Malu 'Aina

Aloha Peace Ohana,

This Friday, April 15th will mark our 500th consecutive weekly Hilo Peace Vigil at the downtown Post Office/Federal Building on Waianuenue Ave from 3:30-5PM

Please try to come, if at all possible, even if only for 5 minutes, to mark this special occasion. We will have an open mic for sharing thoughts this week.  It is tragic that we need to continue standing up and speaking out for peace.  But silence in the face of an ever increasing number of wars is not an option.  Silence is consent and we want to make it clear that we do not consent to endless war and a budget that cuts programs for seniors and the poor but continues war funding and handing huge profits to arms makers.

Please pass this email onto friends and make a few extra phone calls to encourage others to get up and stand up for peace, especially at this FRIDAY’S 500TH WEEKLY VIGIL.
I received an email from a reporter with the Hawaii Tribune-Herald newspaper that he is going to speak to his editor for approval to do a story on the vigil, so it would be helpful to have a good turn out this week for a possible news story.
I also encourage people to sign up on our malu-aina.org webpage to get notice of new posts, that includes our new peace vigil leaflet every week.

With gratitude and aloha for your long-standing solidarity,

Jim Albertini

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O.Box AB

Kurtistown, Hawai’i 96760

phone: 808-966-7622

email: JA@interpac.net

Visit us on the web at: www.malu-aina.org

Press Release: April 9, 2011
I would hope this technology can be used to also remove the more than 2000 fifty-five gallons drums of radioactive solid waste dumped on the ocean floor off Hawaii’s shores.  The waste was generated — tools, clothing, etc. from nuclear submarine nuclear fuel rod replacement done at Pearl Harbor.  See news article by Nadine Scott, “Nuclear Waste,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 4 April 1979

Jim Albertini
Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action
P.O.Box AB
Kurtistown, Hawai’i 96760
phone: 808-966-7622

email: JA@interpac.net

Visit us on the web at: www.malu-aina.org

The Environmental Notice Office of Environmental Quality Control April 8, 2011

U.S. Army Technology Demonstrations of Remotely Operated Underwater Munitions Recovery System & Energetic Hazards Demilitarization System, Offshore Waianae, Oahu

Federal Action: Federal Agency Activity

Federal Agency: U.S. Department of the Army

Contact: Ms. Patricia Billington, (808) 438-8365

Location: Ordnance Reef offshore Pokai Bay, Waianae, Oahu

CZM Contact: John Nakagawa, 587-2878, jnakagaw@dbedt.hawaii.gov

Proposed Action: The Department of the Army is proposing to conduct technology demonstrations of the Remotely Operated Underwater Munitions Recovery System (ROUMRS) & Energetic Hazards Demilitarization System (EHDS) in nearshore waters off Waianae, Oahu, during a 21 day period in the summer of 2011. The proposed demonstration consists of two commercially available technologies that have been adapted for the remote recovery of munitions from the ocean floor, and the demilitarization of recovered munitions on an offshore barge. During the demonstration period a safety zone of 3,727 feet would be enforced around the Demilitarization Support Vessel (DSV), and a safety zone of 254 feet during towing of salvage baskets used to remove recovered munitions to the DSV. Additionally, safety procedures require a general safety zone of 500 feet around the remotely operated vehicle and support vessel. The safety zones around the DSV may be reduced to about 100 feet on weekends. The safety zones may temporarily interfere with some boating, fishing, and other in-water activities during work hours. The purpose of this research is to safely demonstrate technology to recover and destroy underwater military munitions.

Comments Due: April 25, 2011

Notice of Availability, Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact Technology Demonstration of Remotely Operated Underwater Munitions Recovery System and Energetic Hazard Demilitarization System at Ordnance Reef (Site HI-06), Waianae, Oahu

Pursuant to the Council on Environmental Quality regulations for implementing the procedural provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Army NEPA regulation (32 CFR Part 651), the Department of the Army prepared an environmental assessment (EA) of the potential environmental and socioeconomic effects associated with the proposed technology demonstrations at Site Hawaii 06 (HI-06), Ordnance Reef, Waianae, Oahu, Hawaii. These technology demonstrations will assess the Remotely Operated Underwater Munitions Recovery System (ROUMRS) and Energetic Hazard Demilitarization System (EHDS). This EA considers the Proposed Action and the No Action Alternative.

The Proposed Action consists of technology demonstrations involving the limited recovery of underwater military munitions (UWMM) and the destruction (demilitarization) of any recovered UWMM using commercially available technologies that have been adapted, including development of new components and procedures, for the recovery and destruction of UWMM. The Proposed Action is a limited (roughly 21-day) demonstration of technologies (ROUMRS and EHDS) designed to evaluate the limited remote recovery of UWMM and the at-sea destruction of any recovered UWMM. These demonstrations will provide the Department of Defense technologies that may be required to address UWMM that are determined to pose an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment, while addressing concerns raised by the state of Hawaii and local communities about the munitions present.

Based on information compiled and analyzed during preparation of the EA, the US Army finds that the Proposed Action to demonstrate and assess ROUMRS and EHDS would not result in significant adverse impacts on either the man-made or natural environment. Therefore, an environmental impact statement will not be required.

A notice of availability of the EA and Draft FNSI will be published in the State Department of Health, Office of Environmental Quality Control publication, The Environmental Notice on April 8, 2011, followed by a 30-day comment period. The EA is available for download at http://ordnancereefhawaii.org/. Copies of the EA and draft FNSI can also be obtained by contacting Lori Wong, 808-438-0665, or Dawn Lleces, 808-438-0474 at the US Army Corps of Engineers, Honolulu District, Attn: CEPOH-PP-E/L. Wong, Ft. Shafter, HI 96858-5440; or by email at OrdnanceReef-EA@usace.army.mil. Copies of the EA and draft FNSI are available for review at the following libraries: Waianae Public Library and Kapolei Public Library. Comments on the EA and the draft FNSI should be submitted to the US Army Corps of Engineers, Honolulu District at the mailing address or email address above by May 7, 2011. Comments will be considered, addressed, and incorporated where applicable into the FNSI.

Aloha Peace Ohana,

Reminder: there will be a peace meeting on Monday, April 11, 2011 from 7-9 PM at the Keaau Community Center.

We meet on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month so mark your calendar for April 25th as well.
Among items for discussion are
1.  upcoming Friday, April 15th peace vigil which will be our 500th consecutive week in Hilo at the downtown Federal Building/Post Office.  The theme with be tax related such as “Bring the war dollars home.”  “Reduce taxes: Stop the wars!”  Jobs not War!  Jobs or Income now!  Tax the super rich! Bring a creative sign though we always have plenty to share.  We’ll be having an open mic for the special occasion.
2. Report on DU resolutions in the State legislature.
HCR 18 and SCR 89 and SCR 118 all calling for comprehensive independent testing and monitoring (with citizen oversight) to determine the level of DU contamination at Pohakuloa.
None of these resolutions have been scheduled for hearings as of this date that I know of.  Please email or call your legislators to press for hearings.  The deadline is nearing.
3.  The escalating wars in the middle east/ and Africa.
4.  The Fukushima nuclear crisis and global consequences
5.  Evaluation of the NRC phone conference March 31st meeting on Pohakuloa DU
Other ideas????
Please come, bring a friend, and help pass the word.  Mahalo.
—

Jim Albertini

Responding to the Message of Fukushima

by Franciscan Priest Louie Vitale

In “From Hiroshima to Fukushima,” an article published in The Nation on March 15  in the wake of the nuclear power disaster in Japan, historian Jonathan Schell once again hit the mark.  ( See www.thenation.com/article/159238/hiroshima-fukushima).  The author of …The Fate of the Earth published in the 1980s, Schell again mobilized his brilliance…  Given the half-life of plutonium is 24,000 years, Schell opined, humankind should invest at least 12,000 years in intensive study of nuclear power before authorizing any further use of this dangerous technology.

Why can’t this message, which seems so obvious to many of us, not register in Washington?
The day after the magnitude of this disaster began to come chillingly clear, President Obama held a press conference… The president opened with a reference to Libya, making the stock point that the United States needs to be freed from its dependence on foreign oil. He mentioned that we have to produce more of our own oil and commented with pride on new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. No mention of the BP catastrophe was forthcoming. He then referred to the need to develop alternative sources of energy… followed by a call for the expansion of nuclear energy…

For thirty years, I have been part of a worldwide movement to end the perils posed by nuclear radiation. This movement achieved a global Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and a US moratorium on testing of nuclear arms at the Nevada Test Site. All along, we have raised the concern about nuclear weaponry’s supposedly kinder and gentler twin, nuclear power.  Periodically, like this month, humanity is jolted into a new awareness of the dangers posed by nuclear energy. Most of the time, however, we sleep on…

It is time to awaken from our nuclear sleep.  Schell’s invocation of the monumental timeline implicit in all things nuclear reminds me of philosopher and activist Joanna Macy’s Nuclear Guardianship Project. It envisions contributing to the political, technical and moral understandings required to keep radioactive materials from further contaminating the biosphere, in order to protect present and future generations. The project proposes shrines at the edge of nuclear facilities, and a global myth of “poison fire” to warn countless future generations of the danger.

The writing on the wall is a glaring radiation symbol.  Now is the time to finally listen with our full attention to the survivors of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Bikini Atoll, and the atomic veterans and cancer victims downwind from the Nevada Test Site in Utah and many other locations.  Rather than using this latest disaster as an opportunity to jump-start a long moribund nuclear power industry…we must see it for what it is: a stark message for a new direction, for a Nuclear Guardianship Project to end six decades of wildly dangerous experimentation and to safeguard the future.  It is never too soon to start.

Franciscan Priest Louie Vitale is a co-founder of Nevada Desert Experience and Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service.  He is currently serving six months in Lompoc, CA federal prison for engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia last November protesting torture training.  He has spent years in jail and prison for non-violent resistance to war, nuclear arms and injustice — he is a true peacemaker and justice seeker.  Mahalo Louie.

War & Nuclear Power: Never Again!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622.  Email ja@interpac.net   http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (April 8, 2011 – 499th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

UC Berkeley
Home » Forums » Berkeley Radiological Air and Water Monitoring Forum

EPA to raise “safe” limits

The EPA is at it again, they now want to change the “safe” limits of exposure to humans. The EPA wants to raise “Protective Action Guides” (PAG’s) to levels vastly higher than those at which they are currently set allowing for more radioactive contamination of the environment and the general public.

“According to PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the new standards would drastically raise the levels of radiation allowed in food, water, air, and the general environment. PEER, a national organization of local, state, and federal employees who had access to internal EPA emails, claims that the new standards will result in a “nearly 1000-fold increase for exposure to strontium-90, a 3000 to 100,000-fold hike for exposure to iodine-131; and an almost 25,000 rise for exposure to radioactive nickel-63″ in drinking water. This information, as well as the emails themselves were published by Collapsenet on March 24.

In addition to raising the level of permissible radiation in the environment, PEER suggests that the standards of cleanup after a radioactive emergency will actually be reduced. As a result, radioactive cleanup thresholds will be vastly lowered and, by default, permissible levels of radiation will be vastly increased in this manner as well.”

This is very disturbing and I wanted the readers of this amazing forum to know this info. Remember, these are the same people who said the air was safe to breath on 9/11.

Japan Also Raised Decontamination Levels

. On Monday 3/21/11, Japan raised the threshold for human decontamination from 6,000 counts per minute to 100,000 counts per minute; more than 16 times previous limits—They have raised other limits as they continue to create new truths. Then they announce how nearly 90,000 have been screened, and ONLY about 90 have tested above the 100,000 level “considered to be the Yardstick” for contamination. The increase from 6,000 is nowhere to be found. So, last week, if you got a reading of 7,000, you received a full wash down and new clothes. Today, you test at 90,000 and the aide worker tells them they are safe enough—move along and contaminate everyone in the shelter. Sadly, I said no one would remember the increase six months from now—looks like it took less than a week.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/80010.html

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/81216.html
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