The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an agency of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will hold a hearing next week on challenges filed by four Hawaii residents to an Army license to possess depleted uranium at Schofield Barracks on Oahu and the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island.
Those challenging the Army’s depleted uranium license are Big Island residents Jim Albertini, Cory Harden, and Isaac Harp, along with Luwella Leonardi of Waianae.
The Army wants to leave depleted uranium deposited during past training exercises in place both in these two Hawaii sites as well as training areas across the country.
Critics say depleted uranium can cause public health problems, especially when it has burned and created fine radioactive dust particles.
Depleted uranium is very heavy and has been used in various U.S. weapons, including some bullets and bombs, and some heavy armor.
According to a Veterans Administration web site:
DU is a health hazard if it enters the body, such as through embedded fragments, contaminated wounds, and inhalation or ingestion. Simply riding in a vehicle with DU weapons or DU shielding will not expose a service member to significant amounts of DU or external radiation.
The potential for health effects from internal exposure is related to the amount of DU that enters a person’s body.
The hearing before three administrative judges on Wednesday, January 13 will be in the board’s hearing room in Rockville, Maryland. Army representatives will appear before the board in person, while the challengers will participate by videoconference from the University of Hawaii’s Hilo campus.
The hearing will be also be streamed live via the Internet and available for later viewing on the NRC’s web site, although I don’t yet have the URLs.
The Army contends that none of the four challengers has the necessary standing to challenge its handling of depleted uranium because they do not live near the sites and have not proven any actual harm or damage they would personally suffer if the license is granted. In addition, the Army says the arguments raised against the licensing are not specific enough or sufficiently documented to prove that there is a “material issue of law or fact”.
The hearing panel has spelled out specific questions it wants each of the challengers to address in its order setting the hearing.
Isaac Harp of Waimea, who cited “cancer-clusters” near areas where live weapons training has been conducted, has been asked to clarify how he would personally be harmed, and to substantiate a claim that the Army may have used depleted uranium in more than the two areas in Hawaii.
Luwella Leonardi, a Waianae resident, fears contaminated dust from training in Makua Valley threatens her community. She has been asked to “specify the factual foundation for this concern”, including evidence that the dust is radioactive and has a direct impact on health.
Jim Albertini of Malu Aina Farm, who argued the Army has failed to address the hazards of inhaling depleted uranium, has been asked to provide specific information that disputes the Army’s position.
Cory Harden, affiliated with the Sierra Club’s Moku Loa Group, wants to see independent air monitoring by the federal government. The Army says Harden’s petition failed to meet an administrative deadline and should be disregarded.
Harden also submitted additional information, including background and newspaper stories, available in a large pdf file.
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Aloha everyone, After reading the above I went back to the original date and tried to understand the process that led up to where we are today. People are sick and dying in my community. Depleted uranium have been in Hawaii since the 60s and have contaminated our environment ever since. I do not have the funds to prove the ‘health risk’ factor. What I have is a 19 acre private surface dump site. Yes, I have followed the trucker to Schofield and returned home to watch the trucker unload. This dumping is sanctioned by the city, state and EPA. The license the Army is seeking from NRC is to continue training in Makua/Schofield with DU arsenal. The sustainable plan for the Army set forth by the military is to remove soil contaminants from the military bases and contaminate civilian communities in Hawaii. This transference not only contaminates my immediate community, but all other communities along the route. There is much more to say, let this be a start. Jan 13, 2010 at Hilo University this court case can be watched on video. Email Katie.Tucker@nrc.gov and ask for Docket No. 40-9083 Thank you
I would answer the Army’s stupid challenge for standing by saying that around 1980 the Knolls Power Lab technicians monitoring atmospheric radiation picked up the DU oxide from Colonie, NY, over 25 miles away. Most of the plaintiffs do live in a 25 mile radius. Actually the radius for DU contamination is vast. Nine days after Tora Bora and Shock and Awe DU bombings, the sophisticated radiation monitors at Aldermaston in England recorded a big persistent spike in radiation lasting several days. Everyone in the Northern Hemisphere has legal standing, therefore, so the proximity argument is false.
What the judge and lawyers want to do is deny responsibility. Their legal precedent is the AEC’s denying the Nevada downwinders compensation for cancer caused by testing fallout. The AEC (root of NRC) stated it was the responsibility of heads of families to stop fallout, not theirs. These are the sort of morons our koa must parlay with.
Whatever is decided in this rigged game, it will reflect the satanic will of those who developed nuclear weapons, who own General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon, who operate the Federal Reserve, who attacked America on 9/11, who were the first to use DU in combat and who developed the military strategy of permanent terrain contamination: the satanic mafia ruling the US today. Pearl Harbor has 60% of all the nuke subs, Honolulu shoreline was contaminated from Cobalt 60, we have cancer and diabetes, the subs’ missiles represent nuclear winter, and Honolulu will end up glass if WMD are ever used by and then against the US. Foreign submarines operated by Israel, Britain, Russia, and China, and others, could fire missiles in the event of any US WMD attack threatening civilization. Only a people wedded to Armageddon would push where the US and Israel already have.
DU came out of the Manhattan Project, foisted on America by Einstein’s fear mongering. Einstein’s ‘work’ up through the twenties was pushing for a zionist state in Palestine. He made several tours of the US promoting the Rothschilds’ zionist state in Palestine and then switched to WMD development and finally global government, their ultimate plan, the infamous NWO.
With an IDF soldier handling B.O.’s football in the White House it is doubtful anyone gets a fair hearing, but then Hawaii is only a military base under its fraudulent annexation.
I stand in solidarity with Ko Hawaii Nei Pae Aina and mokupuni o keawe, to the end, throwing these usurpers out of our entire archipelago. We can’t wait.
The US and NRC are the ones who lack standing, under Hague conventions for military occupations!
Everything today in the world is backwords. Escalating war is worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize, invasions are for the women and children, the weapons are all radioactive overseas., and as we watch and do nothing, the clock is ticking down on our biosphere.
Mahalo for your comment, I had the same aftermath with all the info. and then some after I ended my so called argument. I did the should’dah, could’dah,dah-dah. and sucked it in. Thanks for taking the time out to poop in the after math. Trust me I needed to engage in some form with anyone out there. I was alone …alone…alone. Peoples heads were not as further down the way in the thinking process as you were. Why? I don’t know the answers. Pearl Harbor and it’s DU places plutoniaum in the same truckers path of DU, we are contaminating ourselves evenmore no thanks to the NRC AEC, congress and the Tad Davis from the military. I have not much to say except to just shake my head back and forth. Malama Kaohi (plaintiff from Oahu)