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accounting fraud, Andrews Texas, anti-environmental riders, AP1000, appropriations, aquifer exemptions, arsenic, Big Polluter Agenda, biology, BLM, Cameco, Canada, chemical hazard, clean air act, clean water, Clean Water Act, Colorado, Congressman Lamborn, Cynthia Marie Lummis, Democrats, DNA, Endangered species act, environmental damage, Fracking, groundwater protection, heavy metal poisoning, Honeywell, Honeywell Metropolis Works, House Interior and Environment appropriation bill, India, interim spent nuclear fuel storage, ISL, ISR, Jason Smith Missouri, kamikaze, kamikaze suicide, land application, lead, lead poisoning, legislation, Lindsey Graham, Mining Industry, Missouri, Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC, nuclear, oil and gas industry, pollutant dischages, radioactive materials, radioactive waste injection, radiological hazard, radium, Republicans, retirement, Rosatom, Russia, safe drinking water, SEC, South Crolina, Spent Nuclear Fuel, Toshiba, Toshiba Westinghouse Fuel, toxic metal, uranium, uranium mining, US Budget, US Congress, US debt, US DOJ, US EPA, US EPA rule ISL uranium mining, US Ex-Im Bank, US Export-Import Bank, US SEC, US Senate Energy and Water Appropriation, US taxpayer, Vogtle, West Texas, Westinghouse, Westinghouse Fuel, wildlife protection, WIPP, WIPP accident, Wyoming
One of the sneak through provisions that some members of Congress – both Dim-witted Dems and Republicans – want to tack onto must pass spending legislation would allow the US government to lend $9 Billion to Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse to build nuclear reactors in India. NINE BILLION US DOLLARS GUARANTEED BY THE US TAXPAYER FOR TOSHIBA TO BUILD NUCLEAR REACTORS IN INDIA! Not millions but billions. Toshiba has both admitted to and is being investigated by the US SEC-DOJ for accounting fraud!
Kamikaze suicide dive against the USS Essex, 1944
“Toshiba confirms SEC investigation as accounting woes spread to US
Securities commission and justice department examining ‘accounting problem’ at US units, says Japanese corporation, amid profit-padding crisis” https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/18/toshiba-confirms-sec-investigation-as-accounting-woes-spread-to-us
And, the US goverment wants to give them a loan to build nuclear reactors in India! A loan guaranteed by the US taxpayer. Their AP 1000s have had defects. This year in the US see for instance Vogtle: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/part21/2016/
They have had issues at their Fuel Fabrication Facility too: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2016/09/23/us-nrc-public-meeting-re-augmented-inspection-at-toshibas-westinghouse-nuclear-fuel-fabrication-facility-in-south-carolina-sept-27th/ If the US NRC pays any attention at all to a problem it is something which is very, very bad!
“EXCLUSIVE – India seeks loan from U.S. for nuclear reactors, snags remain Posted: Thu, 22 Sep 2016 17:05:50 +0530 NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India is negotiating with U.S. Export-Import Bank for an $8-9 billion loan to finance six Westinghouse Electric nuclear reactors, two sources familiar with the talks said, although a lending freeze at the trade agency threatens progress ” http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/INtopNews/~3/BPvHjUfjNXM/india-nuclear-exclusive-westinghouse-us-idINKCN11S00U
While the article says Democratic lawmakers, it’s actually Democrat and Republican US Congress members who are “pushing this week to include a provision in a must-pass spending measure that would lift the board quorum requirement for deals above $10 million.” This would then allow this deal to move forward.
Mr. MOXY Nuclear Porkbarrel, Lindsey Graham, from South Carolina wants EX-IM back. Westinghouse-Toshiba has a fuel fabrication facility in South Carolina, which has had safety-related issues: “Sep 22 2016 Graham to Vote Against Continuing Resolution WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today made this statement on the Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government through December 9: “I will not vote for a Continuing Resolution which does not contain a fix for the Export-Import (EX-IM) Bank. We are losing American jobs to foreign competitors for no good reason.” We need a fully functioning EX-IM Bank to help ensure American manufacturers are able to compete in the international marketplace on a level playing field. “EX-IM Bank has received strong bipartisan support in both the House of Representatives and Senate. Its past time we fix this problem and allow the Bank to operate as intended.” http://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2016/9/graham-to-vote-against-continuing-resolution
https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2016/09/23/us-nrc-public-meeting-re-augmented-inspection-at-toshibas-westinghouse-nuclear-fuel-fabrication-facility-in-south-carolina-sept-27th/
A list of some Democrats and Republicans supporting Ex-Im: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/819/all-info
The Natural Resources Defense Council has compiled a frighteningly long list of anti-environmental riders which Congress members may sneak through, probably this week, attached to “must-pass” spending legislation. The NRDC explains: “The Republican Leadership is trying to force this Big Polluter Agenda on the public through provisions in must-pass spending bills. These provisions are called “riders” because they ride along on unrelated legislation” https://www.nrdc.org/resources/anti-environmental-budget-riders Unfortunately, it’s not just the Republicans.
Some examples from the NRDC extensive and lengthy list of anti-environmental riders are found below. We are including those most closely related to uranium mining-nuclear industry. There is even an attempt to further privatize nuclear waste. While WIPP is US government owned there are multiple private contractors. There was also oversight at multiple levels of government. Without the multiple levels we probably would never have known about the WIPP accident and release of radioactive materials into the environment.
WIPP 22 May 2014
Spent nuclear fuel conceptual drawing for WCS (Waste Control Specialists) open air interim nuclear waste dump in Western Texas, US NRC.
They are too cheap to even put a building over them, but apparently will leave them out baking in the hot Texas sun.
Currently the Spent Fuel Dry Casks are left outside at nuclear reactor sites in a similar manner (USNRC photo)
WCS already buries radioactive waste in West Texas. Low level just means diluted.
On the NRDC anti-environmental rider list we find that US House Member Cynthia Marie Lummis, Republican from Wyoming (a uranium mining state), has added a rider to the US House Interior and Environment appropriations bill to block the EPA’s proposal to monitor groundwater at in-situ leach (ISL) uranium mines. NRDC points out that “These increasingly common mining activities threaten to contaminate groundwater resources with uranium and other harmful pollutants like arsenic. Groundwater that is contaminated by these activities cannot be restored to pre-mining conditions. These long lived contaminants can also migrate to other water sources, demanding that we carefully monitor their movements at a very minimum.” Radium is a major danger, as well. It is sometimes injected, sometimes sprayed on the land (“land application”), where it is taken up by plants and/or goes into the groundwater.
[NB: Lummis is probably doing this at the behest of the National Mining Association, and Honeywell, which owns the only uranium conversion (hex) facility in the USA at Metropolis, Illinois. She is retiring so she could do the right thing instead of doing last minute run-through of bad things:
https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00029788&type=I
Lummis allegedly has a degree in Biology, so she should have the capacity to understand the criminality of her behavior: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Lummis
Image from US EPA: Radionuclides in Drinking Water: A Small Entity Compliance Guide, p. 3”
Lummis is also old enough to have heard of “Arsenic and Old Lace“: “The “murderous old lady” plot line may also have been inspired by actual events that occurred in a house on Prospect St in Windsor, Connecticut, where a woman, Amy Archer-Gilligan, took in boarders, promising “lifetime care”, and poisoned them for their pensions.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_and_Old_Lace_(play) The US government may be murdering Americans so as not to have to pay out the Social Security that they have invested, as well. The US BEIR report says that radiation induced cancers have life-shortening effects of 14 to 15 years on average. This means, on average, Americans will die shortly before retirement age – how convenient for the US government which has robbed Social Security: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-great-social-security-robbery/5315603 ]
Some of the additional anti-environmental riders noted by the NRDC:
In the US Senate, a rider was added to the committee report (p. 72) with the goal of getting the US EPA to withdraw its rulemaking about protection of groundwater from uranium mining contamination.
A US Senate Energy and Water appropriation (Sec. 306) rider allows storage of nuclear waste at private waste sites.
A US Senate Interior and Environment appropriation (Sec. 423) keeps the USEPA from regulating lead in ammunition and fishing tackle. A similar rider (Sec 420) was added to the House Interior and Environment appropriation bill. Another rider (Sec 429) in the House Interior and Environment appropriation bill “blocks EPA from enforcing rules to limit exposure to lead paint.”
[Note by MA: “Lead poisoning is a type of metal poisoning caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Like most toxic heavy metals, lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues, including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. The brain is the organ most sensitive to lead exposure. Lead interferes with the development of the nervous system and is therefore particularly toxic to children, causing potentially permanent learning and behavior disorders including violence.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning We add this for those too young to recall the problem of children ingesting peeling lead-based paint. While there is also radioactive lead, non-radioactive lead is the end of the uranium chain. Thus, uranium acts as a toxic heavy metal, i.e. it is both a chemical and radiological hazard.]
A US House Interior and Environment appropriation (Sec. 430) rider “blocks EPA from requiring industries with high probability of causing catastrophic damage by releasing toxics into the environment from carrying insurance to cover environmental damages they cause. A similar rider was included in the Senate Interior and Environment appropriation (Sec. 417).”
A US House Interior and Environment appropriation ( p. 83) rider would force the US EPA “to continue using Safe Drinking Water Act aquifer exemption rules that have allowed for the contamination of underground sources of drinking water. These rules are used to exempt underground sources of drinking water from the protections of the Act, and have led to approval of aquifer exemptions without scientifically-defensible evidence about water quality, demand for groundwater, the rapid depletion of aquifers in many states, the extent to which climate change is likely to exacerbate these problems, improved technologies for water treatment to use brackish groundwater as a drinking water source, and advances in our scientific and technical understanding of groundwater contaminant fate and transport“.
A US House Interior and Environment appropriation (Sec. 426) “exempts pollutant discharges that Congress intended to be covered by the Clean Water Act. These discharges damage or destroy streams and wetlands without adequate environmental review, even though the Clean Water Act would otherwise require such oversight.”
US House Member Chris Stewart, Republican from Utah, added an amendment to the House Interior and Environment appropriation (Sec. 453) which “prevents monument designations in a long list of U.S. counties. The amendment undermines the Antiquities Act, one of our most important tools for preserving our natural and cultural heritage for future generations.” [NB: Top Donor to Chris Stewart by sector is oil and gas industry, but it also helps the mining industry, including the uranium mining industry: https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&type=C&cid=N00033932&newMem=N&recs=20 ]
US House Member Lamborn, Republican from Colorado, added a rider to the House Interior and Environment appropriation bill which “would stop the implementation of the Bureau of Land Management’s hydraulic fracturing rule“. The NRDC says that the BLM rule, which Congressman Lamborn is attempting to undermine “will help reduce the severe risks posed to clean water and important drinking water sources by widespread hydraulic fracturing by improving well safety, increasing transparency, and addressing threats from toxic wastewater. Health, safety and environmental protections must keep pace with hydraulic fracturing’s rapid growth.” [NB: Top Donor to Lamborn by sector is oil and gas industry. But, he’s heavily tied to Honeywell, which does the only uranium conversion in the US, and to the mining sector: https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?type=C&cid=N00028133&newMem=N&cycle=2016 ]
NRDC lists 13 riders which undermine Wildlife protection. Thirteen! These are clearly to make it easier for mining corporations, oil and gas corporations, and ranchers, to destroy land, including public lands.
US House Member Jason Smith, a Republican from Missouri, placed a rider in the House Interior and Environment appropriation bill which “undermines the ability of citizens to recover legal fees when they settle a lawsuit brought under the Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, or Clean Water Act. This restricts access to the courts and allows for the most egregious violations of the Act to remain unchecked and encourages costly litigation rather than settlement.”
[Jason Smith donors here: https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2016&cid=N00035282&type=C&newmem=N ]
Read the entire lengthy list of anti-environmental/toxic riders here: https://www.nrdc.org/resources/anti-environmental-budget-riders Bad Congress Members will probably sneak in more at the very last minute. If you appreciate the NRDC’s serious work, notice that there is a “Donate” button at the above link. It’s not easy to summarize or find heads or tails of what mischief the US Congress is up to, but the NRDC apparently has done it.
See too: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2016/09/24/public-land-seizure-extremists-advance-bills-in-us-house-senate/
Regarding the US EPA rule on ISL Uranium Mining, the Navajo DOJ noted:
“The goal and rationale of this proposed rule are highly commendable, but are completely eviscerated by provision for ACLs based on proof that the operator has made “reasonable” efforts to restore the aquifer. As currently written, the proposed rule gives very little hope that any aquifer subjected to ISR will be restored to baseline conditions.” Harrison Karr, Navajo Nation, Department of Justice (DOJ) [ACL, Alternate Concentration Limits, are exemptions; ISR is better known as ISL (In Situ Leach)] See more here: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/navajo-nation-doj-on-epas-isl-uranium-water-restoration-proposal/
Opposition to the weak and toothless groundwater (aquifer) restoration required under the US EPA proposal, suggests that uranium miners such Canadian Cameco and Russian government owned Rosatom are currently mega-polluting the aquifers. How badly are they polluting that even a weak, toothless, standard raises alarm? It further raises the question of why Canada’s Cameco and Russia’s Rosatom are allowed to operate, mine and pollute American air, land and water, when the US has yet to clean up old American owned uranium mines? This US EPA rule, which sounds so glorious on the surface, appears to follow the US NRC lead in manipulating statistics to make the requirements as weak as possible. See:
https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/isl-uranium-mining-water-restoration-gaming-the-stats-us-epa-deadline-27-may-2015/
https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/isl-uranium-mining-water-restoration-part-ii-gaming-the-stats-us-epa-deadline-27-may-2015/
https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/insightful-commentary-us-epa-isl-uranium-hearings-on-water-restoration-comment-deadline-27-may-11-59-pm-washington-dc-et/
https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/citizens-to-us-epa-water-is-scarce-needs-protection-from-isl-uranium-mining-deadline-for-your-comment-is-27-may-11-59-pm-washington-dc-eastern-time/
This blog post probably should be edited for clarity. Because of time constraints it probably will not be. The riders could be run through as early as Tuesday.
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