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.
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Tribes Select Sites for Nuclear Waste
Mescalero Apache and Skull Valley Goshute expected to receive
$2.8 million apiece
By Valerie Taliman [taliman@shadow.scs.unr.edu]
Skull Valley, Utah - Two Native Nations, the Mescalero Apache and
the Skull Valley Goshute Tribe, are moving forward in the process
to select tribal lands for the nuclear waste storage despite
widespread criticism from environmentalists and Indian groups who
are advocating that reservations be declared "Nuclear Free Zones."
During an August interview, Leon Bear, Goshute tribal
secretary-treasurer, said his tribe sent a letter to the U.S.
Nuclear Waste Negotiator on August 6 indicating that the Goshute
are ready to enter into "credible and formal discussions" to build
a facility to store high-level nuclear waste on their reservation.
Both the Goshute and the Mescalero Apache of New Mexico
have so far received $300,000 in DOE funding and are each applying
for an additional $2.8 million to continue studies for potential
waste storage sites, according to Victor Trembules of the
Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management.
Trembules said he is "reasonably confident" that both
tribes will receive the $2.8 million available to continue
environmental and social-economic studies for potential nuclear
waste sites, called "Monitored Retrievalbe Storage" (MRS) sites by
the DOE.
If the Goshute or Mescaleros accept the responsibility to
store the nation's nuclear waste, they must commit at least 450
acres of tribal land to house more than 10,000 metric tons of
nuclear waste. The nuclear waste would be transported by truck
and/or railway from more than 70 commercial nuclear reactors around
the country.
DOE's plans call for the nuclear waste to be stored for 40
to 50 years until it can be moved to a permanent underground
repository planned for Yucca Mountain, Nev. The much delayed and
highly controversial project that was supposed to be built by 2010,
but is more than a decade behind schedule, is costing taxpayers $1
million a day.
To acquaint the Goshute tribal members with the idea of
storing nuclear waste, the DOE parked a 50,000 lb. nuclear waste
cask outside the local convenience store so that the community
could see a sample of the steel canisters that will be used to
transport nuclear waste if negotiations with DOE are successful.
A year ago, the tribe signed a resolution opposing nuclear
waste storage on Native lands that was developed by an
international grassroots group, the Indigenous Environmental
Network. The Goshute later reversed their position after traveling
to other countries and U.S. facilities to see how nuclear waste is
handled.
The tribe's executive committee used a portion of the
funding they recieved from DOE to travel to France, Germany,
Sweden, England and Japan to visit various nuclear facilities.
After a year of study, Leon Bear said the tribe's executive
committee decided the project is safer than the military toxins
they are currently surrounded by.
"I have children and I don't want to see anything happen to
them," said Bear. "We are studying this porject to make sure that
our people will not be jeopardized."
The Goshute have selected two potential MRS sites on their
18,000-acre reservation, one of which lies approximately two miles
from the community hall and the homes of 25 tribal members that
reside on the reservation.
Bear says there are 113 enrolled members in the tribe who
will benefit from the jobs and revenue the project could bring. The
executive was told that 1,500 will be created during construction
and that the facility will permanently employ 500. A 50-year
contract with DOE would also bring revenue, roads, schools, a
hospitial and other opportunities, he said.
But it will also bring nuclear waste from a federal agency
that has a bad track record in Indian country where thousands of
Native people have been contaminated by radioactive waste from a
host of DOE facilities involved in the nuclear fuel cycle.
There are many Native leaders who say the MRS program poses
serious health and environmental threats to Indian communities and
call the proposal "economic blackmail." At a time that funding
guaranteed by treaty rights is being slashed by the federal budget,
millions of dolars are being offered in exchange for toxic waste.
Two weeks ago, a group of nine environmental and Native
organizations urged President Clinton not to nominate a new U.S.
Nuclear Waste Negotiator, following the departure of David Leroy
who left his post on June 11. They pointed out that Reagan had left
the post vacant for more than two years during his presidency.
In a letter to Clinton, the groups called the MRS program
"dangerous and wasteful" and quoted U.S. Sen Ben Nighthorse
Campbell (Democrat, Colorado), who denounced the program last year.
"It's like the old treaties," said Campbell. "They
government is playing the same game. If you're hurting bad enough,
you'll sign anything," he said referring to the huge economic
incentives beining offered by the Nuclear Waste Negotiator.
"Under pressure from the nuclear power industry, the Energy
Department hopes that by dumping radioactive waste in a large
'temporary' facility, it will create the illusion that such waste
is disposable," the groups told Clinton.
"In doing so, DOE hopes to placate the concerns if an
increasng number of citizens who are alarmed at the growing volume
of radioactive waste which is, in fact, non-disposable."
The organizations signing the letter included Native
Americans for a Clean Environment, the Water Information Network,
the National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans, Public
Citizen, Greenpeace, Nuclear Free American and the Southwest
Research and Information Center.
Meanwhile, the lure for jobs and economic development in
the Native communities suffering from high unemployment is a major
factor influencing decisions to accept nuclear waste.
While the rest of mainstream America has elected not to
dump nuclear waste in their own backyards, the prospect of it
ending up on Native lands appears to be growing.
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"When we walk upon Mother Earth, we always plant our feet carefully
because we know the faces of our future generations are looking
up at us from beneath the ground. We never forget them."
-Oren Lyons, Onondaga Nation
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milo@scicom.alphacdc.com Michele Lord Alpha Institute
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