Walk for a New Spring: thru Springfield & on to Vermont Yankee

 Springfield and Arise were blessed once again with the presence of the Walk for a New Spring: Remember Fukushima.  We had a wonderful potluck supper on Friday and learned much about nuclear power, including the beginning of the process, uranium mining in Australia, the United States and Canada, and its impact on indigenous peoples.  From us, the walkers learned about our struggles in Springfield to improve our environment and end homelessness and police brutality.

On Saturday morning, we walked to the Connecticut River and had a speaker from the Connecticut River Watershed Council,  President Chelsea Gwyther, where we learned that the thermal pollution from Vermont Yankee has reduced the shad population of the river by 99%!  You can sign a petition asking Vermont Yankee to use its cooling towers here. 

At Arise, in preparation for our river ceremony, we had written haikus, and at the river we passed them out and we each read one.  The haiku I was handed was one I had written:

Broken symmetry
yet the tree still live.  This spring,
green will bind her wounds.

Arise member Bill Gibson led us in some songs and finally we each drew a stone from a bag, imbued it with our best hopes for the river, and threw them in.  Then the Walk for a New Spring headed to its next destination in Holyoke.  Some Arise members walked with them for a while.

I want to thank Ellen Graves, our Peace and Anti-Violence organizer.  I finally understood, emotionally as well as intellectually, why she and other members of the SAGE Alliance are willing to be arrested again and again to shut Vermont Yankee down.

March 24th is a Day of Action to close Vermont Yankee.  Call Ellen at Arise for more information.

What were they thinking?

With so many other things happening around Springfield from Biomass to foreclosures I'm late in re-posting this but take a look anyway. You can read the whole article at http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Thank Wazi for sending this my way.
O:nen
Liz
Arizona approves uranium mining permits in Grand Canyon 2011
(Source: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com, March 14, 2011)

"Ignoring widespread public opposition, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality issued three air- and one aquifer-pollution permits for three uranium mines located on public lands within Grand Canyon National Park’s immediate watershed," said the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and Grand Canyon Image courtesy of http: Trust.
//www.freewebs.com/leichik/science.htm

Gathered at sacred Red Butte in the Grand Canyon to oppose uranium mining here in 2009, Supai said this is a sacred place where they go to offer prayers for the protection of the earth.

Matthew Putesoy, vice chairman of the Havasupai Nation, said the Grand Canyon is a national treasure, inviting 5 million people every year to explore and be inspired by its beauty. As the 'guardians of the Grand Canyon,' we strenuously object to mining for uranium here. It is a threat to the health of our environment and tribe, our tourism-based economy, and our religion.

Supai Waters said that protection of the Grand Canyon also affects the weather patterns and climate of the earth.
"My people have lived in the canyon since time immemorial. The canyons contain power points and vortexes. If there is tampering or pillaging, the earth will not be the same.

American Indian Nations joined local residents to oppose this threat to their water and air. However, Arizona regulators caved in to the pressure from the corporation -- Denison Mines based in Toronto, Canada -- and the coopted US government.


WHAT YOU CAN DO
Contact the AZ Dept of Environmental Quality to let them know this uranium permitting is not acceptable
Henry Darwin, (602) 771-2204, Director
Eric Massey, (602) 771-2308, Air Quality Director
Trevor Baggiore, (602) 771-2321, Air Quality Permitting

http://www.azdeq.gov/function/about/contact.html

For More Information
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2011/03/arizona-issues-uranium-mine-permits-for.html

After Yucca: America's homeless nuclear waste

In Idaho. In Massachusetts. In Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Louisiana, California, New Mexico -- at 120 locations in 39 states a total of 66,000 tons of used but still dangerously radioactive fuel are stored in concrete containers under the open sky.

And now it has nowhere else to go.

In this June 25, 2002 file photo, the view from the summit ridge of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump near Mercury, Nev.,looking west towards California. (The Associated Press file photo)

But President Barack Obama opposes the repository and has slashed funding for it in his budget proposal. "Both the president and I have made clear that Yucca Mountain is not a workable option and that we will begin a thoughtful dialogue on a better solution for our nuclear storage waste needs," Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate budget panel recently.
Concerns about transportation safety, earthquakes, water contamination and its proximity to millions of Nevadans have stalled the repository's completion after two decades and billions of dollars of study and construction.

Some even contend that the Yucca Mountain project is dead.

Read more at http://www.sltrib. com/ci_11967458