"As political pressure mounts in the US to meet #NetZero carbon goals, the #NuclearPower industry makes its case for a nuclear 'renaissance.' This documentary by NECESSITY director Jan Haaken follows activists as they expose the true costs of the new small nuclear reactor designs."
This hits home for me. I worked with Klee's family and provided #MutualAid when I was reporting on #BigMountainResistance years ago. My heart goes out to the Benally family and all those whose lives he touched. #RestInPower Klee. Link to fundraisers via #IndigenousAction at the end of the post.
"Our hearts are broken by the sudden passing of our friend Klee Benally. Reflecting on Klee's life, we remember the words of #CheGuevara that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.
"Klee never surrendered, he never surrendered to #capitalism, the media, or the forces of conformity that sought to change who he was.
"Ultimately, Klee taught us to regain our power, regardless of the road that led us to the present.
"#LouiseBenally, #Dine' of Big Mountain, said, 'Klee was our spokesman and leader. His departure only means we have to rise and carry on the work for justice for #nature and humanity. I will miss him Greatly and Honor him highly.'
"His roots come from Big Mountain, grandson of the late #RobertaBlackgoat.
"'He was an honorable young leader, well respected and moved with a lot of compassion. My nephew brother and my leader. A truly beautiful and amazing person who really lived up to his beliefs, and was not driven by money but by needs and concern, a real warrior.
"'He was our shining Star, he will continue to shine on us from the other side.
"'He always honored me, I will miss that,' Louise said.
"#MichelleCook, Dine', said, "We are deeply saddened and shocked by the news of the passing of our beloved warrior Klee Benally. We ask for prayers for his family during this time. For decades Klee led an uncompromising position, for the liberation of our peoples and lands developing and synthesizing an embodied praxis of #Indigenous-based political, economic, and social resistance against all forms of #SettlerColonialism that degrades people and the planet.
"Klee was our North Star guiding with his heart and mind. While some may not have shared his positions, no one can question his dedication, determination, and sheer drive to protect his people despite the risks and danger.
"He risked his life through forms of #CivilDisobedience and #DirectAction to protect our Dook’o’oosłiid, #HolyMountain, from development to maintain our ceremonial practices and way of life.
"Klee taught us all to be brave to fight against #genocide, the co-optation of our movements by the non-profit #IndustrialComplex. To be steadfast in what is right and wrong. To honor our ancient law and the sacred teachings of our ancestors and Grandmothers. His departure leaves a void in #DinehNation and #IndianCountry," Michelle said.
"Now with his absence from this material plane, we have no choice but to pick up his work, pick up the slack, carry on, and continue our journey as Dineh in a beautiful way.
"Klee's development and articulations of Indigenous peoples and archaism remain relevant for social movements within and outside of #TurtleIsland.
"He will forever remain in our hearts and minds as a guiding light and a growling voice, screaming freedom, for our earth and peoples. We love you Klee.
"Rest now our sacred warrior. Your work is done. We are so proud of the legacy you cultivated and left for this world. Journey well our sweet warrior until we meet again in the great Star Camp beyond," Michelle said.
"Klee passed to the Spirit World on Sunday, after being hospitalized.
"We send our sincere condolences to his family, his wife Princess, family Jones, Berta, Jeneda and Clayson, and all those who knew and loved him.
"From locking down in U.S. #BorderPatrol headquarters in Tucson, to chaining himself to equipment in defense of Sacred San Francisco Peaks, to battling the auctioneers of the sacred ceremonial items in Paris, and leading the #HaulNo movement to protect the #GrandCanyon region from #UraniumMining, to feeding the #unsheltered in Flagstaff, and standing strong for #Palestine, Klee's powerful actions remain a moving force to resound, and rivet us all, to struggle for a world without compromise.
"Klee recognized that the non-profit industry was designed to water down the resistance and turn the sacred movements into an ATM machine for a select few.
"THERE is an abundance of reasons why it is folly to continue with building nuclear reactors.
"There is the cost which is huge compared with investing in more genuine sustainable energy. There is the problem with #RadioactiveWaste, for which there is no solution yet for the legacy waste, let alone producing more.
"There is the potential for attack: if wind turbines were attacked it would make for a difficult situation, but if a #NuclearReactor were to be sabotaged it would be the equivalent of a #NuclearBomb going off.
"And the latter also goes for a breakdown at a plant. We need to remember the effects of Chernobyl and Fukushima which continue to this day.
"Looking at #Britain, many of the nuclear reactors are sited on the coast and the proposed #SizewellC on the east coast. With #GlobalWarming, the sea level will rise and there is the chance of tidal surges with a threat to these reactors.
"But there is another factor which is never mentioned by the proponents of nuclear energy — the fuel used is uranium, and it will be in the future.
"This is mined mainly on the lands of indigenous people across the world. Countries and regions where uranium is mined include the land of the #FirstNations in Canada, the lands of the Navajo (Dine) in the southern United States, the land of the indigenous people of #Australia, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC), Niger, Greenland and #Kazakhstan.
"The miners and their families have suffered over the years from mining this dangerous radioactive mineral in poor conditions, with illness and early death.
"In a recent statement printed in the Morning Star, the people of Niger (note this is not Nigeria but Niger, a former French colony) said that they were fed up, 'because for over 50 years, #France has relied on uranium from #Niger for its energy security. We know that French farmers were generously compensated when their land was requisitioned in the 1970s to build nuclear reactors. But for our people the mines have only meant dangerous working conditions, ill health, and historically poor remuneration.'
"From the #DRC, a former Belgian colony, Joe-Yves Salankang Sa Ngol, of the Congolese Civil society in South Africa, said: “Before the uranium would destroy life in #Japan referring to the nuclear bombs the US dropped on [#Hiroshima and #Nagasaki] it first started by destroying life in Shinkolobwe.'
"The #Shinkolobwe mine in the DRC was owned by a Belgian company which sold its first 4,200 metric tons of uranium to the US for the #ManhattanProject.
"Here is what #JoshuaFrank said in his book, #AtomicDays, about the conditions. “Paid very little, at times less than the minimum wage, these miners would enter deep uranium shafts and chip away at the walls, often 1,500 feet below the earth’s crust.
“They filled their wheelbarrows with the uranium ore, all the while choking on soot and dust particles. It was dark. There was no ventilation. It was tremendously difficult, perilous work. They ate in the mines and drank water that dripped from the walls. The water contained high quantities of radon — a radioactive gas emanating from the ore.”
"He continued: '#Radon exposure causes lung diseases, the dangers of which were well known to scientists and the medical community prior to World War II. But the Dine the [#Navajo] were deemed expendable.'
"And Frank also said: 'In addition to the impact on #Dine health, their land too was ravaged. Upwards of three billion metric tons of waste was created as a result of extraction on Dine lands, a dizzying amount to poison native communities throughout the south-west [of the US] to this day.'
"These, and many more stories of the same situation across the globe, show how supporters of nuclear power have turned a blind eye to the suffering of the miners and their families, not to mention the devastation done to their land.
"However, in different regions the local people are fighting back. For example, in #Greenland, in 2021, a ban on uranium came into force after the Inuit government’s successful election campaign.
"There had been a ban earlier, but this was then overturned in 2013. But with the indigenous #Inuit now in control of the government, the ban will probably hold.
"If we turn to Britain, there is no significant amount of uranium to be found and there is no commercial mining. So, Britain must import uranium from #Canada and #Namibia.
"No thought seems to have been given by the two main political parties which support new nuclear build, or the trade unions, or the media proponents of nuclear power, to the shameful history of uranium mining which will continue if new reactors are built. It has been called nuclear colonialism.
"Several recent reports show that there is no need for nuclear; 100 per cent genuine #renewables can provide Britain with enough energy.
"Supporters of nuclear power should think hard about their positions. Surely, for example, workers in Britain would want to act in solidarity with their mining comrades across the world?"
"On this week’s #MakingContact, we bring you a special encore of an episode that first aired in June. We’ll hear an extended interview with #IveyCamilleManybeadsTso, a #queer#Diné filmmaker and director of the award-winning #documentary Powerlands.
The Dirty Deadly Front End of Nuclear Power — 15,000 Abandoned Uranium Mines (Pt. 1)
by Josh Cunnings, March 11, 2016
"The perplexing problem of these open, deadly, toxic messes was discussed between Emerson Urry and Arnie Gundersen.
"Urry: I want to go back for a minute to the uranium. We were talking about Fukushima and obviously the myriad isotopes that are put off as a byproduct of the nuclear fission that is happening in the reactor. It all starts there with the uranium, and there was quite a rush for that, and now we have all of these situations. To our understanding there are about 15,000 abandoned uranium mines that have been left in complete ruin with very little cleanup or remediation at all, just in the western United States. This has happened, by-and-large, because of an antiquated mining bill – the 1872 Mining Bill – still affecting these situations today – that kind of allowed miners to just walk away from these situations — but yet, they remain in the open leaching off tailings – blowing around #radioactive dust. I think there’s about 4,500 of these exposed mining sites just in #Navajo country – another 2,500 or so in #Wyoming. How do we deal with that situation? What does the future hold in those regards, and quite frankly, are we all being poisoned by these mines?
"Gundersen: I’ll give you another example of the same thing, and I would say 'yes' to everything you said is the quick answer. There is a mill-tailings site in Moab, #Utah. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission [#NRC] told the owner of the site that they needed to set aside six million dollars to clean it up. Well, the actual #cleanup is a billion dollars. What did the owner do? They declared #bankruptcy and walked away.
"Urry: And it wasn’t bonded? No bond?
"Gundersen: Right. It wasn’t bonded. You know, if you bonded uranium mining, you wouldn’t have uranium mining."
Not far from #Kakadu are deposits of #uranium. #Aboriginals have known to avoid this area for centuries—it is known as "sickness country". The artwork shown here depicts a person with swollen joints—the first signs of radiation poisoning.
"Our land was first created by Bula, who came from saltwater country to the north. With his two wives, the Ngallenjilenji, he hunted across the land and in doing so transformed the landscape through his actions. In a number of places, Bula left his image as paintings in rock shelters. Bula finally went under the ground at a number of locations north of Katherine in an area known to us as 'Sickness Country'. It is called this because the area is very dangerous, and should not be disturbed for fear that earthquakes and fire will destroy the world… Bolung the Rainbow Serpent inhabits the deep green pools found in the Second Gorge. We do not fish in the pools where Bolung sits. When fishing close to these pools, we can take only a small portion of the fish caught and throw back the rest in order to appease Bolung. Drinking water must not be taken from these deep pools but rather from the shallow associated waters. Pregnant women and new initiates may not swim in the Katherine River for fear of disturbing Bolung, who must not be spoken to and must be left undisturbed.”