Source: Mohawk Nation NewsSINISTER COVER-UP AT CHALK RIVER
– WEAPONS-GRADE URANIUM MADE AT CHALK RIVER NOT NEEDED FOR MEDICAL ISOTOPES
MNN. Dec. 20, 2007. Gordon Edwards, of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, raised serious concerns about the MAPLE (Multipurpose Applied Physics Lattice Experiment) reactor delays at Chalk River:
”An important aspect of the isotope-production fiasco on Algonquin territory is being ignored. AECL (Atomic Energy of Canada Limited) uses 95 per cent highly-enriched “weapons-grade” uranium HEU to make the main isotope (molybdenum-99). This can be made using low-enriched uranium (LEU) – which is NOT weapons-usable material, but is more expensive. Somebody wants to make isotopes and bombs cheaply.”
He continued, “It’s easier to make a very powerful bomb with weapons-grade uranium like the one dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.” The only stockpile of weapons-grade uranium in Canada is at Chalk River, less than 200 kilometres up the Ottawa River from Canada’s capital. The Canadian public and Members of Parliament are told they are for “essential and life-saving” medical isotope production; however, there’s enough there to build two or more atom bombs – and the stockpile is increasing.
Why is the Canadian company, MDS Nordion, that sells the isotopes, ordering more of the risky weapons-grade uranium from the U.S.? Why do Canada and the U.S. allow this hazardous material to be transported over regular highways, rails and air? The U.S. warns the towns where these materials are being transported. Not in Canada!
Hey, wait a minute? How medically necessary is this weapons-grade uranium anyway? How did humans thrive and survive without isotopes? There are definitely cases where people’s lives have been saved using the new technology. But are we being sold a bill of goods? The isotopes should properly be made with uranium that is not weapons-grade. If we care about having generations to come, do we not also have a responsibility to make sure they have a safe and clean environment to live in?
We are concerned about the international weapons shysters that like to wheel and deal with Canadian Prime Ministers and other heads of states. They have set up a situation where a valid medical use is being used to camouflage deadly, life-destroying practices.
Gordon Edwards, who has a lot more high-tech knowledge than we do, worries that Canada’s Members of Parliament have been bamboozled? On December 11th, every Member and Senator voted in favor of restarting the old decommissioned NRU (National Research Universal) reactor. The “scheduled 2005” maintenance was not done. Its reopening goes against the advice of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. What’s the point of setting up a committee of experts if you’re not going to listen to them?
Are there other ways to deal with a temporary shortage of medical isotopes created by the construction delays, without threatening human life on a worldwide scale? Couldn’t people cut the use of MRIs for the investigation of conditions that are not life-threatening?
The isotope shortage could have been avoided if two AECL reactors, MAPLE 1 and 2, had been completed on schedule in the early part of the decade. It’s been put off year by year over safety concerns.
ACRs (Advanced CANDU Reactors) being proposed for Northern Alberta, and the MAPLE reactors being built at Chalk River, Ontario, are very different.
The MAPLE reactors were designed to have a "negative power coefficient of reactivity" (PCR). In fact, they have shown the opposite: namely a POSITIVE PCR. For safety, a negative PCR is good and a positive PCR is bad. Neither AECL nor CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) understands WHY there is all this positive PCR inside the reactor. Is this because only “weapons-grade” uranium is being used? We could all be in for some very nasty surprises.
The ACRs (Advanced CANDU Reactors) were designed to have a "negative void coefficient of reactivity" (VCR). The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) concluded the opposite. Under certain accident conditions, the ACR reactors could have a "substantially" POSITIVE VCR. As we said, a negative VCR is good and a positive VCR is bad. Since nobody has ever built an ACR, the two groups of experts, AECL (Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.) and USNRC, disagree. There is no analysis except on paper and using computer models. Both don’t understand what is going on in the core of an ACR reactor.
All it takes is not knowing about some as yet undiscovered force of nature that could invalidate everything the experts thought they knew. Think of the changes we’ve seen in our lifetime. Cars, radios, televisions and cell phones, all based on great discoveries. Their by-products have been “Love Canal”, Minamata Disease, Chernobyl. Human error has been a large factor in these man-made disasters.
Most of these technical wonders and environmental nightmares are less than a century old. We’re down to the last 10% of fish stocks. We’re still living with the delusion that there is some pristinely healthy corner of nature somewhere that we have not polluted beyond the capacity of life to survive as we know it. When we ignore what is obvious to the few experts who have had the time to develop a real understanding of these potent technologies, what are we asking for?
The public should wake up and throw the bums out. Is outer space their way of escaping the disaster they’ve created?
It is becoming increasingly evident that scientific investigation in all fields of study is twisted to support political and capitalist interests of one kind or another. The once sacrosanct scientific rule of neutral and objective observation and analysis has been abandoned. The objective should be public safety – not commercial profit, collegiality, party loyalty, or “good press”.
The MAPLE reactors are small – generating about 10 megawatts of heat. The ACR-1000 (CANDU) generates about 3300 megawatts of heat. 1100 megawatts are converted into electricity, and the other 2200 megawatts are "waste heat" which goes into the environment in some form. We wonder why we have "global warming"!
The MAPLE reactors produce no electricity. They produce "isotopes", which are radioactive materials created through the bombardment of various "target" materials by neutrons. These are released into the fuel of the reactor. Some neutrons are converted into new radioactive materials that can be used in medicine, industry, and research.
The ACR-1000 reactors produce electricity. The fissioning of the uranium atoms in the fuel generates a tremendous number of neutrons and a great deal of heat. That heat is used to boil water in the "steam generators", and the steam is used to spin a turbine, thereby generating electricity.
In all nuclear reactors, the number of neutrons must be kept within limits – not too few, or the reaction will come to a halt; not too many, or the nuclear chain reaction will "run away" and accelerate out of control. If not stopped within seconds, the core of the reactor can “melt down”. Unwanted energy is released, which can lead to explosions. If the shell is cracked, a cloud of radioactive gases and vapours rises into the atmosphere and goes who knows where.
As Dr. Strangelove might say: “People are getting stupider!” What does our future hold? As the Indigenous people say, “We need creation. Creation does not need us.”
Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
For more on this issue:
http://www.nci.org/02NCI/08/nrc-heulet-9132002.htm
http://www.nci.org/heu.htm
http://www.energyprobe.org/energyprobe/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=4353
http://ccnr.org/CANDU_Safety.html
Contact: Jennifer Tsun, kittoh@storm.ca
Get Busy:
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Tel 416-325-1941
dmcguinty.mpp@liberal.ola.org
https://www.premier.gov.on.ca/feedback/feedback.asp
for an online form.
Canadian MPs:
ThibaLo@parl.gc.ca, ChongM@parl.gc.ca,
TrostB@parl.gc.ca, BigraB@parl.gc.ca,
CardiS@parl.gc.ca, LafraM@parl.gc.ca,
CulleN@parl.gc.ca, GallaC@parl.gc.ca,
HawnL@parl.gc.ca, McTeaD@parl.gc.ca,
AlghaO@parl.gc.ca, AnderDa@parl.gc.ca,
BevinD@parl.gc.ca, DebelC@parl.gc.ca,
OuellCh@parl.gc.ca, CrowdJ@parl.gc.ca,
ChowO@parl.gc.ca, LunnG@parl.gc.ca, BerniM@parl.gc.ca,
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility http://www.ccnr.org
MNN "Boy War Toys Club: Members Only" http://www.mohawknationnews.com
(click on news and then go to Sharbot Lake section)
GNEP http://www.gnep.gov/default.html
Hansard on nuclear liability debate
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Pub=Hansard&Doc=11&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=2
Your feedback is welcome
Source: Mohawk Nation News
GUEST EDITORIAL: WHY ARE WE BLUE ABOUT “BLUE WOLF” AND “BOLD EAGLE”
- CANADA VOTES TO REOPEN DEADLY LEAKING NUCLEAR REACTOR IN UNCEDED
Haudenosaunee Terr. Dec. 12, 2007. When something happens at Six Nations Iroquois territory, there is usually an echo at Sharbot Lake in
In mid-September, when the Ardoch and Shabot Algonquins and allies were anticipating an invasion, the Six Nations were attacked by hundreds of police. Nine men and women were beaten and arrested. They face court appearances in January 2008. We can bet they won’t be tried by a jury of their peers. Instead, the judge will be appointed by the very same colonial regime that issued the Cabot Charter saying it was okay to “conquer all non-Christian people”. Same old, same old.
Indigenous people have always tried to be accommodating to the poor ruffians who mismanaged their own resources so poorly that they had to cross an ocean to survive.
The Algonquin protestors against uranium mining quickly dismantled their camp three weeks later as an act of "good faith". Judge Cunningham has called for mediation to discuss the illegal uranium mining that Frontenac Ventures plans to start on
When crimes are committed against people in European society, do the Europeans mediate with those who have trespassed on their land, stolen their resources or assaulted them? Not likely.
The Ardoch and Shabot Algonquin “leadership” now appear to be putting all their eggs into the farcical mediation basket that began this past week. We still don’t know if the December 17th meeting will even let our people in to observe those who pretend to represent us.
No one is monitoring Frontenac Ventures. No one has asked the Canadian people or the rightful owners of Turtle Island whether they want to deal with the waste products this will produce. A small group is watching close by while others are on standby.
THE THREE STOOGES AND ATOMIC ENERGY OF CANADA LIMITED (AECL)
Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) is on the Ottawa River at the heart of our land. It’s a big nuclear bomb waiting to go off. CRL is tied to the U.S. nuclear weapons industry through the medical “isotope” business. Medical isotopes, for imaging and treating diseases, are made in nuclear reactors, from a radioactive substance. At least 2/3 of the world’s supply is made at Chalk River. About one month ago, production was stopped because of dangerous radioactive leakage from these old reactors.
The “nuclear police” force will soon move into Chalk River. Many "Aboriginal youth” are being aggressively recruited and “groomed” to serve on the front lines. Remember what happened at the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine. The front line did not survive. Neither did a large number of people in the immediate area and throughout the world.
Some police forces are even trying to snag our boys at pow wows. The Ontario Provincial Police's “Blue Wolf Drum” is a state-financed propaganda ploy, that sends our boys to drum throughout the land to attract more of them into policing and the military, called the “Bold Eagle” Program. Is this residential school program #XVII? Do the assaults on our youth ever stop? Why haven’t we been given the resources we need to rebuild our communities from the destruction created by the colonists?
Remember the 1950s comedy trio, "The Three Stooges"? The new version is Julian Fantino as “Moe” [OPP commissioner], Jim Potts as “Larry” [big pubah advisor on policing] and Randy Cota as “Curly” [the Uncle Tom of the Algonquins]. Moe gets to abuse Larry. Larry gets to abuse Curly. Curly doesn't get to abuse anyone, except his own people.
Curly gets slapped in the face, poked in the eyes, and hit on the head with a hammer. He gets his nose tweaked with pliers and his butt hit with a spiked 2x4.
One Stooges episode involves a disaster at a nuclear reactor plant. Can you see today’s three "nuclear police inspectors" arriving at Chalk River, being met by Homer Simpson played by Bob Lovelace, the elder of Ardoch Lake; and AECL Chairman of the Board, Mr. Burns, played by his look-alike George White of Frontenac Ventures?
The Stooges trudge around in their defective “protective” gear. It’s made by Ottawa-based Med-Eng, a subsidiary of Allen Vanguard, known worldwide as the foremost in private high-tech security. It’s tested at Mining Resource Engineering Limited (MREL) facilities near Sharbot Lake. MREL has been making, testing and selling bombs worldwide from Sharbot Lake. Yes, these are Canada’s partners in crime.
The Stooges wear their “gamma watches” bought from Environmental Instruments Canada Inc., of Saskatoon. The Stooges ignore the alarms on the watches that are singing “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” in B-. Then they take a long shower in MREL's AquaRam foam, all taped with MREL's fast cameras that capture every little radioactive fart and other explosions.
After whacking Larry and Curly in the ears, cranky Moe dances from one reactor to another. There are five at Chalk River. Two are nearly 60 years old, long overdue for retirement. One is the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor, which has been shut down for the past month: that is causing a global shortage of medical isotopes. Parliament met Tuesday, December 11th to re-open this reactor. There’s little concern about leaking radiation and a possible nuclear explosion. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he got “independent advice” that it’s safe, and they’re waiting for parts.
AECL's spokesman and expert, Brian McGee, senior VP and Chief Nuclear Officer, says he didn't know the reactor needed scheduled maintenance since 2005 to keep its license. Maybe the radiation is making them all forgetful.
Stooge Larry is down in the pits taking samples from the leaking fuel that’s seeping halfway to Ottawa by now, in a colourful glowing radioactive plume. He'll have to explain this to their bosses in Washington and London.
Curly and his buds are doing security and cleanup. Accidents and spills at Chalk River are part of history. Hundreds of soldiers from Petawawa who cleaned up the mess later got cancer. The government refused to help them. Those who pursued this were told it never happened.
AECL's web site won't tell you about the 1952 accident with National Research Experiment reactor NRX, or the 1958 accident with NRU, both at Chalk River. [ccnr.org].
GNEP (GLOBAL NUCLEAR ENERGY PARTNERSHIP)
Last week, "Lying" Gary Lunn, Canada’s Minister for the Depletion and Exploitation of Natural Resources, quietly signed Bush's GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership). Last September, when all eyes were on the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) meeting in Vienna, Prime Minister Stephen Harper emphatically refused to sign to bring nuclear waste back to Canada. When backs were turned, Stephen “Gerda Munsinger” Harper signed like the whore who coyly says “no” when everyone is watching and later sneaks off into the bushes to do the deed.
Gary Lunn and the U.S. Department of Energy secretary Sam Bodman claim nuclear energy is a clean, sustainable source of electricity. What corporation is telling them this – GE? GE wants controlling interest; but foreigners are presently not permitted to own majority shares in a Crown corporation. Rumours have it that after a review, AECL is going to be “privatized”.
The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) document is meant to “repatriate” Canada’s nuclear waste. Lunn reassures everyone, “This will not happen. In any case, the agreement is not binding.” Italy signed on November 13th. There are now 18 members. Of course, they all want to dump on our Indigenous lands without our prior informed consent. Why do you think Canada refused to sign the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights? They don’t want to consider the health and well-being of the people for seven generations to come.
Neither the press release nor the GNEP agreement appeared on the Natural Resources web site until Wednesday, December 5th, after we called about it. The press release did appear at the U.S. Department of Energy and the Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) web sites last week, and was announced in a short clip on CBC and other media. Don’t you just love the media that slips in little blurbs in between distracting stories like serial killer “Robert Pickton” found guilty of murdering dozens of women in British Columbia. The media pretends this is full disclosure to the public.
Note how they focused on the dangerous NRU reactor for medical isotope products. They know damn well that some of their other uses are much less likely to win public approval. The isotopes are sold by MDS Nordion, an Ottawa company.
The aim of the agreement is "to accelerate development and deployment of advanced fuel cycle technologies to encourage clean development and prosperity worldwide, improve the environment, and reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation". Note how they used the word “aim". They know very well that it is dangerous: that such aims cannot be achieved through this kind of science fiction fantasy. Even George Orwell wasn’t this cynical.
One of GNEP's seven objectives is to "develop and demonstrate, inter alia, advanced technologies for recycling spent nuclear fuel for deployment in facilities that do not separate pure plutonium, with a long term goal of ceasing separation of plutonium and eventually eliminating stocks of separated civilian plutonium”.
Plutonium is used for making bombs! This raises the question: Would there be a shortage of medical isotopes if they weren’t using these resources to make bombs? Don’t be fooled! The hawks are in full flight. This is not a “cold war” era.
Little kids in school are being told that they are “peace pals” when they prepare Christmas boxes for the troops overseas. Those are boys with guns defending capitalist interests at the expense of whatever civilian population happens to get in their way. There has been no decent attempt to sit down and make peace among the people in the countries where war is being waged. They’re leaving it all up to adolescent boys with guns and no education.
This shortage of isotopes is closely connected with the “hot war” that has pushed the military agenda in Canada higher than it ever was in World War II, without the knowledge or consent of the Canadian people. It’s crazy. The UN was founded to create peace. World institutions have been corrupted and co-opted. Ours are being ignored.
BILL C-5: NUCLEAR LIABILITY
Canada's Parliament is debating Bill C-5, "An Act respecting civil liability and compensation for damage in case of a nuclear incident". This is to raise the Nuclear Liability limits from $77 million to $650 million. No other industry is legislated in this way.
Should there be a large nuclear accident, the “operator” is liable, not the manufacturer. Canadian taxpayers would foot the bill for generations to come. However, according to the fine print, the liability and personal insurance are VOID in the event of “war or a terrorist attack”.
Canadian MPs who were formerly critical of the bill – like Dennis Bevington (Western Arctic, NDP) – seem fatalistically ready to accept it. He represents “Port Radium”, where uranium was first mined using Dine people to carry the ore in burlap bags. Later, a majority of them died from horrible cancers.
Nathan Cullen (Skeena – Bulkley Valley, NDP) says, "… there are serious and significant implications when dealing with a nuclear accident". He asks why does the government need “to list bodily injury, psychological trauma, close personal relationships to somebody affected, liability for economic loss, costs of wages, power failure and environmental damage". They want to limit their liability on these very afflictions – as they are a “limited” company.
Brad Trost (Saskatoon – Humboldt, CPC) expounds that, "In 2003, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission... found the economic loss, the personal loss, et cetera from a major incident… at $100 million."
On the other hand, a paraplegic as a result of a car accident recently got $7 million for loss of use of his legs, his pain and suffering, and loss of income.
Let’s do the math. $650 million divided by $7 million means they have made provisions for fewer than 93 people. Looked at another way, a serious nuclear accident which would affect about 3 million people, would divide up $650 million, and each person would get $213.33. Hmmm.... So who’s making the billions while we take the risks? The land and the people are being put up as the collateral.
With this in mind, remember that government agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs are notoriously bad at looking after their own. The compensation packages look great on paper. Even when the injury is of an anticipated kind, just try and collect it. You’ll find all kinds of loopholes and nonsense that boil down to no help at all. You’ll be SOL [shit out of luck!]. The nightmares are real to those who live in them.
Mario Laframboise [Argenteuil-Papineau-Mirabel, Bloc Quebecois], says of the “secret” talks of the Prime Minister with the U.S. on the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, “I find it very inconsistent of the government to introduce a bill to increase compensation for damage while the prime minister is currently prohibiting his ministers from discussing the entire nuclear energy plan." Laframboise seems to have blanked out on his government’s push for a deadly niobium mine in his riding at Kanehsatake Mohawk Territory.
People need to hear it loud and clear:
(1) Stop nuclear development. We don't need it.
(2) We already have more nuclear waste than our coming generations can reasonably be expected to deal with.
HUNGER STRIKE CONTINUES
"Where will AECL be in 2107?" We’ve learned they plan to leave Chalk River by 2080. They don’t plan to be around when our grandchildren’s skin starts falling off their bones!
Donna Dillman is still on a hunger strike protesting uranium mining. She shows no signs of quitting. Donna’s now in a wheelchair and could be force-fed when she is finally bedridden. That's what the Brits did to the Irish and that's what the Americans are doing at Guantanamo Bay, even though it is illegal by international law.
On Tuesday, December 11th, Donna will go to water only. She asks that people flood Ontario Premier McGuinty's office with calls and emails.
As Aaron Neville sang, "There's been times that I thought I couldn't last for long. Now I think I'm able to carry on. It's been a long time comin’, but I know a change is gonna come."
Jennifer Tsun, McDonalds Corners, Algonquin Territory
Notes and Sources:
Premier Dalton McGuinty
Queen's Park, Rm 281, Main Legislative Building
Toronto ON M7A 1A4
Tel 416-325-1941
Fax 416-325-3745
dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org and/or
dmcguinty.mpp@liberal.ola.org
See:
https://www.premier.gov.on.ca/feedback/feedback.asp
- for an online form.
Emails for Canadian MP's involved in nuclear liability debate:
ThibaLo@parl.gc.ca, ChongM@parl.gc.ca,
TrostB@parl.gc.ca, BigraB@parl.gc.ca,
CardiS@parl.gc.ca, LafraM@parl.gc.ca,
CulleN@parl.gc.ca, GallaC@parl.gc.ca,
HawnL@parl.gc.ca, McTeaD@parl.gc.ca,
AlghaO@parl.gc.ca, AnderDa@parl.gc.ca,
BevinD@parl.gc.ca, DebelC@parl.gc.ca,
OuellCh@parl.gc.ca, CrowdJ@parl.gc.ca,
ChowO@parl.gc.ca, LunnG@parl.gc.ca, BerniM@parl.gc.ca
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility: http://www.ccnr.org
MNN "Boy War Toys Club: Members Only" http://www.mohawknationnews.com
(click on news and then go to Sharbot Lake section)
GNEP http://www.gnep.gov/default.html
Hansard on nuclear liability debate
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Pub=Hansard&Doc=11&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=2
We welcome your feedback. Send email to kittoh@storm.ca
We intend to connect the dots between a number of issues.
Post by MNN Mohawk Nation News http://www.mohawknationnews.comkahentinetha2@yahoo.com
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