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Does 2007 feel like it could be the end of the
world? The DOE plans to revamp US nuclear weapons facilities to
rebuild every weapon in the stockpile under its Complex 2030 plan.
. . . The US is actively seeking new warhead designs for new warfighting
scenarios under the Reliable Replacement Warhead program . . .
. Meanwhile, tensions toward Iran escalate, and scientists set
the Doomsday clock forward as the threat of nuclear war increases.
. . .
So let's say NO! Nevada Desert Experience, Citizen
Alert, the Western Shoshone National Council, the Western Shoshone
Defense Project, the Desert Greens, CROW, and Trinity Nuclear
Abolitionists invite you to join in the…"Many Faiths
One Heart" Sacred Peace Walk 2007, Culminating in an action
at the Nevada Test Site, March 26-April 1, 2007
Speakers will include Martin Sheen, Colonel
Ann Wright, Jane McAlevey of SEIU, Loulena Miles of Tri-Valley
CAREs, Fr. Louie Vitale ofm, Joanne Sheehan of War Resisters League,
Julie Fischel of the Western Shoshone Defense Project, and members
of the Western Shoshone National Council. With music by Emma's
Revolution and Francisco Herrera. We will also be celebrating
our elders - Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney and
Franciscan Sr. Rosemary Lynch, who is turning 90 in March. Read
more >>>
The 19th Annual DC Days will be held in Washington,
DC on April 22-25, 2007. Participants will enjoy a packed agenda
including four days of training, advocacy, and networking on issues
concerning the nuclear weapons complex. During the DC Days festivities,
ANA will also be celebrating our 20th Anniversary. For
more information and to register, please visit the Alliance for
Nuclear Accountability website >>>
Stay tuned for announcements
regarding
fundraiser's for Corbin Harney,
and possibly a Mothers Day Gathering at the Nevada Test Site.
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In a statement, released on February 23, 2007,
Pete Litster, executive director of Shundahai Network said, “Particular
recognition must go to the Indigenous people who immediately initiated
and organized resistance to this test. The Western Shoshone were
the first to bring public attention to Divine Strake, initiating
the coalition process that originally activated over fifty organizations
to stop the test in the first round. This was conducted in the
courts, through public education, and through non-violent direct
action last spring during the weekend when the test was first
scheduled to be conducted. Over thirty people were arrested at
that time, including indigenous people and many allies who participated
in a weekend peace camp at NTS". Read
Pete’s full statement >>>
Activists and organizations continue to monitor
the developing situation of the program behind the Divine Strake
Test. This is a program designed to develop low yield nuclear
bunker buster bombs that could be used against hardened underground
facilities in Iran and other countries.
On March 2nd, 2007, a hearing took place and
a U.S. judge ordered a status report on Divine Strake. A newspaper
article stated “"Plans for the massive non-nuclear
Divine Strake blast at the Nevada Test Site are dead but legal
issues surrounding the controversial bunker-buster experiment
were resurrected Friday. ... Opponents fear that the government
will conduct smaller blasts that, while not as large as Divine
Strake, could still stir up potentially deadly radioactive dust
that lies on the ground of the test site and could be blown to
their homes"
Divine Strake was an integral part of STRATCOM's
new Global Strike mission, which is otherwise said to provide
mainly non-nuclear means of defeating time-critical targets. Divine
Strake was to be the first nuclear effects simulation of this
kind against underground targets since President George W. Bush
in Summer 2004 directed STRATCOM to "extend Global Strike
to counter all HDBTs [Hard and Deeply Buried Targets] to include
both tactical and strategic adversarial targets.
The Global Strike mission continues. A
new website www.idealist.ws
has been established to monitor this testing program and future
plans for the Nevada Test Site. Also, activists can sign
up to a new email list to receive action alerts and news developments
The list is sponsored by StopDivineStrake.com,
an online organization dedicated to providing clear, intelligible
and insightful information and analyses about the Divine Strake
test and related issues Read
more >>>
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007, 9:00 a.m., Federal
Courthouse, Reno, Nevada
Please come and show your support to protect
this area from mining expansion by Barrick and Kennecott (Canadian
and Australian companies) If you need a ride or a place to stay
contact the Western Shoshone Defense Project by March 14, 2007.
(main office: 775-468-0230; Larson Bill 775-744-0257). The hearing
is set for 9 am in the federal court house at 400 South Virginia
St. in downtown Reno. Please plan on arriving at 8:30, as the
court hearing will start at 9 am sharp and no one should enter
the courtroom after the hearing starts. From the Western
Shoshone Defense Project
From www.desert-rock-blog.com
and www.blackmesais.org
Hello friends and allies!
HELP STOP THE DESERT ROCK POWER
PLANT!
Click
on this link to sign the petition!
Time is running out! These signatures will be
delivered to legislators who will be voting on the Desert Rock
power plant. We have a very short amount of time to gather the
names of people in opposition. Your help is appreciated!
The Desert Rock power plant would be the third
power plant on the Navajo reservation, south of Shiprock, NM.
Elders and community members have been camped out in resistance
to the power plant since December. We are now at the State Legislature
in New Mexico opposing two bills that would give the power plant
an $85 million tax credit. Read
more >>>
Honor The Water,
Respect The Water, Be Thankful For The Water, Protect The Water
- Indigenous Brothers And Sisters Struggling To Defend The Ancestral
Lands Of Indigenous Peoples. From
the Indigenous Environmental Network
Free Trade Agreements and neo-liberalism have
brought about a rapid expansion in economic globalization in recent
decades. We now see how poor and indebted countries look to the
exploitation of natural resources as the solution to their economic
problems. The wealthy and industrialized nations continue this
resource exploitation within their own countries as well as continuing
the resource incursions into other people’s lands in other
parts of the world. In many cases, these resources are found on
the ancestral lands of Indigenous Peoples. Mining, oil, gas, corporation
agriculture, and water extraction, water privatization and pollution
are at the heart of many resource conflicts on and around Indigenous
Lands throughout this Western Hemisphere. In the past, we have
been marginalized in the decision-making processes that end up
harming our People and the land we care for.
WE ARE
NOT INVISIBLE
Our Indigenous Peoples and communities have known and demonstrated
that we have the knowledge and capacity to take care of the Earth
and various cultural and natural resources that we have been given.
Governments and corporations have sought our Indigenous Traditional
Ecological Knowledge that may be beneficial to their interests.
When Indigenous and corporate interests collide, governments politically,
socially, and economically isolate us into geo-political paradigms
where we are forced to make decisions about the sanctioning exploitation
of mineral and fossil fuel resources. In other situations, water
and air pollution come from sources outside of our territories.
This exploitation, privatization and contamination upset the balance
of cultural resources and sacred sites. As Indigenous Peoples
and communities come to better understand the risks associated
to resource exploitation, there is an increasing amount of resistance
to project proposals and/or a growing demand for remediation of
existing problems. This has had the effect of forcing governments
and corporations to respond to our concerns.
WE HAVE
THE POWER TO BRING CHANGE
INDIGENOUS WORLD WATER DAY is March 22. This is an invitation
to your community to participate in an international event that
will raise the Indigenous Voice in defense of Sacred Water. It
consists of organizing in each community a public event according
to your traditions and according to the unique forms of your people.
We must illustrate to the national and international audience,
and the media, that Indigenous Peoples are united to defend water
in all places where it is threatened. We must demand clean up
where it is polluted. We must promote laws that recognize the
sacredness of water and inherent customary rights to water, by
Indigenous Peoples. As these events take place in all regions
of the Americas, we will remind the world of the role and responsibilities
as Guardians and Protectors of Water that we, as the Original
Peoples have played since the beginning of time. The world is
out of balance; this is the moment to act on behalf of our Mother
Earth, and the water that sustains all life. Read
more >>>
From the Western
Shoshone Defense Project
On February 7th, 2007, Western Shoshone National
Council provided a report to the United Nations Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination charging that the United
States has failed to respond, let alone comply with the recommendations
set forth in Decision 1(68) and in fact, continues to proceed
with highly threatening activities against the Western Shoshone
peoples in violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
THE U.S. HAS NOT COMPLIED WITH
THE CERD DECISION AND INSTEAD, HAS INCREASED ACTIONS THAT THREATEN
IMMEDIATE AND IRREPARABLE HARM TO WESTERN SHOSHONE PEOPLES.
Read
the full pdf report >>>
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The Department of Energy is requesting public
comments on their Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. (GNEP)The deadline
for comments are April 4th, 2007- GNEP
would encourage expansion of domestic and international nuclear
energy production
Domestically, GNEP includes project-specific
proposals to construct and operate three facilities. The proposed
nuclear fuel recycling center would separate the SNF into its
reusable components and waste components and manufacture new nuclear
fuel using reusable components that still have the potential for
use in nuclear power generation. The proposed advanced recycling
reactor would destroy long-lived radioactive elements in the fuel
while generating electricity. The advanced fuel cycle research
facility would perform research into SNF recycling processes and
other aspects of advanced nuclear fuel cycles. The GNEP PEIS will
consider 13 sites as possible locations for one or more of these
facilities, as well as alternative technologies to be used in
these facilities.
GNEP is a sweeping proposal to restart nuclear
waste reprocessing in the United States. Reprocessing—incorrectly
called “recycling” by the Energy Department—is
expensive and polluting, and poses a serious risk to U.S. national
security and global efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
The Energy Department, which is responsible
for implementing GNEP, is required to request comments from the
public about what issues should be part of its analysis of the
program. Use the sample letter below to tell the Energy Department
why it should abandon the dangerous and polluting GNEP program.
Read more about GNEP
>>>
Public Citizen action alert:
Tell
the Energy Department that you oppose reprocessing radioactive
waste!
A radiation exposure-setting body, the International
Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), is poised to release
their report, Recommendations, to allow more and higher radiation
exposures to people, animals and the environment. ICRP says it
is accepting comments on their document Draft ICRP Recommendations,
but they are not issuing an official comment period. Further,
Recommendations is missing its abstract, editorial and summary.
Since these are the portions that many of the public and press
will read, it should go without saying they need to be included
for comment before this document is approved and finalized. Comment
and sign-on letter by March 14, 2007 Read
more >>>
Talk of a “nuclear renaissance”
abounds. The accidents at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island are
receding in public memory. Promises of improved safety and performance
are coupled with billions of dollars of subsidies. However, the
claims that nuclear power is a necessary energy source for displacing
greenhouse gases hasn’t convinced investors that new nuclear
power plants will be safe and profitable investments.
New nuclear power plants will not be cost competitive
with other electricity generating alternatives. Wind power and
other renewable technologies, combined with energy efficiency,
conservation and cogeneration can be much more cost effective
and can be deployed much sooner than new nuclear power plants.
Building expensive new nuclear plants will divert private and
public investment from the cheaper and readily available renewable
and energy efficiency options needed to protect our climate.
In competitive markets, new nuclear power plants
will be bad investments. At the same time, worldwide private equity
and venture capital investments in clean energy continue to grow.
Worldwide investment in renewable energy capacity was almost $40
billion in 2005 and the renewable energy markets continue to grow
robustly.
The "atoms for peace program ”
which was intended to make the public more comfortable with the
horrifying destruction of the nuclear bomb. Originally, the promise
was that the technology would provide energy that would be “too
cheap to meter.” However, in the last 50 years, nuclear
energy subsidies have totaled close to $145 billion and amount
to more taxpayer dollars for R&D than for all other energy
sectors combined. In fact, nuclear power became the energy that
is “too expensive to matter.” Read
more >>> January 2007
(pdf)
N
With
radiating waves, a skull and crossbones and a running person,
a new ionizing radiation warning symbol is being introduced to
supplement the traditional international symbol for radiation,
the three cornered trefoil. Read
more >>>
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From Alliance
for Nuclear Accountability - A national network of organizations
working to address issues of nuclear weapons production and waste
cleanup
The Bush Administration's selection of a "mix-and-match"
design for a controversial, new generation of U.S. nuclear warheads
reflects a choice of politics over responsibility -- according
to a network of watchdog organizations. The Alliance for Nuclear
Accountability (ANA) said that the attempt to merge elements of
competing proposals from the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratories for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW)
will result in a more complicated design that violates Congress'
intent for the program, as well as international law.
"Combining these two misguided RRW designs
points to a political decision designed to bring yet more funding
to both Los Alamos and Livermore. This is a new low in radioactive
pork politics," added Jay Coghlan, Director of Nuclear Watch
of New Mexico. "The Bush Administration wants to appease
both labs by directing taxpayers' dollars toward a jumble of unneeded
and unproven new nuclear weapons while damaging global nonproliferation
efforts under the Non-Proliferation Treaty."
The National Nuclear Security Administration
(NNSA), the semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency within DOE,
has spent over $10 billion in the last decade to certify the reliability
of the stockpile, yet it claims a lack of "reliability"
as the justification for more spending on new nuclear weapons
and facilities. The RRW has become the centerpiece of the Energy
Department's Complex 2030, a $150 billion overhaul of the entire
U.S. nuclear weapons complex. Read
more >>>
The majority of comments asked DOE to
add an alternative that assumes continued reduction in the size
of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
In response to the public comments, DOE is revising
the range of alternatives it will analyze in a Supplemental Programmatic
EIS on the future configuration of the nuclear weapons complex.
About 975 people attended scoping meetings held in 12 locations
across the country during November and December 2006. About 350
people provided comments orally at the meetings, and, in addition,
DOE received more than 32,000 written comment documents, most
via email. The majority of comments asked DOE to add an alternative
that assumes continued reduction in the size of the U.S. nuclear
stockpile.
"We¹re evaluating how best to address
these comments in the Supplemental PEIS," said Ted Wyka,
NEPA Document Manager. Read
more >>>
For four decades, the Nevada Test Site was ground
zero for hundreds of nuclear weapons tests. Then in 1992, the
United States conducted its last atomic weapons test at the outdoor
lab, leaving the tightly guarded installation the size of Rhode
Island in a bit of limbo.
Although the bombs have gone silent,
the Bush administration has left the door open to a return to
testing, pushing a more aggressive nuclear posture and seeking
money to cut the time it would take to begin testing at the site.
Read
more >>>
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From Tri-Valley
CAREs
In a major victory for local activists, permits
that would have allowed Livermore Lab to increase its open air
explosions annually by 8-fold have been cancelled by the San Joaquin
Air Pollution Control District. Citizens and groups challenging
the permit received the news by phone from the air district; no
formal statement has yet been released.
Site 300, Livermore Lab's high explosive testing
range, was granted permits in November 2006 to detonate up to
8,000 pounds of high explosives annually and 350 pounds daily.
These explosions would also involve unknown quantities of toxic
and radioactive material including Uranium 238. The Lab's permit
application was silent about the exact contents of the explosions.
Read more >>>
“The Treaty of Tlatelolco shows
the world that it is possible to transform situations of potential
paralyzing fear (such as the Cuban Missile Crisis) into opportunities
where governments and peoples can create zones of safety where
life can flourish.”
On Valentine’s Day this year, 14 February
2007, thirty-three countries of Latin America and the Caribbean
celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the world’s first nuclear
weapons free zone. At the party celebrating the 40th Anniversary
Year of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, the Atomic Mirror launched “Valentines
to Tlatelolco: The Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Path to a Nuclear
Free World.”
This year-long campaign will promote awareness
of the successful and positive contribution of nuclear weapons
free zones to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. It will
form the heart of a global initiative to explore how nuclear weapons
free zones can contribute to the fulfillment of a nuclear free
world. We will encourage the expansion and development of new
zones, both locally and globally. Read
more >>>
Over nine years in the making, "Trespassing"
is a feature-length documentary film that poetically examines
our fight for survival. By focusing on the battle around nuclear
storage in the United States, the film carefully unpacks a deadly
controversy around land rights, uranium mining, nuclear testing
and the disposal of nuclear waste.
In revisiting the consequences of U.S. nuclear
policy, "Trespassing" reveals a common thread in the
lives of its protagonists, demonstrating how the actions of the
past resonate in the present. The film introduces a range of perspectives,
including Stewart L. Udall (former Secretary of the Interior under
Kennedy and Johnson), Corbin Harney (Western Shoshone spiritual
leader), Steve Lopez (Fort Mojave Indian and Coordinator for the
Native Nations Alliance), Anthony Guarisco (Director, Alliance
of Atomic Veterans) and Dorothy Purley (Laguna Indian and former
uranium miner). Each story adds a layer of humanity to this evocative
mediation on the ability of a culture to bring itself to the brink
of annihilation while simultaneously producing "gatekeepers"
to combat that annihilation. Find
out more about this film >>>
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Tewa Women United, along with Shundahai Network,
is a member of the BASE community
of organizations
Tewa Women United (TWU) started
as a gathering of women from the Northern New Mexico Pueblos,
who believed in the inherent power of Tewa women and who felt
the need to enhance their strengths through a circle of trust,
love, hope, forgiveness and sharing. TWU believes our true traditional
past practiced no separation of intellect and intuition - the
head from the heart, nor the separation of the people from their
spirituality. In order to nurture the harmony of all life with
oneness of spirit in the relationship of natural law, we must
nurture the future generations through our traditional way of
spiritual living. Visit
the Tewa Women United website
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Faslane 365 is a one year continuous peaceful
blockade of the Trident nuclear submarine base at Faslane, Scotland,
from 1st October 2006 to 30th September 2007. Faslane 365 is asking
a wide range of local, national and even international groups
from all sections of civil society to come to Faslane with at
least 100 people committed to stay and make their visions for
a just and peaceful future visible for at least two days. Visit
the Faslane 365 website >>>
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Highlighted
historical event
10 days of protest and
direct action organized by American Peace Test, a predecessor
to Shundahai Network, demanded an end to nuclear testing at the
Nevada Test Site, a massive outdoor laboratory and national experimental
center for testing nuclear weapons larger than the state of Rhode
Island. The actions resulted in over 2,200 arrests, the largest
number of arrests at a political protest outside Washington, D.C.
in U.S. history.
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Movement
building 101
From Andrew Lichterman - DisarmamentActivist.org
In our organizations, we need to emphasize activities
that get people working together with others in a sustained way,
and where an increasing number of people are learning the skills
needed to initiate and carry through work themselves. Some questions
we might ask ourselves in choosing actions to build a movement
which is sustainable for the long term are: Read
more >>>
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From phone reports of those who have visited
Corbin, it sounds like he has been doing better this past month
and his pain has decreased. He has expressed his deep gratitude
for all of the people who have contributed to his care. He is
unable to respond to each person, but your support means so much
to him.
Friends are helping to raise money for
him and helping at Poo Ha Bah with physical maintenance and his
care. There is a fundraising event planned for Las Vegas and we
hope to include information about that soon, we also hope to have
a written update about his progress and a message from Corbin
soon.
Still, you can read a recent article regarding
Corbin’s impact on the movement, watch a 1 ½ minute
video on youtube.com of Corbin saying a prayer at the Nevada Test
Site, and leave a message for Corbin. We will print all of the
recent messages out at the end of the month and mail them to Corbin
for him to read. Please
visit his web page
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We have received many inquiries
recently about the state of Shundahai Network and its programs.
We seem to still be in a transitory phase with no office and decreased
capacity to participate in organizing and managing campaigns.
We are continuing to develop the website and will continue with
the email newsletter and occasional alerts.
We are trying to fill an important
niche by becoming a comprehensive web resource for nuclear and
indigenous activism. In the past year, 242,114 unique visitors
have visited our website 295,843 times. Over 200 activists have
signed up to our email list bringing the total subscriptions to
1,286. We know we are providing a useful service and will continue
to try and expand and refine our capabilities.
This next month we will be starting an interactive
Blog where you will be welcome to participate by posting information,
and alerts and possibly some online strategizing. If
you have any feedback, criticisms, suggestions, or would like
to participate in our web development project, please send an
email to us. Please be patient
while we respond.
Thanks for all you are doing to protect
Mother Earth and her people. Thanks for continuing to be a part
of the Shundahai family.
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