As an American living within the ten mile circle of death associated with the faulty, problem plagued, dilapidated facility that is Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, I am somewhat familiar with Nuclear Power and the dismal record of the regulatory agency (NRC) sworn to protect human health and the environment. When a licensee cannot meet a deadline, it is moved back, when they cannot meet a section of the 10CFR rules and regulations, the NRC grants them an exemption from the rules. In short, the nuclear industry is propped up by hidden financial support via our taxes, and laws that excuse the industry from the costs should and incident of enormous proportions ever occur...you could compare the Nuclear Industry to the War on Terror, in that the nuclear industry has to be right on important issues 100 percent of the time, and looking at the litany of violations Entergy is guilty of, it is only a matter of time, a proverbial ticking time bomb waiting to explode, raining down ruination and death on hundreds of thousands if not millions of innocent Americans.
It is this set of facts, coupled with my own knowledge regarding America's failed attempts at sighting a long term radioactive waste disposal facility that causes me to issue a call of warning to the citizens of Australia...it is my belief, that your nation, the Aboriginal lands are being set up to act as the Nuclear Waste Dump for the entire world's nuclear industry. A far fetched claim...hardly. Let's look at some disturbing facts regarding America's own attempts to site a storage facility.
The DOD, DOE and the NRC at one point moved forward with the concept of dividing America into compacts....groups of states paired together to deal with their own nuclear waste streams, with each state in the compact taking turns building and hosting a storage facility for a set period of years. One of these compacts was call the Midwest Compact, that would have served several Midwestern states including Ohio, who had by decree, was to be the first host state for such a compact. It did not matter what facts, what proof the environmental movement put forward, the compact led by Mr. Larson was determined to site the disposal facility at all costs. The Midwest Compact was killed, the group disbanded only after certain embarrassing documents were made public that showed the governments TRUE PLAN....get between 1-3 sites approved and constructed, then through newly introduced legislation change them into permanent long term storage facilities for the entire nation...how do I know this? I was the one who found some of those documents, one of the ones who broke them to the news media. The FIX was in, and it would have worked had the dirty truth not come out into the public domain.
It's interesting that one Senator Bayl from Indiana supports a plan by which America would become the nuclear fuel rod supplier to the world, considering that his state was a member of this dishonest and deceitful action to site a storage facility, one has to wonder what if any involvements he has with USEC, and the gaseous diffusion plants in Portsmouth, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky. I digress.
For decades now, the government has tried to push the concept of YUCCA Mountain being America's place of choice for the storage of Spent Fuel Rods, spent uranium, and other nuclear waste streams. President Bush tried to do and end around in his first term, has attempted to short circuit citizen involvement in the process. After the November Elections, it was announced by a key Democratic Senator that YUCCA Valley is DOA (Dead on Arrival), so we can only assume that a Democratically controlled House and Senate will derail this storage site, and rightfully so. This means some 50 plus years into America's nuclear age, and we have no place to put the hellish waste streams that are being created from the production of Nuclear Power. The fact is, there is NO VIABLE PLACE in the entire world available currently for these waste streams.
Enter Prime Minister Howard and the Australian Government...someone (BIG BUSINESS) has sold them on the concept of nuclear energy, and on building a storage facility for radioactive wastes. After all, who in Australia is going to cry over loud about a radioactive waste storage facility built on Aboriginal land? To add insult to injury, the legislation passed by Australia's federal House of Representatives would GIVE THE LAND BACK when Australia is done with it! HELLO YOU DIP CHITS, some of the HALF LIVES of materials in the decay chain are 14 MILLION YEARS.
I urge the people of Australia to wake up! First, there is the issue of doing right by the Aborigine people/tribes. Secondly, you as a nation need to ask yourselves this question...Are we prepared as a nation to play host to the nuclear waste of an entire world? That is what you are being set up for, that is the writing on the wall. A serious accident at such a facility could leave over half of Australia inhabitable, that is what is at stake as your own Prime Minister Howard tries to RUSH this whole Nuclear process right past you before you can react, and stop it.
The federal House of Representatives has passed legislation to allow Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory to be used for a radioactive waste dump.
The Government says the Bill will allow Indigenous groups to offer their land for use, but have it handed back when the land is no longer needed.
Several sites in the Territory are being considered for a radioactive waste facility.
Deputy Labor leader Jenny Macklin says the new Bill will mean Aboriginal land rights will be diminished.
"The Howard Government is intent on making sure that you have no rights, no legal review avenues, no right to express your view, no right to giving informed consent," she said.
"Absolutely no say in this Government's blind pursuit of dumping nuclear waste in the Northern Territory."
The Bill will be debated in the Senate tomorrow.
