reprinted with permission from [Mildred McKini McCain]
Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS,
THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
pages 275-277
We must reiterate for the world records: The nuclear weapon's
production-chain has and continues to endanger the lives and
livelihoods of millions of indigenous people around the world.
From the Aborigines in Australia to the Western Shoshone people in
Nevada to the peoples of the French Pacific, indigenous peoples
have witnessed the destruction of their lands and their children
by this diabolical monster. We must unite beyond our race,
religion or class and put an end to this madness! Our land and its
people are the Creator's most precious recources' and we can no
longer act as co-conspirators in this death and destruction
through our own silence. Our voices must drown out the cries and
the screams of Mother Earth, the tears of the mountains, the
deserts and the waters must be replaced with chants, songs, poems
and prayers for an end to this nuclear nightmare. . . .
We know that the scientists say that there is a controversy
over the health effects of low radiation, but I am here to tell
you, my friends -- along with the others -- that low radiation
doses is deadly, dangerous and it causes death. Death through
leukemia, death through cancer. I lost my sister through leukemia,
and my grandmother through cancer, and many of my friends who live
in Chatham County suffer from cancer. We, the second largest
county in the state of Georgia, has the highest incidence of
cancer in our state. . . .
I have experienced many emotions at these Hearings because I
have suffered the pain with my brothers and sisters. I have fought
on the front line, and I am still committed. These diabolical
practices and effects are certainly known by the so-called
experts! They know yet because of their greed and their need for
more money and more power and control these evil people continue
to tell the lie, the public is not at risk!
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Mildred McKini McCain
Mildred McKini McCain, African-American, Georgia, USA. Member of
Citizens for Environmental Justice, Savannah.
I have asked my sister to sit with me because today I am not
feeling well. I am from the tribe of the downstreamers who live in
and around Chatham County, down from a place called the Savannah
River Site where tritium and plutonium is produced.
At the age of 17, I was diagnosed with a disease drinking from
contaminated milk. It was diagnosed as a disease that would take
my life by the time I was 35, and I am grateful that the Creator
has seen fit to use me further, because very soon I will be 45. So
I have been granted ten extra years.
This day is unusual because we started without prayer, and we
know that through prayer, songs and chants we are able to
strengthen ourselves to continue fighting on for all humankind. I
have the tremendous task of ending the list of witnesses today.
You have heard and shared our pain, you have heard and shared our
struggles, you have heard and shared our strengths, and we know
that together we will win.
People of colour in the United States have long regognized that
the social, economic, environmental and racial problems facing
their communities are global in nature. Mainstream white
environmental organizations in the U.S. also have identified the
global link and constantly used slogans like: "We are all in this
together," "There is a great circle of poison to which we all
belong," and the term "everybody's back yard." This approach may
make it appear that problems of environmental degradation are
faced equally by all people. But as we have heard, we know that
when we look at the environmental issues internationally, a
pattern of disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards and
dangers exist among those who are non-white, poor, less educated,
and politically less powerful. The international linkage and the
role of poverty and race can be seen clearly defined by exploring
specific global issues, such as the environmental impact of war
and nuclear testing, development aid and trade policies, and the
exploration of hazardous industries and wastes.
The production of nuclear weapons from the mining of uranium to
the manufacture and testing of weapons has had far reaching and
devastating health and environmental effects, as evidenced by the
witnesses and lecturers over the past few days. We must reiterate
for the world records: The nuclear weapon's production-chain has
and continues to endanger the lives and livelihoods of millions of
indigenous people around the world. From the Aborigines in
Australia to the Western Shoshone people in Nevada to the peoples
of the French Pacific, indigenous peoples have witnessed the
destruction of their lands and their children by this diabolical
monster. We must unite beyond our race, religion or class and put
an end to this madness! Our land and its people are the Creator's
most precious recources' and we can no longer act as
co-conspirators in this death and destruction through our own
silence. Our voices must drown out the cries and the screams of
Mother Earth, the tears of the mountains, the deserts and the
waters must be replaced with chants, songs, poems and prayers for
an end to this nuclear nightmare.
I live downstream from the Savannah River Site. The Savannah
River Site occupies 300 square miles on the South Carolina side of
the Savannah River. It produces plutonium and tritium for nuclear
weapons. It plays a crucial role in the United States Department
of Energy's nuclear-weapons production complex which covers more
than 3,900 square miles in 13 states and employs over 100,000
people. So you see, when we fight the plant, we are fighting the
people because they say: "This is our livelihood, these are our
jobs!" So we suffer from job blood-mail, job white-mail, where we
have to decide: Do we work for the survival of our families or do
we fight this nuclear nonsense and demand that it is taken out of
our communities?
Plutonium and tritium are produced in nuclear reactors called
production reactors, as you know. The Savannah River Plant was
built in the early 1950's to produce only tritium, but the
reactors have also been used to produce plutonium. As you know,
there is only one other production-reactor site in the United
States, and you have been told about the Hanford/Washington Plant
which was gallantly fought against by another downwinder. The
Savannah River Site has five reactors, named C, R, P, K and L. The
C and R reactors are permanently shut down, the remaining three
have been shut down since 1988 because of maintenance and
operating problems, but the great, evil person called Admiral
Watkins has seen fit to make the decision to re-open the K
reactor, and so operational tests are now in effect and they have
said that it will be able to produce tritium. In 1988, when the
Savannah River Site reactors were shut down, the U.S. had
approximately 20,000 war heads in its arsenal. This stockpile
contained 100 metric tons of plutonium and 500 to 600 metric tons
of uranium; materials which we have heard decay so slowly that the
common supply will last thousands and thousands of years to come.
Tritium decays at a much faster rate, but even at that rate of 5.5
percent a year, we will still have enough tritium to fuel
thousands of bombs of destruction over the next several decades.
This tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen and it is used to
boost the explosion of nuclear weapons. You get more bang, more
boost for your money!
We know that the scientists say that there is a controversy
over the health effects of low radiation, but I am here to tell
you, my friends -- along with the others -- that low radiation
doses is deadly, dangerous and it causes death. Death through
leukemia, death through cancer. I lost my sister through leukemia,
and my grandmother through cancer, and many of my friends who live
in Chatham County suffer from cancer. We, the second largest
county in the state of Georgia, has the highest incidence of
cancer in our state. Just before Christmas this past year, one of
the K reactor's heat exchangers developed a leak. The leak was
estimated at 150 gallons of heavy water, containing about 6,000
Curies of tritium. The leak caused enough radiation to raise
tritium levels in the Savannah River 80 miles downstream to two to
three times the Environmental Protection Agency's average daily
concentration guidelines. And since that time, we have had two
more leaks, one in the air and one in the facility itself. These
leaks are dangerous and deadly to our water, our soil and our
people. But the leaks are not the only thing that we have to be
concerned about. Direct discharges of radioactive and chemical
waste to surface streams and online-seepage-basins and the use of
inadequate solid-waste burial methods have resulted in widespread
surface water and groundwater contamination. Contamination has
seeped into two aquifers, one of which is the most important
ground-water source in the Southeast region. Atmospheric emissions
of tritium and other radionuclides have resulted in the
accumulation of radioactivity in the soil, the vegetation and the
milk. The milk -- the milk -- I ask you, who drinks the milk? It
is the mothers, the pregnant women, and the children! Tritium in
air emissions is discernible in rain fall in about 100 miles'
radius of the plant, and environmental monitoring indicates that
the Savannah River Site may be responsible for relatively high
levels of SR-90 in milk produced near the site.
We African Americans stand with the indigenous people and we
charge: Genocide! We charge: Genocide! We charge: Genocide!
I have experienced many emotions at these Hearings because I
have suffered the pain with my brothers and sisters. I have fought
on the front line, and I am still committed. These diabolical
practices and effects are certainly known by the so-called
experts! They know yet because of their greed and their need for
more money and more power and control these evil people continue
to tell the lie, the public is not at risk!
I want to be able to stand one day like my friend Ruth Bosa who
has stood on the front line, fighting the nuclear fight for
decades. Like the people of Hanford/Washington we find ourselves
in Savannah in a hell of a fix, but also like the brothers and
sisters in Hanford we will not take this blatant affront on our
humanity lying down. We are sick and tired of being sick and
tired! We cannot tolerate this offense to our Mother Earth any
longer, nor to ourselves!
I am coming to a close. There are 35 million gallons of highly
radioactive waste stored in aging underground tanks, some of which
have leaks. But the Department of Energy is kind of smart, and
they said they've built a facility which is going to turn this
waste into glass and then store it in some canisters and then find
somewhere to put it. But they don't know where they are going to
put it yet! Is it going to be in your back yard? In your front
yard? In your house, in your home, to affect your children, your
babies, your generations to come? I say: Dare to say: No! Dare to
say: Hell, no! We will not accept this in anybody's back yard!
I have just one more minute.
On this last day of the Uranium Hearing I say to each of you,
let us use the power of the water, the mountains and the sacred
fire to heal and strengthen ourselves for this incredible fight to
win back our land and all of her wonders. I say to you: Fight on!
No passaran, no sarinhe! Do not surrender! Don't give up! Remember
our people united will never be defeated! Our people united will
never be defeated, and when you leave this place and you feel
tired and sick, remember the words of my grandmother, who was half
Cherokee and half African. She said: "My daughter, when you feel
as though you just can't go on, say these words to yourself [she
sings]:
'I feel like going on! I feel like going on!
Though these trials they will come on
every hand, I feel like going on!"'
Amanla ingawe tu(?) -- Power to the people! Power to the
people! Power to the people! Fight on against the nuclear
nightmare!
Thank you. Fight on for the children! Fight on for the land and
the earth!