RADIOACTIVE WASTE

Grace Thorpe: "The US government targeted American Indians (for nuclear waste disposal) for several reasons: their lands are some of the most isolated in North America, they are some of the most impoverished and, consequently, most politically vulnerable and, perhaps most important, tribal sovereignty can be used to bypass state environmental laws. How ironic that, after centuries of attempting to destroy it, the US government is suddenly interested in promoting American Indian sovereignty - just so it can dump its lethal garbage! All Indian treaties and agreements with the US government have been broken. Today's Indians remember yesterday's broken promises. ... The Indians cannot trust the federal government and certainly cannot trust the nuclear industry whose driving force is monetary profit."

(Grace Thorpe, "Radioactive Racism? Native Americans and the nuclear waste legacy", Indian Country Today, March 1995.)

DIVIDE AND RULE

A divide-and-rule strategy is used in Australia to overcome Aboriginal opposition. Here is Kevin Buzzacott from the Arabunna people, who live in a region which hosts the Roxby Downs uranium mine and may also host a radioactive waste dump unless it can be stopped: "You boast about your community consultation but we know how our people have been manipulated, bribed, tricked and contracts signed under duress without even a reasonable translation into our own language. This sets up a terrible division amongst us all over your greed and these development issues. We have seen how the mining companies set up rival land councils to counter the claims of the rightful authority for the country. We call them the 'rent a crowd mob'. This has caused so much tension in communities that we are living in a pressure cooker situation. Lives are being lost. ... There needs to be a moratorium on the nuclear industry until this mess is sorted out."

DISPOSSESSION

The government says that the region in South Australia where it plans to build a radioactive waste dump is a pastoral lease, not Aboriginal land. Kevin Buzzacott responds: "Our land was taken by massacre and displacement. No treaties were even signed. We have never ceded out sovereignty. Our sovereignty cannot be extinguished. Under international law we still own the land and will always oppose the radioactive waste dump."

The main source of the waste which will be sent to SA is the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), the nuclear agency which operates the Lucas Heights reactor. ANSTO says it is "pleased" that the plan to dump ANSTO's waste on Aboriginal land is progressing. ANSTO must get its waste off-site to overcome political opposition to the plan to build a new reactor at Lucas Heights.

DEPENDENCE ON ROYALTIES

Often, Aboriginal communities are forced to allow mining to receive funding for services that other Australians expect for free. This issue is discussed by Vincent Forrester, a former chairperson of the Northern Territory National Aboriginal Conference: "We must break this dependency on mining activity for money for essential services. It is morally bankrupt. No Aboriginal community should be put in the position of deciding on development that is tied to the uranium industry. Until all Aboriginal service matters are met by direct grants from federal treasury, our people have little choice in this matter."

(Vincent Forrester, 1984, "Uranium Mining and Aboriginal People", <http://avoca.vicnet.au/~seaus/blackuranium.html>)

RACE & CLASS

Anne Herbert and Margaret Pavel: "Racism makes the continuing production of nuclear waste possible. If the white people who make decisions about nuclear waste felt that the people of color in poor areas are as valuable as the decision makers' own mothers and fathers and sons and daughters, would they continue to dump nuclear waste in those areas? If tailings from uranium mining were located next to the homes of investment bankers instead of the homes of indigenous people, would uranium mining continue? The continuation of the nuclear fuel cycle depends ... on the practice of human sacrifice. It depends on affluent whites deciding to risk the health and lives of people who are not affluent or white. This is what 'acceptable risk' often means in practice."

(Anne Herbert and Margaret Pavel, Nuclear Guardianship Forum, Issue #3, Spring 1994, p.16.)

NUCLEAR COLONIALISM / IMPERIALISM

The overall pattern in the nuclear industry is the familiar pattern of imperialism: the third world is used as a source of raw materials (uranium) and as a (radioactive) waste dump. In addition, third-world colonies have often been used for weapons testing, and in some cases as a supply of human guinea-pigs (e.g. US weapons testing on the Marshall Islands).

According to Richard Salvador: "Besides industrial pollutants, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and Native Hawaiians have been systematically exposed to the dangers and perils of nuclear testing. The combined result of this exposure should be a crime against humanity, and the perpetrators of these criminal and insane acts should be brought to justice and severely penalized. As it turns out, it is the nations of France, United States, China and others who perpetrate the crimes, and in the language of "national security" and war preparation, these criminal acts are legitimized, made to appear sane.

(Richard Salvador, "Environmental Racism", <http://hookele.com/abolition2000/abotalk/messages/28.html>)

JABILUKA

On the question of Aboriginal support for uranium mining, Jamie Pittock (from the Northern Territory Environment Centre) wrote in 1994:

"The traditional owners in the Kakadu area have been harassed by mining companies for 15 years, and people are being asked to process so many exploration license applications. They are being dragged into meetings two and three times a week, and so they are under enormous pressure on these mining questions. We believe that people such as those in the Koongarra area are being coerced into agreeing to that mine. The traditional owners have not had access to balanced information. We have sought for some time to be present at meetings concerning mining proposals so we can present information that balances that of the mining companies. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened.  We respect the situation in which the traditional owners find themselves. They obviously require additional resources to address such things as health needs. However, we don't think that the self-determination that the Northern Land Council is on about can be achieved if you haven't got the information with which to make an informed judgement. For example we are unaware of the traditional owners being informed about Indonesia's nuclear reactor program and the likelihood of the mines in Kakadu supplying uranium to it and the implications for the traditional owners if an accident to occur. During the wet season an accident at any one of those reactors would contaminate much of northern Australia. The traditional owners of Jabiluka have not made any decision in favour of the current proposal for the Jabiluka mine. We believe there is a degree of conflict of interest between the NLC's income from its mining royalties and its role in advising Aboriginal communities on mining proposals. We believe the current NLC position to support the dumping of the three mines policy doesn't reflect the views of a substantial number of its constituents. People in these communities are not being offered any alternatives. They are being told you can have a very dirty uranium mine and royalties or, no mine and no royalties. We believe there are alternatives for those communities in Kakadu. Those other economic options haven't been fully explored, although groups like the Jabiluka Association who have done a tremendous amount to develop alternative economic enterprises for the traditional owners. Aboriginal groups concerned about uranium mining need to speak up if they wish their concerns to be considered. At the moment the main message politicians are getting in Canberra is the NLC message that Aboriginal people want uranium mining, which in our view is not the full story by any means."

(Jamie Pittock, quoted in Bernie Brian, "Uranium mining and the threat to Kakadu", Green Left Weekly, September 14, 1994, p.3.)

The first meeting of the Alliance, held in Alice Springs on 19-20 April 1997, released the following statement:

"We the Martu, Mirrar, Arabanna, Murran and Gangalida peoples have met with the environment groups Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society, Friends of the Earth, Arid Lands Environment Centre, Western Australian Anti-uranium Coalition, Greens WA and Gaia Foundation, Nuclear Issues SA to talk about our opposition to uranium mining.

We share concerns with local, national and international impacts of present and proposed uranium mines. We don't want uranium from our country to be used to hurt other peoples. The Aboriginal experience with uranium mining continues to result in genocide of our community and destruction of our homelands and country. Our future depends on all our cultures remaining strong. Our cultural values cannot be traded for money. Our country and the law and power and cultural values have been recognised by the High Court.

We call on all Australians to recognise and affirm these Native Title obligations to protect country and culture now and for the future. Together we have developed a timetable for action to oppose uranium mining and export at all levels and to actively work towards reducing all forms of nuclear threat."

Statement from Alliance Against Uranium Meeting in South Australia - October 1999

The third Alliance meeting was held in South Australia on 23 - 24 October 1999. This meeting produced the following statement:

"Representatives of national and regional environment groups and concerned Aboriginal people from Alice Springs, the Flinders Ranges and Port Augusta met in the Flinders Ranges on the 23rd and 24th October 1999.

This meeting reaffirmed strong opposition to plans to expand the nuclear industry in South Australia. The meeting developed and committed to an active plan to stop the development of a national/international radioactive waste dump.

This plan will include community meetings in Port Augusta and Adelaide and increased campaigning to highlight the environmental and cultural impacts of radioactive waste.

Aboriginal people in South Australia have first hand knowledge of nuclear impacts through the experience of atomic weapons testing at Emu Field and Maralinga and the legacy of uranium mining on their land.

Alliance members do not believe that the Government's approach to the issue of a radioactive waste dump has been open or reasonable and refuse to let the country or people of South Australia be treated as a nuclear sacrifice zone."

Lawyers of individual American Indians announced 2 April that they filed a class action suit, claiming the individuals were unwitting guinea pigs for deliberate radiation experiments at Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Washington.

(471.4670) WISE Amsterdam -Sued are the US government and its alleged partners, for violations of their constitutional rights under 42 USC Section 1983, for infliction of radiological injuries compensable under 42 USC Section 2210 (the Price Anderson Act), civil conspiracy, assault, strict liability, neglicence and other violations. Alleged partners of the Government are in this case Du Pont, the University of Washington, Rockwell International and Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory.

The suit alleges that Native Americans have been subjected to systematic, clinical experimentation of the hazardous effects of ionizing radiation: planned, funded, coordinated, reviewed and orchestrated by agencies of the US, including the Atomic Energy Commission, the Departments of Energy and of Defense. From 1943 to 1972 a total of 740,000 curies of radioactivity were released at Hanford: iodine, plutonium, phosphorus, zinc and other byproducts of plutonium processing. More than 92% of the total amount was released between December 1944 and December 1947.

Two other major releases occurred in 1949 and 1951 just before and after the start of the Korean War. People who were children at the time are thought to have received the highest doses from drinking milk produced by cows grazing in pastures downwind of Hanford.

The government continued monitoring the Native Americans to determine which disease effects could be detected over time from systematic exposure to repeated doses of radiation through their diet and way of live. Recently federal officials announced they will set up a program to monitor the health of 14,000 civilians who received the highest radiation doses, but without any intention of financial compensation or medical care. They will only be offered medical evaluations to detect thyroid neoplasms, a type of cancer, and other thyroid conditions. The group of individual Natives says the government arranged for radiation to be released deliberately and repeatedly to monitor the effects of high doses on plants, animals and people. The suit says all of Hanford's neighbours suffered, but the Indians were especially at risk because of their unique lifestyles and diet. They suffered significantly more intense radiological exposure than non-Native Americans. This fact was known by the US Government and underlies their selection for study of the health effects without their knowledge or consent; despite the fact that the US had developed policies and procedures as early as 1946 which required informed consent from subjects of human radiation experiments. This is a direct violation of their constitutional right of body integrity and of established government policies.

The residents of the areas around Hanford have suffered: cancers of thyroid, bone and skin; arthritis, diabetes and other auto-immune disorders, hypo-thyroidism, blood disorders and other serious injuries as a direct result from the Hanford radiation releases since 1943. In addition, the government consistently failed to disclose or acknowledge to the public the dangerous conditions it created and the resulting adverse public health effect, but instead practicised misrepresentation, concealment and/or false and misleading reassurances.

The Native Americans act like this to expose the conduct of the US government concerning human radiation experiments, to protect the Treaty rights of Native American people to live their way of live, to protect the human dignity of all American citizens from violation, to restore the cultural and natural resources of Native Americans, to ensure their constitutional protection and to provide a remedy for the physical and spiritual harm caused to them by these secrete radiation experiments. Maybe they will in the near future be financially compensated by the US government.

The new Energy secretary Pena plans to pay $6.5 million in compensation for radiation tests on 17 persons, injected with plutonium or uranium and about $50 million to 600 workers who mined uranium. Clinton is now implementing recommendations from a recent federal probe into radiation experiments that government agencies and research labs carried out on humans over three decades. A report issued end of March "Building the Public Trust" cites the steps taken to right the wrongs of the thousands of human radiation experiments, conducted from 1945 to 1975. Pena says most of the victims are dead so the living relatives will be financially compensated. Other measures to be taken in future to improve openness and ethics:
* Signing of a memorandum by the president that would require informed consent from potential subjects of secret experiments and a formal, routine accounting of secret human studies
* Amendments to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 to compensate uranium miners who were denied payments under current law
* Transfer of thousands of declassified documents to the National Archives.
This makes it more probable that Native Indians will get compensation for the experiments.

Sources:
* UPI Science News, 20 and 28 March and 2 April 1997
* Atomic Harvest, M. D'Antonio, Crown Publishers, New York, 1993
* US DOE, "Building the Public Trust", 28 March 1997.

Contact: Native Americans for a Clean environment, PO Box 1671, Tahlequah OK 74465, US. Tel: +1-918-4584322; Fax: +1-918-4580322.