Blog: Voices of #Decolonization

#FirstNations chiefs shouldn’t be duped by the ‘#nuclear-is-green' deception

by William Eric Altvater, February 6, 2025

"Some First Nation Chiefs are victims of shenanigans, not unlike the swindle behind the purchase of Manhattan. The federal government needs the support of #Indigenous peoples to expand nuclear power generation capacity in #Canada.

"For millennia, the cornerstones of the Indigenous people that inhabit Turtle Island, now known as North America, held all that is essential to life, in reverence. Every decision considered the next 7 generations. These cornerstones are crumbling.

"Newcomers, armed with the #Colonizing tool, 'The #DoctrineOfDiscovery' and their mentality of superiority, invaded the land of those they called 'Savages,' almost totally exterminating #Skicinuwok, People of The Earth.

"Determined to bestow Christianity and civility to this wild untamed population, old growth forests were cut, rivers and streams were dammed to power sawmills, roads and railroads were built, bridges erected. All to create an infrastructure for #capitalism, a system to make a #profit, that morphed into #greed, a word of foreign root. This unbridled desire for progress has ruined what was once called Paradise.

"Now most water is not fit to drink, clean air is scarce, #deforestation is rampant, #biodiversity loss out of control, plants genetically modified, food manufactured with unpronounceable chemicals, caged fish starved of oxygen while being fed chicken feathers and pig parts, cancer cases in the millions, the list goes on.

"As the population increased over this continent the available sources for power generation have not been able to satisfy the insatiable desires of the 'bigger, better, faster, more is never enough' mentality. Some have finally acknowledged the fact that #FossilFuels are not the golden egg they were once deemed to be.

"So-called '#GreenEnergy' is required to slow the blind drive to extinction of man; man, who is considered by some to be the most intelligent creature to ever roam Earth. Unfortunately, the lure of riches and the corruption of self-serving purposes have led man to stray from practices that nurture everything required to sustain life on this tiny blue marble floating through the universe.

"#NuclearPower is now being touted as being 'Green.' It is not. Big money corporations are lobbying legislators to convince them and the public that it is. They are also lobbying to convince the public that they should foot the bill in the form of taxes and rate hikes, for a process that pollutes from the day it starts. Water is life. As soon as #uranium is mined from the earth it begins to contaminate the water in surrounding aquifers.

"When the uranium is processed sufficiently, it is used as fuel for reactors where it generates heat while delivering electricity, not just for essential needs, but also for many things once considered luxuries. This fission generated heat is then dumped into nearby waters where it kills thousands, if not millions of small beings that form the basis of life itself.

"After this radioactive fuel is depleted, it is stored in various containers where it will stay radioactive for eons. Indigenous #Grandmothers have labelled it 'Forever Dangerous.'

"The power generated during the fission process benefits only those who exist today as the process occurs, not those born tomorrow or next week or next month. All the #RadioactiveWaste and the inherent danger it creates is left to future generations, kicking the can down the road.

"What better place to dump this waste than in an area with a population that has witnessed Newcomers enrich themselves for hundreds of years? Yes, what better place than a population that has been targeted for assimilation, suffered theft of lands, witnessed the taking of naturally bestowed rights? A population that has been subjected to racial Indian Act legislation essentially stripping away all that sustained this population for thousands of years.

"Yes, let us give the Indians some more shiny beads and trinkets so that they willingly agree to care for our radioactive garbage. How do we do this? Let’s talk to the Chief and Council. Let’s wine and dine them. Let’s give them some money, take them to dinner, buy some drinks and make them feel all festive and most of all make them think we are looking out for their best interests. Some Chiefs have taken the bait.

"Egregious as it may be, this is exactly what is happening in some Indigenous communities contrary to the will of the majority. Elected Chiefs are continuing the deception as they are blinded and professing the 'Nuclear is Green' mantra. They have lost connection with the Spirit of Ancestors and traditional values. They need to have a serious introspection and realize that looking forward, we need only look back at what has sustained us to this point in time. We need not do any more than that."

Eric lives in #PeskotomuhkatiNation territory in Maine and stands shoulder to shoulder with his Peskotomuhkati relations in #NewBrunswick in the struggle to achieve Canadian Government recognition.

https://www.wabanakireach.org/first_nations_chiefs_shouldn_t_be_duped_by_the_nuclear_is_green_deception_by_william_altvater
#NoNukes #NoNewNukes #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #UraniumMining #UraniumMilling #LeaveItInTheGround #Greenwashing #NuclearIsNotCarbonFree #NuclearIsNotGreen #CanadaPol #NuclearWaste #NuclearIndustry #TEPCOLies #HoltecLies #NuclearColonialism

CALL FOR FILMS! #IndigenousFilmmakers!

#InternationalUraniumFilmFestival Returns to Window Rock in November, 2025

"Films by Indigenous and #NativeAmericanFilmmakers wanted. Send your films on #uranium or #NuclearIndustry and #RadioactiveContamination to the Window Rock Uranium Film Festival. Deadline: September 10, 2025.

"The International Uranium Film Festival (#IUFF) will return to Window Rock on November 7 and 8, 2025. This is the 4th edition of the IUFF to be held in Window Rock and will take place in cooperation with the #NewMexico #SocialJusticeAndEquity Institute at the #NavajoNation Museum.

"During these two days, the festival will present an extraordinary selection of specially curated documentaries and fiction movies about #UraniumMining and the #environmental and human consequences of the #military and civilian #nuclear industries.

"The Window Rock IUFF will focus in particular on films about Native American and Indigenous peoples around the world, particularly in North America. This is where, 80 years ago, the first atomic bomb was detonated on #Indigenous land. As a result, these lands are among those most affected by uranium mining and the nuclear industry in general.

"Until now, few Indigenous filmmakers have tackled this difficult and often hidden subject. For this reason, the organizers are dedicating an award to promote the production of Indigenous and Native American films about nuclear power, nuclear weapons, nuclear waste, uranium mining, and their consequences.

"The best film by an indigenous or Native American filmmaker will receive a special festival trophy in Window Rock.

"Now in its 14th year, the International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) is dedicated to presenting films on all nuclear issues and the entire nuclear fuel chain: from uranium mining to nuclear waste, from nuclear war to nuclear accidents. This unique-in-the-world film festival - named 'One of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals 2024' by MovieMaker Magazine - was founded in 2010 in Rio de Janeiro and took place for the first time in May, 2011. It has presented more than 300 films in 9 countries and more than 40 cities around the world.

"The founders and directors of the International Uranium Film Festival, Márcia Gomes de Oliveira and Norbert G. Suchanek, were recently awarded the internationally respected 2025 Nuclear Free Future Award for their work.

Film submissions are free for indigenous filmmakers and the deadline is September 20, 2025.
Contact for Film Entry: info @ uraniumfilmfestival . org (no spaces)

We welcome any support, partners and sponsors. Make a donation via PayPal (link below)

Source:
https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/usa-2025

To donate:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=UQTPP2BGUT3AU

Follow:
@uraniumfestival

#Dine' #NoUraniumMining #WhiteMesaMill #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #UraniumMine #PinyonPlain #NoMiningWithoutConsent
#DontNukeTheGrandCanyon #DontNukeThePlanet #WeAreTheFuture #NoNukes #RethinkNotRestart #DontNukeTheFuture #UraniumFilmFestival

Not just human health! The #Toxic Blend of LA’s Urban #WildfireSmoke Will Have Lasting Health Consequences

Los Angeles residents are breathing bits of "cars, metal pipes, plastics."

By Zoya Teirstein, January 22, 2025

“These fires are different from previous quote-unquote ‘wildfires,’ because there are so many structures that burned,” said Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. 'Everything in the households got burned — cars, metal pipes, plastics.'

"#Wildfiresmoke is toxic. Burning trees and shrubs produce very fine #particulatematter, known by the shorthand PM 2.5, which burrow deep into the lungs and can even infiltrate the bloodstream, causing cold- and flu-like symptoms in the short term, and heart disease, lung cancer, and other chronic issues over time.

"But the fires that raced through Los Angeles burned thousands of homes, schools, historic buildings, and even medical clinics, blanketing the city in thick smoke. For several days after the first fire started, the city’s air quality index, or #AQI, exceeded 100, the threshold, typically seen during wildfires, at which air becomes unhealthy to breathe for children, the elderly, and those with asthma. In some parts of the city, the AQI reached 500, a number rarely seen and always hazardous for everyone.

"At the moment, air pollution experts know how much smoke fills the air. That’s shown improvement in recent days. But they don’t know what’s in it. 'What are the chemical mixtures in this smoke?' asked Kai Chen, an environmental scientist at the Yale School of Public Health. 'In addition to fine particulate matter, there are potentially other hazardous and #carcinogenic organic compounds — gas pollutants, trace metals, and microplastics.'

"Previous research shows that the spikes in unhealthy air quality seen during such events lead to higher rates of hospitalizations for issues like asthma, and even contribute to heart attacks among those with that chronic disease. A 2024 study on the long-term effects of smoke exposure in California showed that particulate matter from wildfires in the state from 2008 to 2018 contributed to anywhere from 52,000 to 56,000 premature deaths. A health assessment of 148 firefighters who worked the Tubbs Fire, which burned more than 36,000 acres in Northern California in 2017 and destroyed an unusually high number of structures, found elevated levels of the #PFAS known as forever chemicals, #HeavyMetals, and flame retardants in their blood and urine.

"The L.A. County Department of Public Health has formally urged people to stay inside and wear masks to protect themselves from windblown toxic dust and ash. Air quality measurements don’t take these particles into account, which means the air quality index doesn’t reveal the extent of contaminants in the air.

"Zhu and her colleagues have been collecting samples of wildfire smoke in neighborhoods near the fires. It’ll be months before that data is fully analyzed, but Zhu suspects she will find a dangerous mix of chemicals, including, potentially, #asbestos and lead — materials used in many buildings constructed before the 1970s.

"The risk will linger even after the smoke clears. The plumes that wafted over the landscape will deposit chemicals into drinking #water supplies and #contaminate# soil. When rains do come, they’ll wash #ToxicAsh into streams and across the land, said Fernando Rosario-Ortiz, an environmental engineer and interim dean of the University of Colorado Boulder environmental engineering program. 'There’s a lot of manmade materials that are now being combusted. The potential is there for contamination,' he said, noting that little research on how toxic ash and other byproducts of wildfires in urban areas currently exists. 'What we don’t have a lot of information on is what happens now.'

"After the Camp Fire razed Paradise, California, in 2018, water utilities found high levels of volatile organic compounds [#VOCs] in #DrinkingWater. Similar issues have arisen in places like Boulder County, Colorado, where the Marshall Fire destroyed nearly 1,000 structures in 2021, Rosario-Ortiz said, though the presence of a contaminant in a home doesn’t necessarily mean it will be present in high levels in the water. Still, several municipal water agencies in Los Angeles issued preemptive advisories urging residents not to drink tap water in neighborhoods near the Palisades and Eaton fires. It’ll be weeks before they know exactly what’s in the water.

"As wildfires grow ever more intense and encroach upon urban areas, cities and counties must be prepared to monitor the health impacts and respond to them. 'This is the first time I’ve ever even witnessed or heard anything like this,' said Zhu, who raised her daughter in Los Angeles and has lived there for decades, said. 'Even being in the field studying wildfires and air quality impacts, I never imagined that a whole neighborhood, a whole community in Palisades, would burn down.'"

Read more:
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-toxic-blend-of-las-urban-wildfire-smoke-will-have-lasting-health-consequences/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=flipboard_rss&utm_campaign=znetwork
#AirPollution #WaterPollution #AirIsLife #WaterIsLife #ToxicMaterials #EnvironmentalDisaster #EnvironmentalDamage #Pyrocene #PyroceneEra

High tide for #Holtec

#Tritium dumped into #CapeCodBay will wash back onto community shores, says a new report

"The permanently closed Pilgrim nuclear power plant is now owned by Holtec, which wants to dump #RadioactiveWastewater into Cape Cod Bay. While waiting for a permit, so far denied, the company is quietly venting #tritium into the air."

by Linda Pentz Gunter, Posted on December 29, 2024

"Holtec, the company that has purchased a number of permanently closed #nuclear reactors in order to decommission them, has encountered yet another obstacle to its '#dilution is the solution to pollution' plans.

"One of the reactor sites Holtec has taken over is #PilgrimNuclearPlant in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the Cape Cod Bay, which closed permanently in 2019. Holtec’s not-so-little problem there is what do with what started out as at least 1.1 million gallons of radioactively contaminated #wastewater stored at the site.

"The company first suggested it would simply release the wastewater into Cape Cod Bay, assuring residents and the immediately alarmed fishing community not to worry because (a) the wastewater isn’t dangerous anyway (b) everyone does this all the time at reactor sites and no one has gotten sick so far and (c) it would quickly disperse into the wider ocean. Holtec chose this disposal method for one reason alone: it is the cheapest.

"The proposal was vigorously fought by citizens, the state, and powerful Massachusetts Democrat, Senator Ed Markey. The state of Massachusetts effectively banned the discharge option, a decision Holtec is contesting.

"That Final Determination to Deny Application to Modify a Massachusetts Permit to Discharge Pollutants to Surface Waters was issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection [#MassDEP] Division of Watershed Management on July 18, 2024. A month later, Holtec launched its appeal to reverse the decision, something that could take months or longer to find its way to court.

"In the meantime, help has come from a new quarter in the form of an in-depth study by the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution [#WHOI], also, as it happens, based on the Massachusetts shoreline, near Falmouth.

"The study — Model-Based Study of Near-Surface Transport in and around Cape Cod Bay, Its Seasonal Variability, and Response to Wind — found that contrary to Holtec’s claims, the wastewater would not immediately disperse into the ocean, but would linger potentially for months, and wash up on the shores of area communities.

“'We found virtually no out-of-the-Bay transport in winter and fall and slightly larger, but still low, probability of some of the plume exiting the Bay in spring and summer,' said Woods Hole study leader and physical oceanographer, Irina Rypina.

"The radioactively contaminated wastewater stored at Pilgrim is contaminated with what Holtec and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health have described as 'four gamma emitters — #Manganese54, #Cobalt60, #Zinc65 and #Cesium137 along with #Tritium, a beta radiation emitter'.

"While the Woods Hole Study did not look at the health outcomes of releasing the radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay — only at the plume pathway — there are plenty of data that demonstrate the harmful effects of these #radioisotopes on human health, especially women and children.

"After acquiring the Pilgrim reactor, Holtec’s President and CEO, Kris Singh, assured surrounding communities that,
'the decommissioning of Pilgrim will replicate the superb record of public health and safety and environmental protection that typified the plant’s 47 years of operations.'

But since that acquisition, Markey observed, 'Holtec has fallen woefully short on this commitment.' He noted of the Woods Hole report that 'In light of these recent findings, I urge Holtec to develop a wastewater discharge plan that is informed and guided by scientific fact and community input.'

"Long-time #PilgrimWatch activist, #MaryLampert, welcomed the report’s initial findings and said that 'Holtec dumping Pilgrim’s radiological and chemically #contaminated wastewater into semi-enclosed CapeCod Bay is harmful to human health, the environment, and our marine economy.'

"In a handbook explaining Pilgrim’s decommissioning process on the Pilgrim Watch website, the authors note that 'Cape Cod Bay, #PlymouthBay, #DuxburyBay, and #KingstonBay are all protected #OceanSanctuaries. Cape Cod Bay is a critical habitat for right whales and other endangered or special species. Dumping this #radioactive and chemically contaminated wastewater into them would cause incalculable economic damage and would harm both the environment and public health.'

"Absent a liquid discharge permit, Holtec’s preferred solution since has been to quietly evaporate the wastewater into the air. It has done this, as revealed during a Pilgrim Nuclear Decommissioning Citizen Advisory Panel meeting, by installing submerged electric heaters to increase the plant’s ambient temperature, ostensibly in order to improve worker comfort and expedite the drying of plant components.

"But, as Markey noted in an April 30, 2024 letter to Singh, the consequence of installing the heaters in that location 'is an increased rate of wastewater evaporation above the pace at which it occurs naturally.' That 1.1 million gallons is now down to 880,000 gallons remain, according to Holtec’s own reports.

"As Lampert points out, 'Meteorology studies show 60% of winds blow offshore,' which means at least some of that evaporated wastewater is going to fall into the bay anyway.

"Under Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules, Holtec has four disposal options: liquid discharge, evaporation, storage onsite, and shipping to a licensed facility. None of them are good solutions.

"In August, Holtec filed an appeal against the state’s ban on liquid radioactive discharges, in part claiming that the decision on whether or not to allow the discharge falls under federal not state jurisdiction.

"This, argue some opponents of Holtec’s discharge plans, is a stall and a distraction while it quietly gets on with the gradual evaporation of all the wastewater.

"'They’re using the appeal to buy themselves time,' Andrew Gottlieb, executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, told radio station WBUR. 'And what they buy themselves, with time, is the ability to continue to induce evaporation of the wastewater, so that ultimately it’s gone, at minimal cost to them.'

"Lampert agrees. 'Holtec can evaporate all the water to meet its schedule to dismantle the reactor building,' she said.

"In October, Lampert, along with other citizens representing the fishing, environmental, real estate and medical communities traveled to Boston to meet with staff in Massachusetts Governor Mary Healy’s office to demand that Healy’s administration call a halt to the evaporation.

"'There are laws on the books already that prohibit #AirbornePollution,' Diane Turco of #CapeDownwinders told the local NPR station after the Boston meeting. “And we’re asking our governor to immediately enforce those laws… She’s been very strong about no dumping in the bay. And we see this as a parallel assault on our communities,' Turco said.

"So far the governor has not taken action."

https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/12/29/high-tide-for-holtec/
#HoltecLies #PilgrimNuclear #NuclearPowerCorruptionAndLies #NoNukes #RethinkNotRestart #NoRadioactiveDumping #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #RadioactiveWaterDumping #NewEngland #BeyondNuclearInternational

The Dirty Secrets: #Whales, the #GrandCanyon and #WarCriminals

by #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
November 22, 2024

"People who travel the world will tell you two things that they really love: Whales and the Grand Canyon.

"The majestic Orca whales are now at risk from the massive oil tankers departing the shores of British Columbia with thick crude oil from Alberta tar sands in Canada, bound for distant refineries and ports.

"Meanwhile, in the heart of the Southwest, the Grand Canyon, loved by the people of the world, now has a uranium mine spewing radioactive dust into the air, and endangering Havasupai's aquifer and future generations.

"Neither the Appeals Court in Canada, nor the U.S. EPA and Interior have done anything to stop these assaults on the most beloved natural wonders in the world, whales and the Grand Canyon.

"Rueben George, səlilwətaɬ, Tsleil-Waututh Nation, remembers the long fight to halt the Trans Mountain Pipeline, now carrying crude oil from Alberta tar sands to the Salish Sea, which flows off the shores of British Columbia and Washington State to the Pacific.

"George said they thought they were winning their case in Canada's Appeal Court.

"'They said you're right it's going to kill all the Orca whales, you're right -- but we're going to build it anyway,' George said at the Salish Sea Assembly in Seattle in November.

"The uranium mine in the Grand Canyon is now spraying radioactive dust on Havasupai's medicine plants, and into the air for the world's travelers to breathe. The uranium mine, operated by Energy Fuels of Canada, threatens the aquifer of Havasupai and future generations.

"The mine's radioactive truck transport is a deadly risk for Supai, Paiute, Dine', Hopi and Ute on the haul route. The radioactive ore is transported by truck to the Energy Fuels mill in the White Mesa Ute community in southeastern Utah.

"Interior's Deb Haaland, who is Laguna Pueblo and Norwegian, has not only failed to halt the deadly risks and destruction, but has proclaimed that the atomic bomb industry, Los Alamos National Laboratory, will lead the green 'energy transition.'

"Los Alamos Labs produces nuclear weapons and is already poisoning the Pueblo homelands in northern New Mexico with radiation. A federal judge recently halted the push to produce and store more plutonium at the site, citing a risk to the environment."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-dirty-secrets-whales-grand-canyon.html

#AlbertaTarSands #TarSands #LosAlamos #EnvironmentalRacism #Plutonium #Greenwashing #NuclearWeapons #UraniumMining #UraniumMills #DebHaaland #NuclearIndustry #AtomicBombs #Downwinders #Environment #WaterIsLife #Supai #Paiute #Dine' #Hopi #Ute #HaulNo #EnergyFuels #WhiteMesaUte #WhiteMesa #Havasupai #SalishSeaAssembly #Salish #OceansAreLife #RadioactiveDust #RadioactiveContamination #TsleilWaututh #TsleilWaututhNation #CanadasAppealsCourt #TransmountainPipeline #RuebenGeorge #BritishColumbia #WashingtonState #NoUraniumMining #NoTarSands #Oiligarchy #ExtractiveIndustries #CorporateColonialism #ReaderSupportedNews #ProtectHaKamwe #NavajoTransitionalEnergyCompany #DefendTheSacred #AirIsLife