Uranium-238 Dumped in Lake Superior...
Just the Icing On the (Yellow) Cake
 
 
Cathy Garger
 
 
Uranium-238, the primary component of what is often called "Depleted Uranium,"
has been dumped, fired, burned, and/or exploded all over the US and in many US
waters and our oceans, too. 
 
The following article brings to our attention the issue of the dumping of
Depleted Uranium into a major US lake. But the sad truth is that this story is
merely the "icing on the cake" of the entire US Radiation Nightmare as it exists
today.
 
Yet what makes this article so very special is the simple fact that it's
quite rare that such information is covered by the US mainstream media at all.
 
Uranium weapons use in the US has a rich history of deception and cover-up. Many
people simply have no idea whatsoever that Uranium-238 in munitions is still,
to this day, not "just" being dumped, produced, and manufactured, but it's
also being fired and exploded in the open air in several states, such as
California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Alaska, and Maryland.
 
Admittedly, while we can certainly not "un-do" decades of toxic and radioactive
Uranium pollution and contamination in every one of our states, the more
"mainstream" this news becomes, the more quickly the American public will 
begin to demand a swift and total end to *all* use of Uranium... and a
complete and thorough remediation of all affected lands and bodies of water.
 
I say this often, almost as if an automatic refrain ... and then I
pause, realizing I can not simply just stop right there if I am going to tell
the entire truth.
 
The sad and candid reality is that it is simply not ever going to be possible
to clean up all of the air, water, and soils that have been radioactively
contaminated, as these invisible radioactive particles travel widely and are
spread easily through water, air, and the earth... throughout our entire
environment.
 
Man-made, health-destroying, ionizing radioactivity is everywhere. It is in
everything... in all of the air, water, and soil throughout the US.
 
There is no escaping radioactivity in America today. We can not move to any
state in the US and think we are "safe" there just because our state does
not have Uranium munitions "testing," nuclear reactors, Uranium enrichment,
Plutonium-processing plants, or just because no Uranium weapons productions
"research" or mining or production or manufacturing or dumping or burning or
exploding is taking place there.
 
From the start of the Manhattan Project in the early 1940s -  which resulted
not "just" in the production of nuclear bombs but also in thousands of open
air, radiological so-called "tests" (both large and smaller) still
conducted to this very day, the entire American environment has been bombarded
continuously with radioactive particles that will be with us for what is, quite
literally, an eternity.
 
And while we can not un-do the past... what we *can* do is to now demand, in our
loudest, most passionate, collectively assertive, unified voices: Americans
say NO MORE to man-made, ionizing radiation!
 
We can - and we must - now stand up and publicly exclaim: Americans say NO
MORE to nuclear reactors! No more to Uranium weapons!
 
As the Native American communities have been wisely, knowingly proclaiming for
many years: Leave that deadly Uranium underground - where it belongs!
 
We need to adopt a no nonsense, zero tolerance for the dirty practices of
removing Uranium from the ground and turning it into radioactive Uranium and
Plutonium fuel for use in nuclear reactors and lethal weapons.
 
We need to put an end to this deadly use of these radioactive Uranium poison
gases which sicken, weaken, and prematurely kill substantial populations of
innocents.
 
Most people who possess a working conscience are highly upset to learn that
weaponized Uranium gas has been used promiscuously as a lethal weapon in
Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 1991. But we must never forget for a
minute that it is has also been continuously used in our *own* environment, on
our *own* people, right here inside the US since the early 1940s - and
continuously ever since!
 
Most people I speak with out in public know little, if any, of this. Since the
media is generally (kept) silent on Uranium poison gas use in America and,
thus, *on* Americans... it is up to ordinary people like you and me to tell
the rest of the United States people what our government and media refuse to
say. 
 
Some websites about radiation follow this article. I urge you to share this far
and wide with anyone you suspect may not yet know.
 
Uranium inside the human body wrecks DNA and genetic material for generations to
follow. We must, for the sake of our kids, spread the word!  The need to put an
end to radioactive Uranium use is just too important to keep to ourselves!
 
Our children ~ and their children forevermore ~ will be awfully glad you did.
 
Thank you for all you do!
 
 
Cathy Garger
 
  
News From 91.3 KUWS

Duluth Indian Commission hears case for testing DoD barrels in Lake Superior

 



Story posted Tuesday at 11:04 a.m.
 
6/16/2009


The environmental action group Nukewatch is accusing the Minnesota Pollution
Control Agency of misleading the public about Department of Defense barrel
dumpsites in Lake Superior. Rich Kremer reports.
 
Nukewatch Co-Chair John LaForge says the MPCA’s statements about the barrels
dumped in Lake Superior during the Cold War years are inconsistent at best and
wrong at worst.
 

“We’d like them to clean up those internal contradictions on their website,
where on one hand they say nothing hazardous was ever found in the barrels and
on the very same website it lists the 17 toxic heavy metals and other chemicals
that were found in the seven barrels that were recovered in 1994.”
 

That list includes known carcinogens like arsenic, benzene, barium and cadmium.
Speaking to the Duluth American Indian Commission Monday night, LaForge says
state and federal agencies are also covering up possible radioactive elements in
the barrels. LaForge says he found documentation from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission that shows the company producing the waste was licensed to handle
radioactive materials.
 

“They used uranium 238 for armor piercing projectiles and it’s our
understanding that Honeywell, which is the source of these 1,500 barrels, was
machining this uranium 238 to develop these depleted uranium shells back in the
50’s and 60’s before they were used in war. Our suspicion is that the
radioactive emissions that were found by the EPA in 1990 are perhaps from some
of these uranium parts that were being machined by Honeywell.”
 

MPCA and Honeywell officials have long denied that the barrels, dumped near
French River near Duluth’s water intake, contain anything significant amounts
of chemicals. They say amounts detected were too small to pose a public health
threat.
 

Even so, American Indian Commission Co-Chair Rick DeFoe wanted to hear the
allegations.
 

“I was grateful that he came here tonight to share the information that he did
and I hope it can be dispensed in a way that will inspire and energize and
awaken those folks that are wondering, that they wonder a little bit deeper and
a little harder and that they care for this water that we have here.”
 

LaForge wants federal money to pay for water and sediment testing at the barrel
sites. Meanwhile, the Red Cliff Band of Chippewa is working with the Department
of Defense to remove 70 of those barrels for testing over the next two years.
http://www.businessnorth.com/kuws.asp?RID=2970
 
Learn more about Uranium's effects from nuclear reactors, weapons, and
so-called "testing":
 
http://iicph.org/tag/depleted-uranium/
 
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/
 
www.radiation.org
 
www.llrc.org
 
 





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