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“SOME DAY THE EARTH WILL WEEP, SHE WILL BEG FOR HER LIFE, SHE WILL CRY WITH TEARS OF BLOOD. YOU WILL MAKE A CHOICE, IF YOU WILL HELP HER OR LET HER DIE, AND WHEN SHE DIES, YOU TOO, WILL DIE.” –John Hollow Horn, Oglala Lakota, 1932
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission actually posted a nice blog entry about the Crow Butte Uranium Mine Hearing. But, they didn’t bother to talk about the almost impossibly hard road that the opponents to the uranium mine have had to travel to get to this hearing. They didn’t bother to delve into details about what’s at stake, including the poisoning of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and its water from uranium mining. Nor, that one of the world’s most important aquifers is at stake. Above all, they didn’t bother to wonder why indigenous peoples have to fight foreign mining companies, on their own land. And, this round for almost a decade. They didn’t mention that the Lakota Sioux have been fighting a new round of uranium mining in the area of the Sacred Black Hills (Dewey Burdock Uranium Project) for almost a decade, as well, and it’s once again a foreign mining company. The only difference is that Canadian Cameco is a giant company and Powertech, now Azarga, is a Penny Stock mining company.
From the US NRC Blog:
“The Freedom to Demonstrate Demonstrated in Crow Butte Hearing Posted by Moderator on August 25, 2015
Victor Dricks, Senior Public Affairs Officer, Region IV
Demonstrators voice their opinion ahead of an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board hearing.
Both opponents and supporters of the Crow Butte Resources, Inc.’s uranium recovery facility near Crawford, Neb., faced off this week during a hearing before the Atomic Safety & Licensing Board. The hearing, presided over by three ASLB judges, involves a challenge to the renewed license issued to the facility in late-2014.
The ASLB is an independent body within the NRC that conducts adjudicatory hearings and renders decisions on legal challenges to licensing actions.
The ASLB judges are hearing evidence this week addressing nine contentions filed by opponents of the facility from several local residents and the Western Nebraska Resources Council, known as consolidated interveners, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The hearing is being held in the Crawford Community Center.
Four of the contentions are related to the safety review and five are related to the environmental review. The contentions challenge the adequacy of the evaluation and protection of historical resources at the site, and the NRC’s analysis of the facility’s impacts on surface water, groundwater and the ecosystem. The hearing will run until all evidence has been heard.
In filings with the ASLB, the Oglala Sioux Tribe said it will argue that NRC failed to adequately follow all legally required processes before issuing a 10-year license extension for the facility, causing the tribe “irreparable harm,” as a result.
Iris Paris of Crawford, Nebraska, greets ASLB judges for their hearing today.
Expert witnesses scheduled to speak on behalf of the interveners include Dennis Yellow Thunder and Michael Catches Enemy of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, as well as an archaeologist, a biochemist and three hydrologists.
The ASLB hearings come just weeks after a documentary film titled “Crying Earth Rise Up” produced by Lakota grandmother Debra White Plume premiered here in Crawford. The 57-minute film presents a case against uranium mining.
Owned by the Canadian Cameco Corp., Crow Butte Resources has been conducting in situ recovery of uranium for nuclear power plants at its site four miles east of Crawford for 20 years. Cameco is the largest operator of uranium mines in the United States. The company has submitted applications for three uranium recovery site expansion projects, which are in various phases of NRC review.
The ASLB has 90 days after the conclusion of next week’s hearing to affirm, modify or reverse its decision to renew the operating license for Crow Butte.”
http://public-blog.nrc-gateway. gov/2015/08/25/the-freedom-to-demonstrate-demonstrated-in-crow-butte-hearing/ Is Cameco larger than Russian State owned Uranium One, in the US?
The following pages, discussing the long trail to this hearing, continue from yesterday’s post: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/cameco-uranium-mining-vs-clean-water-lakota-people/
Explains Part of the almost Decade Long; Arduous Trail Leading Up to This Week’s Hearing
“Crying Earth Rise Up! Environmental Justice & The Survival Of A People: Uranium Mining & the Oglala Lakota People Copy Left by Owe Aku, Bring Back the Way (copy left = encouragement of copying and distribution at no charge for non-commercial purposes)” (Emphasis added. See the original and read the rest here: http://www.mining-law-reform.info/lakotasurvival.pdfhttp://www.oweakuinternational.org/uranium-case—allies-and.html We hope to upload more pages in a subsequent post, as time allows.)
Buffalo image from Pine Ridge BIA web site. More pictures and info here: http://www.bia.gov/WhoWeAre/RegionalOffices/GreatPlains/WeAre/Agencies/PineRidge/index.htm
Buffalo turning over nuclear cooling tower from “Crying Earth Rise Up! Environmental Justice & The Survival Of A People: Uranium Mining & the Oglala Lakota People” (Copy Left by Owe Aku, Bring Back the Way ) Color added.
Mining Awareness + 
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