NH #421: Uranium Mining Disaster SPECIAL Pt. 1: Church Rock at 40, Navajo Nation Devastation Continues – Chris Shuey, Southwest Research and Information Center

Uranium mining disaster site: SRIC’s Chris Shuey on site at Church Rock, explaining the devastation of the 1979 uranium tailings pond spill of
94-million gallons of highly acidic radioactive waste into Puerco River on Navajo Nation land.

This Week’s Featured Interview:

  • Chris Shuey is Director of the Uranium Impact Assessment Program for Southwest Research and Information Service.  He has worked with Navajo Nation communities on uranium mining issues for 38 years. Chris has helped document the persistent impact of the 1979 uranium tailings pond disaster, which dumped 94 million gallons of highly acidic radioactive waste into the Puerco River and traveled beyond Sanders, Arizona. In this special extended interview, he goes over the resulting degradation of the water, land, and health on Navajo Nation, as well as cultural issues that make the people unwilling to leave their ancestral lands, no matter how contaminated. We spoke on Tuesday, July 9, 2019 – just before I left for Church Rock, NM to cover the 40th anniversary commemoration events.
  • Navajo Birth Cohort Study – a link to a PDF explanation and some of its findings.

NEXT WEEK: Church Rock SPECIAL Pt. 2
Voices of the People,
Commemoration March

Forming the commemoration march from the site of the 1979 uranium tailings pond rupture and spill next to Red Water Pond Road Community on Navajo Nation.

Information Links:

  • Santa Susana Field Lab 60th anniversary. The meltdown of an uncontained experimental nuclear reactor in Simi Valley in 1959 – only 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles and hidden for 20 years. Learn more with this article: 60 Years Since the Largest U.S. Nuclear Accident and Captured Federal Agencies
  • Karl Grossman debunks the hoax that nuclear power is “green” on his program, Enviro Close-Up. Program features actor Alec Baldwin, who has long challenged nuclear power; former U.S. nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Gregory Jaczko, who declares that nuclear power “is not the right way forward” and is not “a solution to climate change;” Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson, energy analyst at Stanford University, who emphasizes how “nuclear is not zero carbon at all;” and others:
“The Hoax that Nuclear Power is Green” – Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman