Planet in Peril (PinP) where science gets respect!

BY Jim Harding THE SASKATCHEWAN CONNECTION  Published in R-Town News on April 1, 2011 (Please also read - "Uranium City - a Legacy of Cancer.") The Fukushima’s nuclear reactors which are steadily contaminating Japan’s atmosphere, seashore, watersheds, food chains and making millions of Japanese into nuclear refugees are owned and operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. or Tepco.  Tepco  has Saskatchewan connections. The Globe and Mail describes Tepco as “one of (Cameco’s) largest customers for uranium used to fuel nuclear power plants”, and there is little doubt that much of the radioactive contamination threatening Japan comes from uranium fuel mined in northern Saskatchewan. And Tepco is directly involved in this mining; since the 1990s it has been Cameco’s partner in the massive Cigar Lake mine, which has itself had serious “accidents” and is years behind its production schedule due to recurring underground flooding.  Cameco has taken a big hit since

PUBLISHER'S COMMENT: In view of the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan, I've decided to "recycle" one of my old stories, below. I wrote it while working as a journalist with CBC Radio in Regina, SK in the late '80s. It chronicles years of cancer, a virtual "epidemic" among workers at the uranium mine at Uranium City, in the extreme north end of that province. If nothing else, it might provide an insight into the fact that it is not just the power plant phase of the nuclear system which is problematic. Keep in mind, given that Saskatchewan is a leading player in uranium production and has been for some time, the fuel rods melting down in Japan as we speak, may well have been made from Saskatchewan uranium.  (2-pt. Just click to enlarge.) I even sent it to George Monbiot, hoping to help convince him to turn away from his recent and ill-advised conversion to all things nuclear. He has not responded!  ==== 1984 - by Larry Powell

Feature story - March 21, 2011 Courtice, Ontario — Greenpeace activists today shut down environmental assessment hearings on a proposal to build new reactors at Darlington in response to the Joint Review Panel’s refusal to suspend the hearings until lessons are learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. (NOTE; Photos at very bottom are best.)

CBC - Mar 16-11 - Ontario Power Generation has notified Canada's federal nuclear regulator about the release of 73,000 litres of demineralized water into Lake Ontario at the Pickering A nuclear generating station. Full story here.

March 11, 2011 · By Robert Alvarez - IPS The devastating Japanese quake and its outcome could generate a political tsunami here in the United States. Full story here. Footnote: An explosion has now destroyed the building housing the reactor. l.p.