• Japan recently had the worst nuclear accident in its history.

• Over the last three years, more than 90 percent of the country's reactors have been run in violation of government safety regulations.

• Low-level radiation has recently been shown to even more dangerous than was thought; researchers are finding evidence that many people living near nuclear facilities are radioactively contaminated, and what is our government doing about it?

Proposing to expand production and use of nuclear materials!

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced its intent to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for accomplishing expanded civilian nuclear energy research and development and isotope production missions in the United States, including the role of the Fast Flux Test Facility (more here).

Fortunately, they don't always get what they want...

FAST FLUX TEXT FACILITY WILL REMAIN IDLE

WASHINGTON, DC, November 30, 2000 (ENS) - The Department of Energy (DOE) has decided against restarting the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) at the Hanford Site, near Richland, Washington. "Commitments from the private and public sectors were not sufficient to justify restarting FFTF or building new facilities at this time," the agency said in its Final Nuclear Infrastructure Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (NI-PEIS), which will be formally issued to the public in mid-December. The NI-PEIS was developed to help the department prepare for future missions, including nuclear technology research and development, medical isotope production, and production of Pu-238 to support future U.S. space exploration.

Activists said the DOE's decision marks the end of the U.S. commitment to nuclear "breeder" reactors capable of producing more plutonium than they consume. The Nuclear Control Institute (NCI) hailed DOE's decision. For almost a decade, NCI has urged DOE to decommission the FFTF on nonproliferation, economic and environmental grounds - most recently in DOE's formal restart review process. "Termination of FFTF is a victory for nuclear non-proliferation and should serve as a signal to the few remaining countries still pursuing breeder reactors that their programs are expensive dead ends," said Tom Clements, executive director of NCI. "This decision is a boost to nonproliferation efforts that have extended over decades to halt the pursuit of a nuclear fuel cycle based on weapons usable plutonium." FFTF was being considered by DOE for production of isotopes for medical and industrial purposes, but neither public nor private interest in such production materialized. "The department remains committed to its core nuclear science and technology role," said DOE Secretary Bill Richardson. "Using our current facilities, we expect to meet the nation's foreseeable needs for years to come."

- From AmeriScan: November 30, 2000

Want to know more about this issue?

• What about the reactor problems they didn't report? How many more cases like this one, are there in the U.S.?
• What happens when someone tries to hold the violators accountable?
• Even if people and their systems were perfect, nuclear energy would still be too polluting. Visit Greenpeace to find out why.

Here's what researchers are finding out about the present health effects of past violations:

• The Enemy Within - Conclusions drawn from analyzing 50 years of US National Cancer Institute data.
• Health Effects of Radioactivity of Long Island Drinking Water
• U.S.A. Newborn Deterioration - Abstract. How living in proximity to nuclear power plants affects pregnancy and birth.
• U.S.A. Newborn Deterioration - Full article.
• Radiation and Public Health Project Teeth Study A national study to analyse baby teeth for radioactive contamination due to releases from nuclear reactors.
• Nuclear Radiation and its Biological Effects, by Dr Rosalie Bertell - Some background on why radiation is so dangerous.

  Now, how about just one example among thousands of the way political considerations make it impossible for us to handle nuclear materials safely?

• Shall we give these people permission to handle even more nuclear materials in much more dangerous settings? For example, by using plutonium to power more space probes and even space-based weapons? What if the next Cassini is in the hands of a numerically-challenged crew like the one responsible for the Mars Orbitor (which crashed into Mars because the crew forgot to give it navigation data in metric format)?

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What can you do?

• Have a look at this link to find a variety of suggestions and resources, from learning to evaluate the validity of researchers claims to joining or one of the many community groups actively monitoring local radiation or even starting a group in your area.

• Check out your representatives' voting records on nuclear issues. Then let them know how you feel about the issue.

• Pay a visit to the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space for the latest news and upcoming actions about a closely related and potentially even more dangerous development: the return of Star Wars. That's right. Once discredited, even more senseless now than when it was first proposed, The space-based missile defense system known as "Star Wars" is back, and like an antibiotic-resistant microbe, it's more virulent than ever.