Article in Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 Hawaii Tribune-Herald on Nuclear-Free law
See article below
article in Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 Hawaii Tribune-Herald on Nuclear-Free law
Sunday, October 6, 2024, Hawaii-Tribune Herald
Measure targets law regarding radioactive materials
By MICHAEL BRESTOVANSKY
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
A decades-old Hawaii County law allowing the U.S. Armed Forces to freely transport radioactive materials on the island may be coming to an end.
Kona Councilman Holeka Goro Inaba introduced a measure at Tuesday’s meeting of the County Council’s Committee on Health, Safety and Wellbeing that would remove an obscure exception in the County Code specifying that prohibitions against the transportation or storage of radioactive material do not apply to U.S. military operations.
Inaba told the committee the county in 1981 adopted a blanket prohibition of radioactive materials, but the council added the military exemption in 1984 during “emergency circumstances.”
Inaba told the Tribune-Herald how that exemption came to be: In July 1984, a U.S. Navy warship, the USS Ouellet, visited Hilo. Because the ship was nuclear-armed, the council at the time hastily introduced the exemption to prevent
The USS Ouellet is shown in 1983 at Naval Station Guam.
U.S. Navy photo
INABA
it from contradicting the county’s prohibition on radioactive materials.
The new bill includes “a statement that removes that exemption … (which) should not have ever been, in my opinion,” Inaba said.
Inaba told the Tribune-Herald that he is not sure how much radioactive material the U.S. military has moved on the island since 1984.
However, the U.S. Army has used munitions containing depleted uranium — a byproduct of the nuclear enrichment process that is less radioactive than natural uranium, although entirely inert — at Pohakuloa Training Area, where it is still authorized to store them.
No representative of the military testified Tuesday.
However, several residents did testify in support of Inaba’s bill. Inaba credited a testifier, peace activist Jim Albertini, for bringing the matter to his attention in the first place and inspiring the creation of the bill.
“I lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Albertini told council members. “I was a junior in high school. And I think we’re in a more dangerous time today than ever in history before.”
Albertini, who protested the arrival of the USS Ouellet in 1984, said tensions in Iran, Russia and China all present a growing potential for a nuclear exchange, and said the global community needs to move away from nuclear proliferation.
Inaba grew emotional during Tuesday’s meeting, saying he recently visited Hatsukaichi, a sister city of Hilo located in Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan.
“It’s a reminder … of our duty,” Inaba said, voice audibly choked with emotion. “Not just for our community, but efforts around the world to remove and not support further development of nuclear activities.”
Council members were largely supportive of the bill as a symbolic gesture, voting unanimously to recommend its passage to the full council, although with Hilo and Puna council members Sue Lee Loy and Ashley Kierkiewicz absent.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune- herald.com.
Restore Hawaii County’s
Historic Nuclear–Free Law!
Repeal the Military
Exemption!
Support Bill 206
Send an email in support of Bill 206 to counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov
Good News: Bill No. 206 passed the Policy Committee on Health, Safety, and Well-Being on Oct. 1st by a vote of 7-0. Now Bill 206 will go before the full Council in Kona on Oct. 16 and Hilo on Oct. 30. Please mark your calendars and try to testify in person or by video from various Council offices around the island. For questions on the bill or sites to testify call the County Clerk’s office at 808-961-8255
Hawaii County’s historic Nuclear-Free Law (No, 665) was passed in February 1981. Hawaii County was the first municipality in the U.S. to pass a law declaring itself a Nuclear-Free Zone. Since then, more than 100 or 200, other municipalities have passed similar laws.
Forty years ago, on July 18, 1984, hundreds of people gathered peacefully on the Hilo docks to protest a visiting US Navy Nuclear-armed warship – the USS Ouellet. After 3 years of requesting the US Navy to respect our County’s Nuclear-Free law without success, our organization announced that we planned a non-violent peaceful swimming protest of the next Navy Nuclear ship visit a month later. A Navy Nuclear ship visit was planned for the July Hawaii Japanese Chamber of Commerce Festival of the Pacific.
On July 17, 1984, the day before the nuclear warship’s scheduled arrival, the Hawaii County Council, under the leadership of then Council chair, Stephen Yamashiro, passed an emergency amendment “exempting the military” from the Nuclear-Free law. Having an amendment to the Nuclear-Free Law to exempt the military is like having an exemption for smokers from Smoking laws. It makes no sense. For more on the Hilo Bay Warship Peace Blockade, and for a link to read Bill 206 see https://malu-aina.org/?p=10305 My testimony on Oct. 1 can be viewed here. https://malu-aina.org/?p=10529
Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawai’i 96760
Phone (808) 966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org to receive our posts.
For more information see https://www.malu-aina.org
-- Jim Albertini Malu 'Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola'a (Kurtistown) Hawai'i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org
