MB Civic

Published on Worldwatch Institute (http://www.worldwatch.org)

The Other Side of Nuclear Waste
By Alana Herro
Created Jun 14 2006 – 11:24am

The residents of Kara Agach, a mountain village in western Kyrgystan, are receiving radiation doses as much as 40 times the internationally recognized safety limit, according to a new study cited in the June 10 issue of New Scientist [1]. After intensive uranium mining from the 1940s to the 1960s, the region is home to 23 radioactive waste dumps, many of which risk being dislodged by earthquakes, landslides, and other geologic activity. As the villagers of Kara Agach ingest contaminated food on a daily basis, the 25,000 people who live three kilometers downstream are at constant risk of the waste entering the river system and affecting their health. The unstable dumps also threaten neighboring Uzbekistan’s main agricultural center, the Fergana valley, some 20 kilometers west.

Uranium mining is an essential part of the nuclear energy industry, but its health and environmental effects are often overshadowed by debates over the safety and byproducts of nuclear power plants. (According to Karen Charman, author of a recent two-part series on nuclear energy in World Watch [1] magazine, as reactors and equipment age there can be no guarantee that Chornobyl-like disasters will not happen again.) But the problems associated with the uranium feedstock are no less serious.

The waste sludge from uranium mining, known as tailings, contains radioactive isotopes such as radium-226, which decays into radon, a cancer-inducing gas. Ingestion or long-term exposure to radium increases the risk of developing debilitating diseases including lymphoma, leukemia, and aplastic anemia. But the uranium boom shows no signs of slowing. Between 2002 and 2004, global uranium production increased 11 percent, reports [2] the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). And the NEA estimates that production could double by 2010 as worldwide energy needs grow.

The nuclear industry says it has significantly reduced the environmental impacts of uranium mining by requiring such practices as keeping the tailings under water and then burying them so the radon is not released. Even so, Ian Hore-Lacy, a scientist with the World Nuclear Association in London, does not have “great confidence that all countries will adhere to such standards, particularly developing countries where enforcement is lax. If the demand for uranium grows faster than current mines can produce it, the pressure to loosen environmental standards could have dire consequences for those who work in or live near uranium mines.

Source URL:
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4101
Links:
[1] http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn9307.html;jsessionid=CGOLDMBGFLLA
[2] http://www.nea.fr/html/general/press/2006/redbook/welcome.html

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Published on Worldwatch Institute (http://www.worldwatch.org)
Warming Climate Linked to Runaway Blazes in Brazil’s Rainforest
By Alana Herro
Created Jun 9 2006 – 1:19pm
Acre, Brazil’s westernmost state, is preparing for yet another onslaught of out-of-control forest fires following one of its driest rainy seasons in years. According to George Woodwell, founder and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center [1] (WHRC) in Massachusetts, the systematic warming of the Earth is causing increased evaporation in tropical regions like Acre. “This effect is now becoming conspicuous in unusual droughts and fires in the normally wettest segments of the tropics,” Woodwell explains.

The current drought is a grim reminder of the devastating fires that occurred following similar warning signs last year. The Acre River, the main local water supply, is even lower than last year’s 34-year low. The meager water level indicates a lack of moisture in the subsoil, which makes the trees and other vegetation less resistant to fire, says Irving Foster Brown, who works in Acre with WHRC and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The blazes typically begin during the dry season when farmers burn their fields to clear debris and stubble. Experts expect the burning to quickly get out of hand, as it did in 2005 despite a government-imposed moratorium punishable by imprisonment.

Brown cautions local residents to actively prevent the type of destruction that resulted last year, including more than $80 million in direct economic losses, 200,000 hectares of fire-damaged forests, and 300,000 hectares of open burned areas. Brown predicts the damage will be even worse this year because the fire-affected areas will burn more readily. He is collaborating with the Acre government to map out the most severely burned regions in an effort to identify where fire-control activities will be most needed. Since 1990, average annual deforestation [2] in the Amazon region of Brazil has reached 18,000 square kilometers, an area half the size of Costa Rica.

Source URL:
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4092
Links:
[1] http://www.whrc.org/
[2] http://www.whrc.org/southamerica/index.htm

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“Our German forbearers in the 1930s sat around, blamed their rulers, said ‘maybe everything’s going to be alright.’ That is something we cannot do. I do not want my grandchildren asking me years from now, ‘why didn’t you do something to stop all this?” –Ray McGovern,  former CIA analyst of 27 years, referring to the actions and crimes of the Bush Administration