This in from HEAL Utah today:

Take a minute to call Senator Bob Bennett (202) 224-5444.

Late Tuesday night, Utah's own Sen. Bennett snuck in a provision to President Obama's economic stimulus package that would allow as much as $50 BILLION of your tax dollars to be used as loan guarantees for construction of new nuclear reactors.

These loan guarantees could help fund projects like Aaron Tilton's proposed Green River nuclear power plant. That means your tax dollars would finance the production and storage of high-level waste in Utah, and the enormous abuse of our water, just so states like California can turn on their lights (read more about why a Utah nuclear power plant will not likely power Utah here).

It's not too late to stop this taxpayer handout. Please call Senator Bennett today (202-224-5444) and tell him how disappointed you are by his efforts to prop up the nuclear industry at the expense of ordinary Utahns. In an ultimate show of hypocrisy, Sen. Bennett says he plans to vote against the final economic stimulus package anyway. Tell Sen. Bennett you hope these nuclear loan guarantees are stripped from the ultimate package and that he can save face by working to undo his cover of night actions.

You can also email Sen. Bennett here: http://bennett.senate.gov/contact/emailmain.html, though a quick call is what's most needed.

In these dire economic times, taxpayers should NOT be put on the hook for billions of dollars of risky nuclear reactor projects. Yet, that is exactly what Sen. Bennett's nuclear loan guarantee plan would, well, guarantee. The Congressional Budget Office estimates half of new reactor projects will default on their loans. The banks won't gamble their money on such a risky venture, but apparently Senator Bennett is willing to gamble ours.

What we do need is an economic stimulus package that will jumpstart the economy and provide jobs over the next two years. That is President Obama's intention. Unlike the decade or so it takes for a nuclear reactor to get off the ground, investing in solar, geothermal, wind, and efficiency will produce jobs and clean energy in the next 1-2 years. Sen. Bennett has said he wants any stimulus package to protect taxpayers, yet his nuclear pork puts taxpayers at risk and helps no one but his industry buddies.

Please call Sen. Bennett today (202) 224-5444. Here's a sample message you can leave:

"Hi my name is ____ and I live in ____. I am calling to tell Sen. Bennett how disappointed I am that he has worked to put up $50 billion of taxpayer money for the nuclear industry in the economic stimulus package. The banks won't gamble their money on nuclear projects, so why is Sen. Bennett willing to gamble so much of ours? I hope that these nuclear loan guarantees are stripped from the stimulus plan and that Sen. Bennett works to help taxpayers, not just his nuclear buddies. Thank you."

After you make your call, don't forget to sign up for our citizen lobby training next week: http://healutah.org/lobbyrsvp.

To read more, visit: http://healutah.org/news/energypolicy/013009

Thanks for all you do.

-----------------

HEAL Utah

68 S. Main St., Suite 400
Salt Lake City, UT 84101

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Please visit us online at www.healutah.org

GREENS OPPOSE PUSH FOR NUCLEAR

The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) Eco-Action Committee rejects President-elect Barack Obama’s reckless support for new nuclear power plants, as such an agenda poses unacceptable health and environmental risks and would be fiscally irresponsible in the extreme.
All of the processes associated with nuclear power are dangerous, from the mining of uranium to the transportation and disposal of radioactive waste. Uranium mining is implicated in endocrine disorders and cancers among people working in or living near the mines, and clusters of childhood leukemia and other forms of cancer have been found in people living near nuclear power sites even when the plants have not had a major accident. (The number of "minor" accidents, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission calls "events," is staggering.)

Dr. Helen Caldicott, a physician who has devoted her life to researching the effects of the nuclear power and weapons industry on human health, lists some specific effects of carcinogenic elements associated with nuclear plants and uranium mining: iodine-131 - thyroid cancer; strontium-90 - breast cancer, bone cancer, leukemia; cesium-137 - sarcoma (malignant muscle cancer); plutonium-239 - liver cancer, bone cancer, testicular cancer, lung cancer and birth defects.
More nuclear plants would increase the risk of accidents. Japan has experienced deaths at its new reprocessing plant in Rokkosho, and the Mayak reprocessing plant in Russia has a long history of accidents, including one which killed at least 200 people and exposed hundreds of thousands of others to radiation. These, plus the thousands of deaths and devastation caused by Chernobyl’s meltdown, and the 15-year, billion dollar attempt to clean up the catastrophe at Three Mile Island, are sobering cautions.

Radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants remains toxic to humans for over 100,000 years. There is no way to store this waste safely. Already, all six of the “low-level” nuclear waste dumps in the U.S. have leaked. The plain fact is, there are no technological quick fixes to isolate nuclear waste from the biosphere for the durations of its hazardous life.  Therefore, rather than producing more, it is essential that the generation of nuclear wastes be halted.
Enormous and long-lasting health and environmental dangers alone make nuclear power unfeasible. Cost in dollars is another factor, with each new nuclear power plant expected to cost at least nine billion dollars.
In a recent paper, “Forget Nuclear,” Amory Lovins, one of the nation’s foremost energy-policy analysts, states that nuclear energy costs twice as much per kilowatt hour to produce as wind and at least seven times the cost of implementing end-use efficiency technologies. He estimates that efficiency alone could reduce energy consumption by three times nuclear power’s market share, and that wind power alone could double the nation’s electricity output.
Because of the high risks and high costs involved, the nuclear power industry has taxpayers subsidize nuclear plants. In 2005, taxpayer subsidies to the industry were raised to 60-90% of the entire projected cost of nuclear projects. Yet, due to regulatory changes made in the 1990s, taxpayers have little say over the licensing of nuclear plants.

Rather than relying on more nuclear power , the Green Party of the United States calls for a moratorium on new nuclear power plants, the early retirement of nuclear power reactors, and the
phase-out of technologies that use or produce nuclear waste, such as nuclear waste incinerators, food irradiators, and all commercial and  military uses of depleted uranium. We also oppose the export of nuclear technologies or their wastes to other nations.

It is possible to achieve energy independence, to effectively address climate change, and to reduce energy consumption by 50% in 20 years through the strategic use of alternative energies such as wind and solar, and through increased efficiency and conservation. (Greens also emphasize taking great care to minimize any negative environmental impacts, even from such "clean" technologies as wind and solar.)

Nuclear power is as inimical to the web of life on Earth as it has ever been.  If the nuclear agenda is allowed to go forward, our continent will be poisoned by radioactivity for hundreds of generations.  We have a grave responsibility to ourselves and the future to reject nuclear power as any part of a sane solution to our energy crisis.   
GPUS Eco-Action Committee Members: 
Wes Rolley CA
Deanna L. Taylor UT
Mato Ska CA
Harold Shepherd UT
Bryce Ruddock WI
Jean McMahon OK
Gini Lester IL
R.J. Korbachs NM
Derek Iverson CA
Gail Enterkin MN
Linda Cree MI
Audrey Clement VA
Douglas Campbell MI
Matt Abel MI

22.11.2008

YUCCA MOUNTAIN, SACRED TO THE SHOSHONE & MAJOR FAULT ZONE, IN IMMINENT
DANGER!

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY MOVES PLANS FORWARD TO TURN YUCCA MOUNTAIN INTO NUCLEAR
WASTE REPOSITORY.

PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD DEADLINE JANUARY 10, 2008.


Public hearings have not been well attended, statements mostly in favor of the plan to put all of the nuclear waste in the country in this one sacred place. Activists were told that if we do not go on record with a statement,
we will have no legal recourse later on.  Local papers & media spin have
recently stated that opposition to the nuke dump had dropped off since the
passing of Corbin Harney. The nuclear reps are confident to the point of
acting like it's a done deal. 

LETS PROVE THEM WRONG! MAKE YOUR COMMENT NOW
& TAKE ACTION!!

Yucca Mountain is sacred to the Shoshone as an herb gathering site, for
rituals, and as a part of their stories. Yucca Mountain is known in Shoshone
language as Snake Mountain.  Indeed it looks like a snake. It is said that
the snake was headed north when it froze where it is. Further more it is
said that it will move again and "flip around". Geologists say that there
are thirteen different fault lines running through it.

Citizens  can make an oral statement at the scheduled public hearings or
fill out a form and mail it in to EIS Office U.S. Department of  Energy
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Mgmt, 1551 Hillshire dr.  Las Vegas,
NV, 89195-7308 or by e-mail at  

EIS_Office AT ymp.gov.

HERE ARE  TALKING POINTS:

 "The eyes of the elders are on us.  The fate of the unborn is rolling
toward the cliff, the voice of Corbin Harney is ringing in my ears, "It's on
your shoulders now...".   Info from Bear Dyken.
mdyken AT goldrush.com.

YUCCA MOUNTAIN FACT SHEET, TALKING POINTS, & MORE INFO: Healing Ourselves &
Mother Earth

The DOE
  released two Draft Supplemental Environmen-tal Impact
Statements related to
repository
changes and
rail
transportation of high-level waste in Nevada.

Inyo County CA- Excellent   Draft
Impacts Assessment Report Comments due by 1/18/08

This list was forwarded to me by a fellow Green who had received it from a colleague of hers.  He said he would add to this listThe Seventh Decade, The New Shape of Nuclear Danger which reveals the most inconvenient truth about the present status of nuclear weapons on planet earth.  This tragedy grows, like global warming, with the machinations of the present Bush administration.  The time to ban nuclear weapons is long overdue.

Ralph Nader’s Holiday Reading Recommendations

‘Tis the Holiday Season and a time congenial for reading books. Here are my recommendations of recent books that relate to the quest for understanding today’s events:

1. Jeno: The Power of the Peddler, (Paulucci International) is the biography of 89-year-old multiple entrepreneur, Jeno Paulucci, of Duluth, Minnesota and Sanford, Florida. One of a kind, this human dynamo, starting from the raw poverty of the Iron Range, built company after company and sold them when they became successful. Along the way, he championed labor unions for his large companies, workers rights, sued even bigger companies, heralded the need to use the courts, defended prisoners unlawfully imprisoned and launched many other counter-intuitive initiatives. He just started another company before his 90th birthday. If you want to absorb human energy, read this book!

Do you live near a nuclear power plant? You may not today, but if the nuclear power industry has their way, a lot more of us could have those radioactive smokestacks as neighbors.

Please join musicians Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt as well as a growing list of concerned citizens in signing a petition to Congress that will stop a pending bailout of the nuclear power industry.

This was a horrible week in the world's history.  Earlier this week I posted links to news articles about the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima.  Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. Bombing of Nagasaki.

On this day in history one of the most horrible atrocities occurred in our world, the bombing of Hiroshima.

My good friend the Reverend Daniel Webster sent this to me today:
Today on the church calendar we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration. On the human calendar we mark the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. I offer this to you today:

The day I arrived in Reading, Pennsylvania, July 11, I received an email that Corbin Harney, Western Shoshone Spiritual Leader, had passed.  He had been dealing with the effects of cancer. 

I feel blessed to have been associated with Corbin and able to participate in many events where he was present, inlcuding actions at the test site, in Skull Valley, and at his healing center,Poo-ah-bah, at his home in California.  His sunrise ceremonies were healing, his talks provided wisdom and knowledge, his words engraved inspiration.  He will be sorely missed.

Thank goodness we got it stopped.  The people do have the power.  Sometimes Davey wins.

------------------------------
Friday, June 29, 2007
Experts: Divine Strake 'Mushroom Cloud' Could Have Sickened Many
By KEN RITTER
Associated Press Writer
June 28th, 2007

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A non-nuclear explosive test planned by the government could have spread  lethal radioactive particles across the Nevada desert and beyond had it not been  canceled, experts testified Wednesday.

"A new generation of 'downwinders' would have been created, with cancers and birth  defects," said Robert Hager, a Reno lawyer who summoned witnesses to try to drive a stake  through any future plans for the "Divine Strake" test at the Nevada Test Site 85 miles  northwest of Las Vegas.

I was pleased to see a photo of mine published on the CENSORED website:

Reunion with Western Shoshone Corbin Harney in Nevada

Corbin Harney, Western Shoshone Spiritual Leader, has invited everyone to a Mothers Day Gathering at the Nevada Test Site this weekend.  Corbin has been quite the anti-nuclear activist world-wide and is widely revered and respected.  Corbin's health has been in state of decline recently and people are gathering this weekend to not only honor our mother earth but also to honor Corbin and his work.  We like to attend these gatherings but cannot this year due to the time it takes to travel there and having to be back by Monday morning for our day jobs.  We have sent our blessings and regards to those gathering this weekend and especially to  Corbin Harney.   Here is the official announcement and information. 

Corbin Harney invites everyone to a Mothers Day weekend gathering and reunion at Peace Camp, Nevada Test Site, May 11 – 13th
This gathering is to honor Corbin and all who have participated over the decades at NTS to end the nuclear madness and the destruction of our Mother Earth.
Corbin has taught many to respect and protect Mother Earth and traditional ways through ceremony and non-violent direct action.

We’re calling for everyone who loves Mother Earth to join us.

MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND!!!

CEREMONIES

PUBLIC SPEAKERS

PEACEFUL NON-VIOLENT DIRECT ACTIONS

RAFFLE & MORE ACTIVITIES

 

I have been hearing frequently more recently about the U.S.'s "Operation Bite" against Iran, scheduled for TODAY.  I have been participating in actions over the last week and a half to make noise about this.  Here is a photo of my friends holding a banner we made that made its debut yesterday, first in front of Channel 2 in Salt Lake City, where for an instant you could see the banner in the window behind the anchors on the 5pm news (they quickly shot away from that and moved the anchors), and then at the sidewalk vigil:


The issue is Iran's development of nuclear weapons and the recent expediency in which they are developing them.  I have been scouring the news this morning in the limited time I have to see any indication of military aggression on the part of the U.S. against Iran and so far haven't seen anything about the bombing campaign I had been reading about.

I keep reading and re-reading about the nuclear weapons issue with Iran and how the U.N. Security Council is discussion imposing stricter sanctions against Iran for developing nuclear weapons.

But the U.S. is planning to use nuclear weapons on Iran because of their development of nuclear weapons.  Why is that o.k.?  It is no secret that the U.S. is developing tests for the development of new nuclear weapons and new replacement warheads itself.  Why is that o.k.?  Why isn't the U.N. Security Council making noise about that?  It doesn't make sense.

Here are some news items collected over the last week:

My friends with the Nevada Desert Experience began their Sacred Peace Walk last Tuesday, March 27, beginning in Las Vegas and ending 69 miles away at the Nevada Test Site Tomorrow.  They are keeping up their blog with each day's journey account.  At the test site, there will be a rally and action denouncing current nuclear plans and other warmaking preparations at the Test Site and propose alternatives for the land and industry. There will also be an optional action on Monday, April 2nd to reach out to the Test Site workers.

This is an annual pilgrimage to draw attention to the nuclear dangers that continue to threaten our sacred planet and the community of life.

The 2007 Sacred Peace Walk will have a special interfaith focus commemorating Sr. Rosemary Lynch's 90th birthday, Mohammed's birthday, Palm Sunday, April Fools Day, and early celebration of Passover, Buddha's birthday, and the full moon.

As the walk has progressed, they have made various stops in places like the Atomic Testing Museum.