I was recently looking at an online list of “9 of the Most Polluted Places in the World,” which may be viewed at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/31/photos-most-polluted-plac_n_693008.html?alacarte=1#s130666. (Two of them are cities right here in the U.S.–Los Angeles and the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area.) While all of these places are testimony to the awful disregard we humans have had for the world we live in, the one that struck me the most was the Lake Karachay area in Russia. This spot has the dubious distinction of being considered the most polluted place on planet Earth.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union used Lake Karachay as a dumping location for all sorts of nuclear waste materials. While there truly are NO SAFE METHODS to store or deal with nuclear wastes, the Soviets made very little effort at safety. For a long time, all manner of irradiated wastes were simply dumped into this lake. The area is now filled with such deadly radiation that merely standing near the lake for 1 hour would be lethal. You can read more about this tragic mess at http://www.damninteresting.com/in-soviet-russia-lake-contaminates-you.
There is a wonderful and immensely important book called, “Atomic Suicide?,” by Lao Russell, which strongly makes the point that the human race needs to abandon everything about nuclear power. There is no safe way to utilize it! Certainly nuclear weapons are bad, but nuclear power is almost worse in its way. It pretends to be a peaceful technology, but it creates vast amounts of deadly waste which literally cannot be handled safely.
In the spirit of “No Nukes is Good Nukes,” I wanted to pass along the following message I received. It concerns the impending opening of the first new nuclear weapons production facility in our country in 32 years. This, along with the current proposals for new nuclear energy plants, ought to be opposed strongly!
Sat Nam,
Jim Earles
Previous posting: “CWers COME TO KC AND HELP US PROTEST THE NEW
NUKE-PARTS PLANT Sept 7-8 and Oct 6-7″- a special message from Jane
Stoever
http://groups.google.com/group/National-CW-E-mail-List/browse_thread/thread/c388929130f844f3
——————-
What:
RESIST GROUNDBREAKING of the FIRST MAJOR NEW BOMB PLANT IN 32 YEARS!!!!!
When:
Wed. Sept 8, 2010
Where:
The site of the proposed new Kansas City Plant (KCP) for Nuclear
Weapons Components at Highway 150 and Botts Road
http://www.nukewatch.org/KCNukePlant/index.html
President Obama has declared that he intends to increase next year’s
funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s)
nuclear weapons research and production programs by 14%. Further,
despite crippling national debt, he claims their budgets will rise by
more than 40% from $6.4 billion in 2010 to $9 billion by 2018. This
means that eight years from now, nearly three decades after the end of
the Cold War, spending on NNSA research and production programs for
nuclear weapons will be 75% higher than the annual Cold War average of
$5.1 billion. Is this the right path to Obama’s declared long-term
goal of a nuclear weapons-free world?
Much of this escalating funding will be used for “modernization” of
the nuclear weapons complex:
http://www.nukewatch.org/facts/nwd/ModernizationPlanPR-5-14-10.pdf
This means new multi-billion dollar facilities to support the
production of plutonium pit primaries or “triggers” at Los Alamos, NM,
and thermonuclear uranium “secondaries” at Oak Ridge, TN:
http://www.nukewatch.org/facts/nwd/NewUS-productionfacilities4-29-10.pdf
http://www.nukewatch.org/facts/nwd/CMRR_NF.pdf
But these nuclear components can only become deliverable weapons of
mass destruction when combined with the thousands of nonnuclear
components that the Kansas City Plant (KCP) produces or procures (e.g,
radars, fuzes, parachutes, guidance systems, etc.). In all, KCP is
responsible for 85% of all nuclear weapons components, and makes
thousands of shipments each year to other NNSA sites for final
assembly ofnuclear weapons:
http://www.nukewatch.org/facts/nwd/KC_NWC.pdf
The Kansas City government has subsidized this new federal nuclear
weapons production plant with $815 million in municipal bonds outside
of NNSA’s annual budget. The new plant’s selected 180-acre site was
mostly used for soybean farming. However, the Kansas City government
declared that area “blighted” so that it could use bond authority
under Missouri state law designed to fight urban blight to give NNSA a
new bomb plant. Taxpayers will pay an estimated $4.5 billion over 20
years for the new Kansas City Plant, which the City will own until
private developers pay the bonds back through a lease-to-purchase
scheme backed up by a virtually certain revenue stream from the
federal government.
Meanwhile, previously unreported worker health concerns at the old
Plant are growing increasingly controversial, to the point where both
Missouri senators have called for federal investigations. In the past,
the federal government has vaguely talked about selling the federal
complex that sites the old Plant to private interests “as is” so that
badly needed local economic development can take place
However, there are no comprehensive plans for cleanup of groundwater
contaminated with PCBs and industrial solvents, and it’s not even
clear what federal agency will be responsible for managing and paying
for cleanup (estimated at greater than $200 million) once NNSA leaves
for its shiny new bomb plant.
There has been protest and civil disobedience at the new location,
Highway 150 and Botts Road, where site preparation has already begun.
Official groundbreaking for the new plant WILL BE SEPTEMBER 8, 2010.
We are organizing for protest at that first groundbreaking for a major
new nuclear weapons production facility in 32 years. As a first step,
please join us at our new kcnukeswatch e-mail list serve by sending a
message to Ann Suellentrop of the Kansas City Chapter of Physicians
for Social Responsibility. We will keep you informed of the latest
developments related to both the new and old Kansas City Plants and
protest plans as they develop. We are also seeking other groups to
sign on in support of our protests.
RESIST GROUNDBREAKING, at Highway 150 and Botts Road, on September 8,
2010, of the FIRST MAJOR NEW BOMB PLANT IN 32 YEARS!!!!!
As Concerned Residents we call on theKansas City Council, the General
Services Administration, the Department of Energy and the National
Nuclear Security Administration to respect the will of the people!
Don’t Build a New Bomb Plant!- It’s immoral and we can’t afford it
Clean Up the KC Plant! Protect our water, air and land!
Stop Killing Workers and take care of those who are sick!
Invest in Healthy Jobs and Sustainable Communities!
For more info on Sept 8th contact:
Jane Stoever
913 206-4088
janepstoever@yahoo.com
Ann Suellentrop
913 271-7925
annsuellen@gmail.com
Holy Family CW – KC MO
816 753-2677
holyfamilycw@gmail.com
Cherith Brook CW – KC MO
816 241-8047
cherithbrookkcmo@yahoo.com
See Archive of Actions and Resources bottom of link:
http://www.nukewatch.org/KCNukePlant/index.html
If You Want a Nuclear Weapons-Free World, Then Resist the First Major
New Bomb Production Plant in 32 Years
——————-
Flickr slide show of Aug 16, 2010 Direct Action at site of new KC
Nuclear Weapons Plant Site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frank_cordaro_and_the_dm_catholic_worker/sets/72157624760833630/
Following up on the resistance to the U.S. quietly continuing to produce nuclear weapons…
Sat Nam,
Jim
Published on Saturday, October 9, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
Upholding International Law in a Muddy Kansas City Soybean Field
by Felice Cohen-Joppa
The judge found me guilty. Even after I’d testified under oath that I had committed no crime when standing in front of a bulldozer in a muddy soybean field being cleared for the new Kansas City Plant, arm in arm with 13 others. On August 16, we had tried to stop preparation of the site for the first U.S. nuclear weapons plant to be built in 32 years. That’s what brought us to Judge LaBella’s Kansas City courtroom on October 7.
Many people I’ve talked to in the past year are not aware that while President Obama talks about the importance of nuclear disarmament, he and his administration are planning to replace and rebuild the nation’s entire industrial capacity for nuclear weapons production at 3 key sites, with the goal of producing up to 80 new warheads per year for another 50-100 years. This summer I joined protests at each of these 3 sites.
On July 4th and 5th I protested at the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where a new facility will be built for manufacturing highly enriched uranium secondaries. On the 65th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima, I joined a protest at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab in New Mexico, where a new plutonium pit factory will be built. The following week, on August 16, I was in Kansas City, where the remaining 85% of unique and critical components of nuclear warheads will be produced at the new plant. And I knew what my response had to be to the first nuclear bomb plant to be built in my adult lifetime – I had a responsibility to try to stop it.
So I stood in front of the bulldozer on August 16 not with the intent to trespass, but rather to try to prevent a crime from being committed. I did it as an act of conscience to try to save our planet from the nuclear threat. I did it because I understand the importance of civil resistance to bring about nonviolent social change, thanks to the many powerful examples in our nation’s history, and because I understand my responsibility under international law to prevent war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As a Jewish woman who has family members who survived the Holocaust, and some who perished, I have always very seriously regarded the responsibility of each individual to act to prevent war crimes. I have wondered what more ordinary citizens could have done to prevent the deaths of millions in the gas chambers. If a few courageous individuals, albeit at great risk to themselves, had dismantled a portion of the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz or other concentration camps, for instance, they could have saved lives even as they were breaking the law by destroying property. Certainly there are times when it is necessary to break a law in order to prevent a greater crime. And here we are, decades after the killing of so many innocent people in the Holocaust, decades after the killing of so many innocent people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with enough nuclear weapons to destroy life as we know it – and still our country plans to spend billions of dollars to build more.
Planning and preparing for nuclear war, and producing components for nuclear weapons at the Kansas City Plant in Kansas City, Missouri is a clear violation of international humanitarian law.
So I pleaded not guilty to the charge of trespass because I did not break the law. I acted in a reasonable and nonviolent manner, as is my right and responsibility under international law, to prevent a crime from taking place, and to uphold the law. I did because I know that it is up to each of us, now, before it is too late, to stop a nuclear holocaust.
Felice Cohen-Joppa is co-editor of the Nuclear Resister newsletter. She can be reached at nukeresister@igc.org, and more information about anti-nuclear and anti-war resistance can be found at the Nuclear Resister blog, http://www.nukeresister.org
I feel like I am the only one who ever posts comments on this website…but I’ll keep doing it.
The following is more relevant info which must be made known if we are to have the collective will to prevent nuclear disaster. Check it out at http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101101/pl_yblog_upshot/is-an-existential-crisis-behind-a-spate-of-nuclear-blunders.
Sat Nam,
Jim