Nuclear
Power kills………….BEFORE IT EVEN STARTS TO PRODUCE ELECTRICITY
The
proof was in 30 years ago.
Uranium
mining leaves behind mountains of mill tailings emitting radioactivity and
poisoning groundwater
After
all these years, finally a start to clean up ONE mine.
I
presented my testimony to the Government on the matter and resulting deaths in
1978 (read my testimony below)
I
can only say, with great sorrow, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN for 30 years?
By
Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article
Last Updated: 08/05/2008 11:43:36 AM MDT
-
About 16 million tons of mill tailings abutting the Colorado River near
The
DOE said Tuesday that as determined previously, the oversized shipments were not
practical to be transported by truck on U.S. Highway 191. The tailings have
leached ammonia, uranium and other contaminants into the
Last
October, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman and members of the House Committee on Oversight
and Government Reform heard testimony from representatives of the Navajo Nation
about the uranium mining legacy and commanded the five federal agencies to work
together with Navajo to devise a cleanup plan
We
believe that somewhere between 1.3 million and 2.5 million gallons of
uranium-contaminate
The
cost ? nobody knows. Aside from
Other
mines are located in
July 11, 2001:
>Robert
O. Pohl, Cornell University Professor of Physics analyzed the
>direct
health effects of thorium 230. He came up with the estimate of
>394
deaths per gigawatt-year. Based on the Atomic Energy Commission's
>scenario
for nuclear power (at that time) this would result in at
>least
5,741,500
deaths.
A
little late Dr. Pohl, the evidence was in long before 2001
Below
part of my testimony before President Carters “Interagency Review Group on
Nuclear Waste “ in 1978.
Published
in the book “Asleep at the Geiger Counter” by Sid Goodman.
Hearings
were held in
Frieda
Berryhill, Chairperson of the Coalition for Nuclear Power Postponement delivered
the following testimony at the Nuclear Waste Management Forum:
She
introduced findings by Radiation Chemist Dr. Chauncey Kepford which
pertained to the issue of extensive poisoning from uranium tailings.
Her
testimony says it all. I quote.
"
On July 5, 1977 during the Operating Licensing Hearing for Three Mile Island
Unit 2, Dr. Chauncey Kepford, intervener, had testified that the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission had grossly underestimated the health effects from radon
222. Using an EPA model and NRC data, Dr. Kepford calculated that 1.2
million people will die for every reactor year of operation. Dr.
Reginald
Gotchy, of the NRC, in sworn testimony agreed with Dr. Kepford's figures.
The transcript reveals the following exchange:
Dr.
Gotchy: Yes. I think that what he has got here. I can't argue with these
numbers. I can come up with approximately the same numbers. The only
question is what to do with that number.
*fight started between Gotchy and myself *
Chairman:
Peace, peace. I was only inquiring whether or not you had a quarrel with
these numbers, not what to do with them.
What
to do with them --- the most important question was never asked.
A
memorandum of September 21, 1977, from Dr. Walter H Jordan of the Atomic Safety
and Licensing Board to James R. Yore, Chairman of the ASLBP, states as follows:
"In
summary, the values given in Table S-3 for the amount of radium 222 emitted per
annual fuel requirement is grossly in error. So also is the dose to
offsite population from milling due to one annual fuel requirement."
Again,
the question of what to do about it was ignored. It was not until March,
1978 that the NRC released the news to the public that the health effects (death
by cancer) was in error by a factor of 100,000.
The
NRC news release of July 18th informs me that the NRC has accepted for review
applications for more nuclear plants. Gentlemen, in view of the above,
minimum morality demands that all such activity be stopped.
In
a letter to NRC Chairman Joseph Hendrie, on March 16, 1978, Dr. Marvin Resnikoff
states as follows: "Though the Commission has been made aware for some time
that the Radon emissions from mill tailings were grossly underestimated by the
Commission, it has refused to face the issue squarely.
The
Commission's delay in this matter has made a mockery of the National
Environmental Protection Act."
While
waiting with anticipation to see what my government is going to do about it, I
was stunned and insulted when I received, this week, a packet from the
Department of Energy which included a report by George L. Gleason, Executive
Vice President and General Counsel of the American Nuclear Energy Council, which
states as follows:
"Mill
tailings are the residue which is left over from the process of refining raw ore
uranium. Although they contain some radioactive elements, the tailings are
relatively harmless, corresponding closely to those naturally present in nearby
rock formations."
How
many hundreds or thousands of copies of this fraudulent report are being
circulated by this department?
I
concur with the statement made before this body by Dr. John W. Gofman in
"There
already exists a body of principles which the
I
also concur with the statement of the Union of Concerned Scientists:
"We
therefore recommend that Congress request the Public Integrity Section of the
Criminal Davison of the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out an investigation
of the conduct of former AEC officials, now NRC officials, to determine any role
they may have had in a nuclear safety cover-up."
Thirty
years ago, I became a citizen of this great and glorious country. I have
lived through the rise and fall of the German Reich. I heard the
murderers' resounding defense of "I was only following orders."
It did not wash. Neither will the excuse, "I was only following
policy"
I have been lied to for the last time. Now that we know, what are we going to do about it?"