Nevada Indian dubs Yucca Mountain proposal 'environmental racism'

[jpak]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20071204-0855-wst-yuccamountain.html

LAS VEGAS – An American Indian drew applause during a public hearing on a proposed national nuclear waste dump when he accused the Energy Department of “environmental racism.”

“Transportation of waste to Yucca Mountain would place a disproportionate burden upon the Western Shoshone nation and has not been addressed,” Western Shoshone National Council member Ian Zabarte told a Monday hearing on environmental impacts and transportation plans for the repository in the Nevada desert.

“It is environmental racism,” he said.

The open forum in Las Vegas was one in a series hosted by the federal Energy Department as it collects comment on plans to ship to Yucca Mountain and bury some 77,000 tons of spent nuclear reactor fuel and military waste.

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[Bobbieo]

1. I'm surprised Zabarte was allowed to make a comment at the forum.

Usually the DOE stifles comments at their hearings but WSDP - Western Shoshone Defense Project- and the DOE are at sword's points these days
as the DOE is not only trying to dump their nuclear wastes on Indian land but open new mines without cleaning up the old abandoned ones and the environment.