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 was a leading player in uranium production, the fuel rods melting down in Japan may well have been made from Saskatchewan uranium.
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!
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 was a leading player in uranium production, the fuel rods melting down in Japan may well have been made from Saskatchewan uranium.
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!
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1984 - by Larry Powell
1984 - by Larry Powell
Please also read, "How is Saskatchewan Involved in Japan's Nuclear Disaster?"
(I was honoured to have been awarded 1st prize for best radio documentary in Canada that year by the Centre for Investigative Journalism.) l.p.
