Yucca Mountain lawsuit filed

[Kire]

Yucca Mountain lawsuit filed
Posted: March 11, 2005
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

LAS VEGAS - A Western Shoshone lawsuit to halt a high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, based on the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863, seeks to uphold the treaty and prevent a repeat of the radioactive calamity initiated by imperfect nuclear science in the aboriginal Western Shoshone territory known as Nevada.

Western Shoshone National Council Chairman Raymond Yowell pointed out the risks of leaking nuclear storage caskets and the possibility of earthquakes. He said claims of safety are the same old story: the same U.S. government propaganda that led to the deaths of soldiers who participated in the aboveground testing of the first atomic bomb without protective clothing here.

''The U.S. Government said it was safe and nothing would happen to them. Many of the soldiers developed cancers and died young. The government is not to be believed. They have their own agenda,'' Yowell told Indian Country Today.

Yowell said in this region of three extinct volcanoes there is also the danger of earthquakes. In the event of an earthquake, he believes that the steel caskets encasing the spent nuclear fuel rods and radioactive waste will be damaged or destroyed. The result will be radioactive contamination and catastrophic damage to human, animal and plant life.

''It will be there for thousands of years,'' Yowell said.

More: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410530