Do you have a local radioactive waste issue? Are you engaged with helping to stop Congress from funding more waste production? Do you want to keep Yucca Mountain closed? Concerned about reprocessing? Have another angle?
All across the world there are others who are also living with radioactive hazards... who are seeking to impact the policies that will either continue the Nuclear Madness or NOT!
How do we build our strength? By working together! We are calling on you to join in with a big or small action of some kind on Wednesday, September 29.
Why September 29?
Three reasons:
1) To support folks in Canada and Sweden: to rise with them and oppose the international transport of radioactive reactor components and the indiscriminate release of radioactive waste via "recycling." There is a hearing in Ottawa on Sept 29 (see below);
2) The US and international bodies are in a big "waste policy" process (see www.brc.gov) and we need to make this Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future hear us;
3) The date marks the worst radioactive waste accident so far: on September 29, 1957, a liquid radwaste tank in Russia exploded causing widespread contamination.
We will build a list of communities/groups/people who are acting in solidarity with each other
What action? You decide. Time is short...so be creative! But send us a photo of whatever you do; we're going to post them online.
It could be small: maybe just you and a friend or two with a hand-made poster in a public place, or passing out your favorite fact sheet to people on the street (visit www.nirs.org/factsheets/fctsht.htm for a selection to choose from or use one of your own);
It could be larger: if you have a strategic step in your own campaign and can time it to the 29th (or that week) let us know (release a report, hold a press conference, announce some pivotal development to the media, etc.)
It could be even larger and more public: How about a table at an event or outside your local coop where you collect signatures, or have cell phones where people can call Congress (202-224-3121) on these issues?
Screen a film, meet with an elected official or their staff or a candidate for office...the possibilities are endless.
No action is too small--and as long as it is non-violent, no action is too big! Please report your plans to: Mary Olson, (maryo@nirs.org) or 828-252-8409) in the NIRS Southeast Office. We're going to put them all online on our new webpage for WASTE ACTION DAYS (http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/actionday/dayhome.html). We will post the list of actions and do a press release drawing attention to the collaborative fun and work we are having.
If you are booked solid, but wish you had time to join in, MARK YOUR 2011 CALENDAR NOW! April 26 is 25 years into the Chernobyl devastation and there is a global call for actions on April 26 on the full spectrum of nuclear issues, so we are adding International Radioactive Waste ACTION Day to the coordination!
MORE INFO ABOUT THE CANADIAN RADIOACTIVE METAL TRANSPORT AND "RECYCLE" ISSUE:
On September 29 in Ottawa, there will be a public hearing on what would be one of the largest releases of radioactive metal into the market place with no restriction for re-use and recycle into consumer products with no warning labels.
Here are excerpts from a letter from one of the lead organizers, Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.
As you probably know, Bruce Power (Ontario) is planning to send 16 radioactive steam generators (1600 metric tonnes of radioactive waste in total) to Sweden this year by ship.
90% of the contaminated metal in these steam generators will be melted down by the Studsvik company, and sold as scrap metal for unrestricted use. Studsvik is known to be one of the major radioactive polluters of the Baltic Sea.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which is inclined to approve these shipments without any public process, has been forced to hold a one-day public hearing on September 29 in Ottawa; so far 74 interventions have been made to appear and make a presentation on that day.
Mayors of Great Lakes Cities and towns along the Saint Lawrence River, aboriginal communities living along the transport route, as well as NGOs of all kinds, have expressed
their opposition to the transport of radioactive wastes through the Great Lakes and the contamination of scrap metal with radioactive residues.
...[T]he day of the CNSC hearing, which is also designated as International Radioactive Waste Action Day, will call attention to the import of radioactive waste from other countries into Sweden as well as the contamination of consumer goods with radioactive waste materials.
NUCLEAR INFORMATION
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