And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: Winston Weeks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.desnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,100003193,00.html? Monday, May 24, 1999 Westerners need to hang together By Winston Weeks and Steve Erickson Benjamin Franklin said during the Revolutionary War that "We must all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately." As the failed nuclear power industry and the nuclear weapons establishment seek to dump their nuclear waste in Utah, Nevada, Idaho and New Mexico, old Ben's statement is surely true today for those of us who live in the West. Aiding and abetting this effort is the rogue offspring of the old Atomic Energy Commission, an independent governmental agency called the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). On March 1 the NRC issued a proposed rule that would allow the commission to circumvent open-meeting laws. The rule, if adopted, would permit meetings in secret by three or more of the commission's five members. As it stands now, only two members of the commission can discuss business privately that is not open to the public. Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., adamantly opposes the plan. "With the NRC having control over some of the most dangerous and volatile substances known to mankind, the argument could be made that no federal agency should pay more attention to open-meeting requirements," Bryan said. (Las Vegas Sun, April 30, 1999.) In Utah, the NRC arrogantly rubber-stamps the incredibly dangerous plans of International Uranium Corp. in Blanding to "reprocess" the deadly wastes of the Manhattan Project and approves a misguided and unscientific plan to "cap" the radioactive tailings in Moab that pollute the Colorado River system. Now the NRC tells us that "we the people" of the West don't need to know the financial details of the high-level nuke dump planned for the Goshute reservation. It is next to impossible for the public to get standing for hearings before the NRC. Even people living next to a site or proposed site are not worthy of standing as far as the NRC is concerned. The White Mesa Utes, environmentalist Ken Sleight and others have failed repeatedly to gain standing with the NRC concerning the activities of International Uranium. NRC policies make it impossible for anyone without the money to hire legal experts from even trying to navigate the labyrinth of bureaucratic jargon and legalese that comprise their rules and regulations. Without strong congressional pressure, the nuclear cabal's plan to dump radioactive waste in the West is virtually assured since the NRC, being an independent government agency, acts on its own as judge, jury and executioner. Bryan is so upset by what he sees as the NRC's lack of responsiveness to citizens that he wrote the White House threatening to withhold future support for any new nominee to the commission, including the chairman, whose term expires June 30. We call on Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, as well as our entire congressional delegation, to join Bryan in defending our interests as Westerners. As the West is under attack once again by the radioactive menace, it is time that we "hang together" lest we "hang separately. Winston Weeks and Steve Erickson are members of the Downwinders. Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
