hot waste is typically cooled in pools of water next
to the reactors for a few years, waiting for a time when it can be
moved to permanent storage. Many reactors are running out of storage
space.
By 1995, several pools - including those near the Prairie Island
Mdewakanton Dakota community on the Mississippi River - will be full,
putting the pressure on DOE to find volunteers who will store the
nation's deadly waste.
Some scientists and environmentalists say that the irradiated waste
(called "spent fuel" by the nuclear industry) should stay on site at
the reactors until the Yucca Mountain repository is built. They
assert that the cost and risks associated with transporting radioactive
waste to an MRS facility are too high to be viable.
In the meantime, irradiated nuclear fuel rods from the ractor's core
sit perilously in old and, in some cases, cracking pools that were
intended to hold waste for approximately 20 years. According to the
Nuclear Information and Resource Service, the fuel rods coming out of
the reactor core are about 1,000,000 times more radioactive than the
enriched uranium fuel that went in. Thousand of fuel rods are waiting
for permanent disposal.
But that time may never come if DOE's dismal track record of delays on
the Yucca Mountain project continue.
Considered to be sacred to the Western Shoshone, Yucca Mountain is
being turned into a mega-dump that is more than 12 years behind schedule
and is costing taxpayers 1 million per day. After more than a decade
work, DOE has spent $3.4 billion to drill what amounts to a 40-yard
hole in the six-mile long mountain. It is no wonder that the dump
faces daunting opposition from the Western Shoshone, the State of
Nevada, and scores of environmental groups who decry the hazards and
exorbitant cost of the project.
If built, Yucca Mountain will store 70,000 metric tons of nuclear
waste that will be radioactive for more than 10,000 years. The site,
which will contain underground tunnels up to 115 mile long, shows
evidence of volcanic activity, contains more than 32 known earthquake
faults, lies over a major acquifer that provides water to California,
and suffered a 5.6 magnitude earthquake in June. Radioactive waste
will be transported to there from all but five states in the country,
raising concerns about accidents.
As opposition to the Yucca Mountain dump grows and intensifies, it
appears unlikely that it will ever be built. In that case, the
"temporary" MRS site will become a de facto permanent repository.
The problems at Yucca Mountain have created mounting pressure on
DOE to accelerate its search for a place to store the nation's waste.
Under federal law, DOE must take responsibility for disposing of the
waste by 1998.
The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act passed in 1987 authorized
DOE to build one MRS facility; it also created the Office of U.S.
Nuclear Waste Negotiator to find a willing host.
Though four Western counties signed up for DOE grants early on, no
state was willing to risk contamination of their citizenry and all
have since withdrawn from consideration.
-End Part I-
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Michele Lord + If you have come here to help me,
+ you are wasting your time.....
+ But if you have come because
+ your liberation is bound up with mine,
milo@scicom.alphacdc.com + then let us work together.
Aboriginal Woman
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