Resistance for a Nuclear Free Future - July 2-5, 2010

Top photo:  The plenary session with Ralph Hutchinson, Mary Olson, Glenn Carroll, and Jay Coghlan.

Next photo:  Discussion group in the break out session.

Next photo:  Mary Olson talking to the group.

Last photo:  music by Guy, Candie and Evan Carawan.  This is a family, with the farthest on the left the son of the older couple.

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People started arriving on Friday, July 2, for this amazing weekend.  They put us up at Maryville College – and the dorms and the food was amazing!  One of the best cafeterias for food I have ever seen.

Unfortunately, I had poison ivy on my arms, which meant I missed quite a bit of the conference (and the actions on July 5 and July 4) because I had to take care of the poison ivy.  I had to ice down the swelling and put hydrocortisone on the blisters.  I also had to wear a long sleeve shirt for the whole weekend…. And it was hot outside!

Saturday morning started with a Plenary, consisting of OREPA, Where things are with nuclear power, and where things are at with nuclear weapons.  Ralph Hutchinson with OREPA said that resistance to nuclear bombs started right after the bombings in Japan in WW2.  He said the point of the conference is to abolish nuclear weapons by non-violent means.  They are organizing to stop nuclear power too, because it is dangerous and deadly.  Disarmament begins at home – and we need to work on abolition of all nuclear weapons starting with the USA.

Nuclear waste is dumped into the Nolichucky River in Tennessee.  Tennessee is the only state that allows nuclear power site to dump waste into municipal landfills.  One of these is in Erwin, Tennessee.  There are underground caves in Tennessee, and no one knows where the water goes.  They put five million pounds into landfills in 2007 alone.  Tennessee allows incineration of these materials.

Nuclear reactor waste is forever reactive.  They haul the waste down dirt roads to Indian reservations.  The ‘spent’ nuclear fuel is high level radioactive waste, with a million years of hazard.  They called the NRC the Nuclear Racism Commission, since they dump on areas were racial minorities live.

In spring of 2010, we hit 63 thousand metric tons of radioactive waste.  There is a huge transportation risk of this material, since it is a dirty bomb on wheels.  An accident could leave an area unsuitable for habitation for eons.  They are also mobile x-ray machines that cannot be turned off.  They are not safe to transport.  Chernobyl had 200 tons of material that burned.  We have up to 7 tons in storage on nuclear plant sites.

We then broke into networking roundtable.  They want to develop small groups who will pick a nuclear weapon site and start educational process.   The USA is going back into the business of building nuclear bombs.  They are opening a new plant in Kansas City in August or September. 

April 26, 2011 will be the 25^th anniversary of Chernobyl meltdown.

 The afternoon started with an overview of the history of the anti-nuclear resistance.  There was music breaks and a series of workshops to attend in the afternoon.  I went to the one on nuclear waste, which went into how we cannot deal with the waste and how the Volunteer state was volunteering for radioactive waste disposal and processing (not to mention the Y-12 plant that has been building the nuclear bombs).

Saturday evening was both fun and emotional for me.  They had music and talks by Kathy Kelly, Liz McAlister & Jonah House.  The best part was seeing four of the Plowshares Eight have a panel discussion on their actions 30 years ago, and what they have been doing since then.  There was an anti-nuclear slide show, which including pictures of the deceased members who were activists on nuclear weapons and nuclear power issues.  They sang songs, including ‘Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on’ and ‘We shall overcome’.  It is that last song that gets me rather emotional.  I remember seeing an Afghan child in early 2002 sing that at a church (part of a PBS show) and I have often thought about what she faced when she returned to her home country after getting medical care here in the USA.  I often wonder WILL WE OVERCOME all this evil in the world?  I feel it is hopeless, but I know that I must keep on taking action for as long as I can. 

On Sunday morning, there was training on nonviolent actions, followed by lunch, and then followed by more training on nonviolence.  The afternoon had talks on NONCOOPERATION by Fr. Steve Kelly, and INTERNATIONAL LAW by Anabel Dwyer and Kary Love.  The last one was very interesting to me. 

There were many groups from around the country who are working on these issues, and they had tables of literature, shirts, CDs, books, etc.  There was one group from Australia.  One of my roommates was selling her book about Christians in Palestine.  She was raising money for Vanunu, an Israeli who blew the whistle on Israel’s nuclear weapons program.  Her book is called “Third Intifada/Uprising:  Nonviolent but with words sharper than a two-edged sword” and I like some of her ideas on what Christianity really is.  The author is Eileen Fleming.  When I finish this book, I am going to get it to Rep. Shuler to read.

One thing is very clear:  Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous and expensive.  Those plants would never be built without huge government subsidies, and I do not agree with socialism for huge corporations.  (I feel it is okay for helping poor people.) The nuclear power plants use uranium and they release radioactive waste into the environment every stage of the fuel cycle.  The chemicals they leave behind while the uranium is being developed are very destructive to life and the planet.  It leaves permanent waste behind, which is stored on site.  This waste is very radioactive, and moving it would be dangerous.  Storing it on site has multiple problems too.  And it will never go away.

We have 104 nuclear reactors here in the USA, and 77 of them are east of the Mississippi River.

And the development of new US nuclear weapons production facilities must be stopped.  These plants (three total) are planned in New Mexico, Kansas, and in Tennessee at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge. 

I will post an update tomorrow on the arrests at Y-12.