Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

86 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
respondents found that 74 percent answered “yes” to whether
Japan should gradually decommission all 54 of its reactors
and become nuclear free. 63
The nuclear industry, however, has used the growing concern
over carbon-based power generation to try to relaunch
nuclear power because of its so-called limited contribution
to climate change. This effort has been sustained despite the
recurring disasters. Some environmental campaigners, so dismayed
by the low rate of progress on reducing carbon dioxide
emissions, have revised their own thinking on the necessity for
nuclear power.
The claims, however, that uranium is somehow a more
sustainable fuel base do not withstand close examination.
They depend on claims of improvement in practice that are
not subject to critical scrutiny. They are in large part based on
ignoring the significant environmental and health costs at the
point of production and by selective inclusion and exclusion
of data seeking to create a sustainable image of nuclear power.
Uranium Mining and Indigenous Peoples
The history of nuclear power has been one of discrimination
and disregard for indigenous peoples. Indigenous lands
carry a disproportionately high proportion of uranium mines.
The opposition of the Mirarr of the Northern Territories of
Australia is documented in the case studies in Chapters 1.1
and 2.3.
Since the end of the Second World War, the growth of
the nuclear power industry in the USA has been fuelled from
mines largely developed in the US South West, and especially
on Navajo lands. The adverse effects on the health of indigenous
miners and their families as a result of contact with
contaminated clothes has been profound.
Numerous studies have revealed shocking levels of contamination
and resultant deaths and ill health. A 1995 report
published by American Public Health Association found:
“excess mortality rates for lung cancer, pneumoconioses and