First Nations of North Shore of Lake Huron take strong stand against high-level radioactive waste dump proposal

Photo by Robert Del Tredichi of uranium tailings at Elliot Lake, showing devastating impact of radioactivity and toxic chemicals on the environmentAs announced in a media release, the North Shore Tribal Council of Lake Huron, representing 7 First Nations communities, has expressed its strong opposition to a bid by the City of Elliot Lake in Ontario to serve as a Canada-wide dumpsite for high-level radioactive waste. Elliot Lake remains severely contaminated after decades of a dozen uranium mines in its immediate area. The nuclear utility run Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has been put in charge of searching for a "volunteer host" for irradiated nuclear fuel, hazardous for millions of years. The North Shore Tribal Council said "Our statement to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization is: Do not waste your financial resources if you plan to conduct a study in this area because a nuclear waste dump is not going to happen here."

A 1998 book, republished in 2003, entitled "This Is Our Homeland," edited by Serpent River First Nation Members Lorraine Rekmans and Keith Lewis, as well as Anabel Dwyer, contains testimonials by First Nation and other survivors of decades of uranium mining at Elliot Lake.

Japan PM declares Fukushima Daiichi stable, but many don't believe it

Self portrait by Tomohiko Suzuki, taken with a pinhole camera hidden in his wristwatch, on the way to work at Fukushima DaiichiAs reported by the New York Times, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, in a nationally televised address last week, declared that the four destroyed units at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been brought under control, and "cold shutdown" will be achieved by year's end, ending a catastrophic chapter in Japan's history. However, critics warn that the decommissioning and "clean up" of the site could take 40 years, and that nuclear criticality in the melted cores is still a risk. Noda's announcement comes with an "all clear" from federal, prefectural, and local authorities for many of the 90,000 nuclear evacuees to return to their homes for the first time in nine months, but many of them question such assurances, and people across Japan still fear the documented radioactive contamination of the food supply.

Meanwhile, the Mainichi Daily News reports that a journalist, Tomohiko Suzuki, worked undercover inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for over a month this summer, and now reports that "absolutely no progress is being made," that rushed work is often shoddy and done for cosmetic, not safety purposes, and that major short cuts are being taken on such vital activities as decontaminating vast quantities of cooling water highly contaminated with radioactivity. Suzuki quotes one worker as saying "Working at Fukushima is equivalent to being given an order to die," and reports that many games are being played to under-report actually radiation doses being suffered by workers.

The article reports: " '(Nuclear) technology experts I've spoken to say that there are people living in areas where no one should be. It's almost as though they're living inside a nuclear plant,' says Suzuki. Based on this and his own radiation readings, he believes the 80-kilometer-radius evacuation advisory issued by the United States government after the meltdowns was "about right," adding that the government probably decided on the current no-go zones to avoid the immense task of evacuating larger cities like Iwaki and Fukushima." (emphasis added)

25-40% underestimate of radiation doses to 1,769 Canadian health care workers undetected for 4 years

The Star has reported that 1,769 Canadian health care workers suffered radiation doses 25 to 40% worse than they were told four years ago, due to an error in a computer program administered by Health Canada. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission regulates Health Canada on such matters, but both federal agencies missed the error for 4 years. Some health care workers were exposed to above permissible doses, once the error was caught. CNSC also regulates Canadian atomic reactors, and other nuclear facilities and activities. The article closed by quoting Mark Mattson of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper:

"Mark Mattson of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, who has opposed construction of new nuclear units at Darlington, said the incident raises question about the nuclear regulator – which also oversees nuclear power stations.

'The shocking thing here is that no one noticed the mistake for four years,' he said.

'Waterkeeper is very interested to see who is held accountable for this mistake. In recent years, we have become increasingly concerned that the CNSC is lax when it comes to enforcing the rules.' "

What Do You Know About Nuclear Power? Let's Learn Together! New York City, Dec. 7th

Yuko Tanaka of the NY Women's Network will host a "Learn from 3/11" event, entitled "What Do You Know About Nuclear Energy? Let's Learn Together!" on Wed., Dec. 7th at 6:30pm at the Japanese American Association of New York (15 W. 44th Street, 11th Floor, NY, NY 10036).
 
Doors will open at 6pm, and there will be books to check out, as well as informational handouts to take.
 
Gary Shaw of Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, Yuko Tonohira of Todos Somos Japon, and Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear will be speaking, and Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action will skype in from Japan.
 
See the flyer for more information, or check out updates on Facebook:
 
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=211429102264216

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Learn-From-311-Lets-learntogether/287771747917483
 
ADMISSION is $10, plus any donation will be appreciated. A portion of the proceeds will go to ‘Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation.’
 
Please RSVP to learnfrom311@yahoo.co.jp if you would like to attend. Please spread the word! Thanks!

"Lessons of Nuclear Power and the Media," San Francisco, Dec. 3

No Nukes Action invites people to its first educational conference "THE LESSONS OF NUCLEAR POWER AND THE MEDIA" on Saturday, December 3rd at San Francisco State University in California! Since the nuclear reactor accident on March 11th, 2011 in Fukushima, Japan, the world became more alert on issues of radioactive contamination due to the accidents. While mainstream media, governments, corporations, and military institutions are working to cover up the harms of the nuclear military-industrial-complex, people became media by sharing their skills, knowledge, and wisdom to protect themselves. Our speakers will discuss the history of nukes, industry, resistance, and make global pipelines of resistance against nukes among Japan, Korea, Mongolia, California, and New York. The event will be broadcasted on ustream, and will be archived on our conference website (http://nukeinfo.wordpress.com/). Speakers include Professor Anthony Hall (Globalization Studies, University of Lethbridge), Andrew Philipps, Barbara George (Women's Energy Matters), Donna Gilmore and Marion Pack (San Onofre anti-nukes activists), Kei Sugaoka (former Tepco engineer), Steve Zeltzer (Labor Video Project), Choi Seungkoo (Nuclear-Free Asia, Christian Network for Nuke-Free Earth), and Yuko Tonohira (Todos Somos Japon), with music provided by the Okinawan sanshin band. Beyond Nuclear is a proud endorser of this event. For more information, see the event flyer.