With the Anti-Corporation F29 protests under their belt, Occupy Portlanders have set their sights elsewhere: Washington’s Hanford nuclear waste site. A handful of anti-nuke Occupiers, peeved by the speed (or lack thereof) of the nuke site’s cleanup that began in the late 80s, plan on hauling the Portland-centric rally to the eastern Washington locale on April 15. But, unlike recent Occupy demands, this “day of awareness” isn’t a call for action, but more a call for clarity on what is going on at the site. To get a better grasp on what fueled this event and what it has in store, I called up rally organizer Miriam German.
So what triggered this rally? Why Hanford?
A friend of mine from the Tri-Cities actually brought up the idea. She had hopes of becoming an organic farmer, which was obviously an oxymoron with a nuke site in your backyard, and wanted to make some change. A lot of people are left in the dark when it comes to Hanford’s history and cleanup progress. It’s a time bomb, really. It’s vital that we bring the similarities between the site and the Fukishima plant into the light before it’s too late.
Why now?
Sunday, April 15 is the day before Earth Day. We thought this would coincide nicely with the ideas behind a day focused on bettering the environment. It’s also a little over a year since the Fukishima disaster — an event that could easily be mimicked at Hanford.
What are you ultimately hoping to achieve with the rally?
First and foremost, awareness from those living near the plant to those in Washington, D.C. The country needs to learn about what’s going on here. We’re going to have a bunch of educated speakers giving presentations on the issue. We ideally hope to push the Hanford clean-up effort up the list of priorities of the government.
Have you spoken with Hanford officials about your impending visit? What’s their take on the rally?
Yes. I had a conference call with middle management last week and invited them to attend. I made sure they understood that it’s not a protest — our mission is to bring the issues out into the open. I told them “You are the ones who look terrible for not moving along with the clean-up. This will help both of us.” They will let me know next week if they plan on making an appearance.
How have you gotten the word out about the rally? Who’s involved?
We’ve reached out to Occupiers all across the country in hopes of having multiple rallies in solidarity on the 15th. We also have Columbia Riverkeeper, Hanford Watch, Beyond Nuclear and Oregon Conservancy involved (representatives from these groups will speak at the rally). Of course, Occupy meetings in Portland are the best source of outreach.
Why is this an Occupy pursuit?
Well, I thought if Occupy is good at anything, it’s being persistent. And that’s what we want!
Keep your eye out next month for coverage of the April 15 rally.
In related news: the San Onofre nuclear plant in Southern California (which, side note, sits on a fault line) has been shut down for the last month because of leakage.
It’s high time to re-evaluate the benefits vs. dangers of nuclear power.
It would be sweet if wind, solar, wave motion power, etc – even came anywhere close to what our society requires. But they just simply don’t. Look at the even basic math about it.
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t continue to explore these renewable ‘green’ power soarces, but they just ain’t there yet on any realistic timetable.
Every power soarce has its’ own set of problems, certainly – – but look at the French model of nuclear use.
It just may be the safest, and even cleanest, model of power manufacturing that mankind can generate.
I recall talking with a rafting friend of my sister, who just happened to be a nuclear scientist (like you meet one of those folks so often, right?) Nice guy.
But when I questioned him about the future of our country’s power usage, he just simply said we all have some serious questions and fears we must address.
Even in light of the recent tragedy in Japan, etc – I have begun to feel we – as a society – really need to look again at nuclear power as a viable solution to a great part of the answer of our countries need for power.
Nuclear technology has been evolving. It isn’t perfect. But it seems like it is becoming, ironically, the true ‘green’ alternative for power.
Also, Alex, this person that was the subject of the interview – I’m curious of to what expertise Miriam German offers, aside from opinion. Does she hold a degree in any relevent discipline?
I don’t wanna sound like a dick here, but I would like to hear of the credentials of anyone claiming to be an expert on the subject, if they are offering a rallying point for the public.
Earth Day is actually April 22nd:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day
http://www.earthday.org/2012
I’m sure that what Miriam had meant by “April 15 is the day before Earth Day” is that April 16th is the first day of Earth Week:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day#Ear…
frankieb, you do sound like a dick. Miriam didn’t claim in this article to be an expert on anything, that is just something you made up. A person does not need any special degree to organize a rally and to network people who know a lot about an issue with those who want to know about the issue.
OK, agreed on ‘expert’ – but she certainly hasn’t stated her case very well at all – and comparing Hanford to Fukishima is just simply fear mongering.
And the you have the issue of ‘occupy’ now becoming a protest for hire by any group.
Actually comparing Hanford to Fukushima is apt. The remaining reactor there is similar in design.
But please note that the main focus of this event is not power generation but the defunding of Hanford cleanup — cleanup of a slow-moving continuing nuclear disaster, occurring now, that is creeping toward mass contamination of the second biggest watershed in North America — the Columbia.
It is an Occupy Portland event because we are downstream, the biggest population center that will be affected.
The other problem with the expertise issue, of course, is that the experts continually have been wrong. Events like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima were supposed to have astronomically small probabilities of occurring — yet there they are in a space of 35 years. Something is wrong with the way that the risk assessments are made.
This is not about the defunding of Hanford, it is about getting the job done. The project is years behind in any commitments made, and slipping further as we banter here. The Project goals keep changing, the program is a secret, kind of like what is in the tanks and river.
This “clean up” right now could have many motives and goals, we do not know. It is hidden behind industry concerns, multi-billion dollar congressional appropriations, and Government agency acronyms and some tired rules. Post that with a media machine easily able to run us over and how do we talk about this?
Was there a manipulation of safety information in the early nineties, to change objectives that is costing billions of extra dollars and time?
I do not know, and after being lied to about the extent of the three Fukushimas MOX fueled reactors meltdowns, I no longer trust. I support the Message and the conversation we are bringing to Richland. We need to spend more not less!