Native Americans and the nuclear fuel chain

The first link in a nuclear chain that binds us to catastrophic weapons and energy is uranium mining. The final link is the intensely radioactive waste these industries produce. Native Americans are targeted at both ends of the chain.

The health of members of tribal communities living near operating and abandoned uranium mines and mills has been negatively affected and they continue to demand population-based health studies to explain these illnesses. No extensive health studies have ever been conducted among these populations.

To date the only proposed site for a high-level radioactive waste site for geological disposal is on Western Shoshone Indian land at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. However, it appears that president Obama will likely cancel the flawed Yucca site after decades of wasted time and billions in wasted dollars.

Dozens of Native American reservations have been targeted for high-level radioactive waste “parking lot” dumps. The anti-nuclear and environmental justice movements, working with members of these Native communities, have stopped every such proposal thus far. On the western part of the Navajo Nation about 1 in every 5 drinking water sources contains uranium and arsenic that exceed EPA drinking water standards, and many of these contaminated water sources are located close to abandoned uranium mines.

Indian tribes in Alaska are facing the prospect of a new prototype reactor that could contaminate America’s most pristine watershed.

At Prairie Island, Minnesota, Indian land involuntarily hosts a massive dry cask storage “parking lot” for spent fuel rods just 600 yards from the tribal day care center.

The Seneca Nation of Indians is downstream from the West Valley dump for nuclear power and weapons wastes and the country’s failed commercial irradiated fuel reprocessing plant.