Nuclear Waste Threatens Mississippi (updated 5/7/24), UNAC: Decolonization and Imperialism, and Scared of the Bear?

Women Against Military Madness Newsletter, Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring 2024

Nuclear Waste Threatens the Mississippi River

Should the Leaky Monticello reactor on the Mississippi run for 80 Years?

Photo: Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Presentation: Nukewatch co-director John LaForge discusses Monticello’s radioactive groundwater contamination and Xcel’s current appeal for a 20-year license extension.

Update March 30, 2024 by John LaForge of Nukewatch

THREE DEMANDS

• Extend the public comment period
• Set up a public hearing
• Do not renew the license. 53 years is already over-extended life of the Monticello plant

Xcel Energy has applied to run its old Monticello nuclear reactor in Minnesota until 2050, when it would be 80 years old. Please join Nukewatch in doing something fast and easy to help protect the water we all depend on. The Monticello reactor lies on the banks of the Mississippi River only 200 miles from its headwaters – a major source of drinking water downstream including the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul and many more. It threatens accidental radiation releases, like the recent, 829,000-gallon leak of radioactive tritium wastewater which may have reached the Mississippi River.

UNAC Conference 2024: “Decolonization & the Fight Against Imperialism”

Scared of the Bear? A New Russian Nuclear Weapon in Orbit Soon?

by Joel Weisberg

Perhaps you have read recent reports in the media about a possible new Russian weapon, with a mission to destroy U.S. satellites and perhaps using an orbiting nuclear bomb to do so.  Some say it will be placed in orbit in a year or so.

Many military and civilian activities are dependent on satellites, so if these reports are correct, one could imagine serious effects on our economy, our military, and even our everyday activities. The mere placement of such a weapon in orbit would mark a major escalation of the nuclear arms race and violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

However, I find many reasons to be skeptical of these reports. First, why would Russians use a nuclear bomb when they already have demonstrated the capability to shoot down satellites with non-nuclear interceptors (as have the U.S, China, and India)? Those alternate types of weapons would have many advantages over an anti-satellite weapon that uses a nuclear bomb and would not violate a major arms-control treaty.  Such a system could be built, but my biggest question is, “why bother?”  (More about this in the next Women Against Military Madness Newsletter.)

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