Tag: Pohakuloa

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Army closes Pohakuloa to hunting due to ‘vandalism’

The Army recently closed the Pohakuloa training area closed to hunting due to “vandalism, theft and destruction of government property.”   That’s a good one!  The Army takes the land by fiat, fires all manner of weapons, including depleted uranium, then accuses hunters of ‘vandalism’.

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http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091218/BREAKING01/91218035/Pohakuloa+Training+Area+closed+to+hunting

Updated at 1:22 p.m., Friday, December 18, 2009

Pohakuloa Training Area closed to hunting

Advertiser Staff

The Army said it will temporarily close all public hunting in its Pohakuloa training areas because of recent vandalism, theft and destruction of government property.

Mike Egami, public affairs liaison officer for U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii, said gate locks were shot out at the

Big Island training range, and a generator was missing.

The damage probably occurred over the past couple of weeks, he said. Bird hunting and pig and goat hunting are allowed under certain conditions at the training range.

Department of Army police are conducting a thorough investigation of the incidents.

The Army acknowledged the inconvenience to wild game hunters, and said it expects to complete the investigation in a timely manner. Pending the results of the investigation, a final determination will be made concerning continued use of Pohakuloa training area hunting grounds.

Current status updates on the temporary hunting suspension are available by calling the PTA Hunters Hotline at 808-969-3474.

Further questions may be directed to Egami at 656-3152.

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Public Hearings on Saddle Road project near Pohakuloa Training Area

Action alert from Jim Albertini on Hawai’i Island:

Aloha Kakou, REMINDER

There are two public hearings this week for the Saddle Rd. project on the west side of Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) through or around the military’s newly acquires 24,0000-acre Keamuku area from the 42 mile marker to the upper Rd to Kona.

As part of the EIS, possible depleted uranium contamination was suppose to be addressed. One independent geologist reviewing the data said DU presence may be understated in the EIS draft, and he questions the kind of testing done. We are awaiting other comments from independent scientist.

Come to the hearings and learn more and present your concerns. Please pass the word to others.

The hearings are:

Wednesdau, Dec. 9, 2009 5PM at Aunty Sally’s Luau Hale, 799 Piilani St. Hilo (near the Kanakaole Tennis stadium/Merry Monarch festival.

Thursday, Dec. l0, 2009 from 3:30-7:30PM in the Natural Energy Lab of Hawaii Authority, Gateway Energy Center, 73-4460 Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway, Kailua-Kona

The format for both is a one hour open house format to review displays, followed by a brief presentation then public testimony.


Mahalo.
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 <http://www.malu-aina.org>

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“Absence of proof doesn’t prove safety” – ATSDR coming under fire

The NYT article discusses the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Control Registry pattern of flawed and irresponsible investigation into the health hazard of environmental contamination.  After coming under strong criticism from government auditors, the ATSDR reversed its conclusions of “no threat” to public health in two contaminated military sites: Camp Lejeune and Vieques.   ATSDR is guilty of the same types of dismissive and sloppy science in several cases in Hawai’i: Lualualei, Pearl Harbor, and Depleted Uranium at Schofield and Pohakuloa.   They should reevaluate the studies done in those cases.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/science/earth/30agency.html?_r=2

Reversal Haunts Federal Health Agency

By MIREYA NAVARRO

Published: November 29, 2009

Earlier this month, a federal health agency backed away from its earlier findings that decades of explosive detonations by the Navy on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques posed no health hazards to residents.

It was the second time this year that the agency, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, changed its mind in a highly publicized case. Last April the agency, charged with analyzing public health risks from environmental contamination, rescinded its conclusion that contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune, N.C., posed no increased risk of cancer to adults.

Now the agency, part of the Health and Human Services Department, is facing tough scrutiny from Congress and the threat of reform legislation, with some lawmakers accusing it of cursory evaluations that often get the science wrong and ignore independent studies and community complaints.

A report last March by the staff of the House Science and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight found that the agency produced “deeply flawed” scientific reports. The Government Accountability Office, the Congressional investigative arm, is looking into how the agency reviews and validates its public health assessments in an evaluation expected to be completed by next spring.

“It seems to have gotten into their culture to do quick and dirty studies and to be too willing to say there are no public health consequences,” said Representative Brad Miller, Democrat of North Carolina and the subcommittee chairman. “People should be able to count on the government to tell them the truth.”

Created in 1980 as part of the legislation establishing the Superfund program, which administers the cleanup of the nation’s worst contaminated sites, the toxic substances agency evaluates the health risks at Superfund sites and carries out consultations in other cases of contamination. Its findings, based on available research and its own investigations, often determine the kind of treatment and compensation victims receive from polluters and the government.

But critics say that the agency, which works with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has never recovered from problems identified in previous G.A.O. investigations in the 1980s and 1990s that found that it was inadequately staffed and that its health assessments were “seriously deficient.”

In a case that particularly shock some members of the House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, the agency ruled in 2007 that trailers housing victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita posed no health risks, despite containing high levels of formaldehyde.

The evaluation was conducted at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which faced litigation from families complaining that fumes from the trailers were making them sick. The toxic substances agency later revised its findings, and FEMA acknowledged at a news conference that the formaldehyde levels were high enough to endanger trailer occupants’ health.

A spokesman for the toxic substances agency said Dr. Howard Frumkin, the agency’s director since 2005, was traveling out of the country and unavailable for comment. But in written answers to a reporter’s questions, agency officials said the agency had “a strong record of adhering to proven science to advance public health” and a commitment to revising previous findings in light of new technology and scientific discoveries.

Agency officials said they were currently reviewing conclusions in other cases but refused to name them or specify how many cases were being reviewed.

At a Congressional hearing on the agency in March, Dr. Frumkin said he recognized the need for improvement and had opened a national conversation with environmental and public health groups to examine the agency’s approach to chemical exposures.

He said that understaffing was an issue — the agency carries out about 400 health assessments and consultations each year with a staff of about 300 people and an annual budget of $74 million — but that a bigger challenge was that “definitive answers sometimes do not exist.”

In Vieques, a Superfund site, the toxic substances agency concluded in 2003 that the levels of heavy metals and explosive compounds found in the soil, groundwater, air and fish did not pose a health risk.

But after meeting with residents of Vieques and scientists who had done research on the island, the agency reversed course, saying it had identified gaps in environmental data that could be important in determining health effects and calling for additional monitoring.

In Camp Lejeune, another Superfund site, the toxic substances agency acknowledged that it had failed to account for high levels of benzene, a known carcinogen, in its findings a decade earlier and said it would investigate further. Former residents have filed claims for billions of dollars in damages over cancer, birth defects and other health problems for which they blame years of exposure to a water supply contaminated by an off-base dry cleaning business and other sources.

Some experts faulted the agency as equating the lack of proof with safe conditions.

“The absence of proof doesn’t prove safety, and that’s where I think they are off base,” said John Wargo, a professor of environmental risk analysis at Yale University who was consulted by the agency regarding Vieques and who recommended rescinding the conclusion of no hazard in that case.

Lawmakers like Mr. Miller also accuse the agency of acting out of political expediency in some cases, like that of the FEMA trailers. Mr. Miller said that one solution would be to require more peer review of the agency’s findings but that he would prefer that Obama administration officials undertook improvements without the need of legislation.

In the meantime, he and other members of Congress have called on Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to help victims now and have introduced bills to require the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide health care to them while the studies continue.

In Vieques, where local studies show unusually high rates of cancer, hypertension and other illnesses, most of the nearly 10,000 residents have sued in federal court to seek compensation and health benefits from the Navy.

Robert Rabin, a community activist on the island, welcomed this month’s announcement as a potential turning point. Mr. Rabin called the agency “a serious obstacle” to communities’ efforts to make the federal government pay for health damages and medical services.

Residents were now “cautiously optimistic” that their health claims might be settled, Mr. Rabin said.

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Stryker brigade prepares for Iraq deployment

The article says that the Army is the “owner” of Pohakuloa, but it actually occupies Hawaiian national lands that were stolen by the U.S. Much of the land is actually leased from the State of Hawaii.

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http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091026_new_look_stryker_team_trains_to_help_finish_mission_in_iraq.html

New-look Stryker team trains to help finish mission in Iraq

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Oct 26, 2009

POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA, Hawaii » Col. Malcolm Frost, preparing for a summer deployment to Iraq, faces a daunting task after losing nearly half of his Stryker brigade to transfers and attrition.

Frost also realizes that his 2nd Stryker Warrior Brigade Combat Team could be making history when the U.S. draws down its force of more than 143,500 soldiers to a 50,000 “noncombat” force in August.

“I see this as a tremendous honor,” said Frost, 43, last week as he observed a platoon from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry, practice entering a faux Iraqi town and clearing several of its structures on this vast training range on the Big Island.

“It’s finishing the mission and finishing the mission with honor,” he said. “We will leave it under Iraqi control where the government is sovereign and free. There is a good chance we will be a part of history.”

By early summer Frost will deploy with 4,300 soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division and 322 eight-wheeled Stryker combat vehicles that have been refitted and re-equipped from previous Iraqi deployments.

Although the 2nd Brigade has many combat veterans, Frost’s team of leaders are new to their current jobs. Frost assumed command of the brigade in June.

However, Frost went to Iraq in 2007 with Schofield Barracks’ 3rd Bronco Brigade Combat Team and did one tour in Afghanistan.

Upward of 75 percent of the soldiers in his Stryker unit have served at least one combat tour in Iraq or Afghanistan.

After the 2nd Brigade returned from Iraq in February and March after 15 months, it lost 2,000 of its soldiers. Some chose to leave the military. Others sought reassignment and transfers or further Army schooling.

“In one day 900 departed,” Frost added.

All six battalion commanders in the 2nd Brigade are new, as are many of its key noncommissioned officers. But many have been under fire in other units.

That includes Maj. Jim Tuite, the executive officer of the 1st Battalion and a 1995 West Point graduate. Tuite served in Mosul, Iraq, with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in 2007.

Staff Sgt. Tom Cronin, 47, served with 2nd Stryker Brigade during its 2007-2009 deployment. He had two knee surgeries before he was allowed back into the Army just before the brigade left for Iraq.

The reason for his dedication?

“My business is to fight,” says Cronin.

Frost said preparations for his soldiers will include “core war-fighting tactics to protect themselves and the Iraqi people.”

There will also be an emphasis on tasks designed “to assist and advise” Iraqi security forces and the government. Nearly 50 high-level Army officers will be assigned to Frost’s brigade to fill out stability training teams with missions to train local leaders.

“In the end we will be ready for the whole spectrum that can be thrown at us an any given day.”

Frost believes he will know the brigade’s assigned operating area in northern Iraq by the time the brigade leaves for the National Training Center in California for a month beginning in February.

At the Mojave Desert training center, Frost hopes to employ scenarios based on the economics, ethnic composition and conditions of the towns and villages in his area of operation.

As he observed 2nd Platoon trying to master the techniques of clearing a building after a firefight, Frost asked one of the 25th Division’s observer-trainers whether the platoon had taken the time to photograph and search an “Iraqi insurgent” killed during the fight.

“They didn’t,” the trainer told Frost. He also noted that the “insurgent” played by a fellow 25th Division soldier had a homemade bomb hidden under his shirt.

“That will go into the AAR,” said Tuite, referring to the after-action report.

Frost said that each platoon will repeat the same exercise several times while training here.

“Each time the circumstances will be a little different and difficult,” he said. “The soldiers will even have to do the same exercise at night.”

From now until Thanksgiving, Stryker units will be rotated through Pohakuloa for two weeks of field training. In December the brigade will conduct a major computerized simulation exercise at Schofield.

Before they are shipped to California, the Strykers bound for Iraq will have undergone minor internal retrofits, including the installation of troop seats and ballistic floor plates and an alternator upgrade.

In Kuwait the vehicles will be equipped with slate armor to deflect rocket-propelled grenades so they detonate before penetrating the vehicle. Another improvement, known as the “pope’s glass,” shields the vehicle commander when he pokes his head out of the top of the Stryker.

WIDE-OPEN SPACES

The Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island is the largest maneuver training area in the Pacific.

Owner: U.S. Army, but used by all services as well as FBI agents and local law enforcement officers

Location: 38 miles west of Hilo

Size: 134,000 acres

Maneuver training area: 43,148 acres (21 areas)

Airfield: Capable of handling one C-130 cargo plane

Billets: 1,680 beds (troops generally stay in the field)

Water: 26 truckloads (180,000 gallons) need to be hauled in every day

Source: U.S. Army

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Protest of Stryker and other live-fire training at Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA)

Press Release Monday, Oct. 5, 2009

Protest of Stryker and other live-fire training at Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA)

Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009 Mauna Kea State Park

There will be a peaceful protest l0AM Saturday Oct. l0th at Mauna Kea State park –l mile east of the Pohakuloa main gate on Saddle Road. (Car pools will leave 9AM from the Hilo Bayfront parking lot at Pauahi and Kamehameha Ave.) The protest will begin at the park and then move to PTA’s main gate. The protest is over Stryker tank and other ongoing live-fire training at the base known to be contaminated with Depleted Uranium (DU) radiation from past weapons training. Live-fire and other activities that create dust, risk spreading the radiation off base into civilian areas. The Hawaii County Council passed a resolution 8-1 in July 2008 calling for a halt to all live-fire at PTA until there is a complete assessment of the radiation contamination and clean up of the DU present. The military continues to ignore the Council’s call to action.

Reports are that l00 Stryker l9 ton eight-wheeled tanks (perhaps more) are currently doing training at PTA. These tanks have recently returned from Iraq where their l05 mm canons and 50 cal machine guns have fired DU munitions.

The protest is sponsored by Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action.

Jim Albertini of Malu ‘Aina said: It’s time to Stop Strykers! Stop all live-fire on Pohakuloa, and live-fire in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. The military needs to clean up its mess and end its occupations, not make more of a mess.”

-pau-

STRYKER PROTEST

Stop Live-fire on Pohakuloa,
Iraq, Afghanistan, & Pakistan, etc.

Time: 10AM

Date: Saturday, Oct. l0th

Meeting place: Mauna Kea State Park
One mile east of the new main gate of the Pohakuloa Training Area on Saddle Rd. in the center of the island. Car pools will leave 9AM from the Hilo Bayfront parking lot at Pauahi and Kamehameha Ave.

A Stryker is an eight-wheeled, l9-ton modern tank (urban assault vehicle). It’s not a defensive weapon. It is a killing machine. A full Stryker Brigade is based on Oahu at Schofield Barracks. Earlier this year the Brigade, including more than 300 Stryker tanks, returned from Iraq. The Brigade is now training for another deployment to Iraq or possibly Afghanistan, as President Obama escalates the war there.

The Stryker tanks fire depleted uranium (DU) ammunition. They have fired it in Iraq and have contributed to the widespread DU contamination there which is causing widespread health problems, including cancer, birth defects, and deaths. Whether these tanks have brought DU contamination back to Hawaii is unknown. No independent testing has been done.

Reports are that a hundred Strykers (perhaps more) have been brought via Kawaihae Harbor from Ohau and are now doing training at the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA), including live-fire. While the Army says no DU weapons are presently used in training at PTA, the area is already officially acknowledged to be contaminated with DU from earlier weapons training. Live-fire, and other activities that create dust such as tank maneuver training, risk spreading radiation contamination — toxic deadly poison, off-base into civilian areas, carried by the strong winds that travel through the Saddle Area toward the Hilo and Kona sides of our Island.
Stand Up and Speak Out!

Let a cry go out by all of us who are charged to be responsible stewards of this ‘aina: Stop Strykers! Stop all live-fire on Pohakuloa, and live-fire in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. But let us do more. Let us work to end the illegal U.S. occupation of Hawai’i as well as illegal occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. The people and the land are spiritually interconnected as one. So too are the issues of Justice & Peace. Join our non-violent protest, where hearts come together to help remove the obstacles to peace. Mahalo.

For more information please 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
—
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

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British coroner’s jury: DU killed soldier

British coroner’s jury: DU killed soldier

Verdict raises questions for Hawaii soldiers and civilians

By Alan D. Mcnarie
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 2:10 PM HST

As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers the army’s plan to leave depleted uranium shell debris in place at Pohakuloa Training Area and Schofield Barracks, it may have some new data from Britain to ponder. A coroner’s jury there has found that a British veteran named Stuart Raymond Dyson died from “colon cancer… caused by or contributed to by his exposure to Depleted Uranium in the 1991 Gulf war.”

Dyson had been healthy before serving in the Gulf. Within three years of his return, however, he developed a “whole range of symptoms” that the coroner’s report said were characteristic of “Gulf War Syndrome.” In 2008 he was diagnosed with colon cancer. He died of the disease within a year.

The “Report on Probability of Causation” that the coroner’s office released on the case noted that while colon cancer is a fairly common disease, deaths from it by persons in Dyson’s age group were only about six per million residents in England and Wales in recent years.

“This is an extremely low rate and so the first conclusion we can draw in Mr. Dyson’s case is that his death from cancer was very rare indeed,” wrote Chris Busby, the Ph.D. researcher who authored the report. Since “There is no report of colon cancer in Mr. Dyson’s parents,” he added, “It follows that we are looking for an aggressive carcinogenic or mutagenic substance to which Mr. Dyson’s colon must have been exposed at some period, maybe 10-20 years before the cancer was clinically evident. Was there such an exposure?”

Busby concluded that the “carcinogenic or mutagenic substance” was depleted uranium that Dyson had been exposed to during the Gulf War.

Faulty modeling?

Busby noted that the British military was basing its claims about the safety of DU on standards of exposure set by The Royal Society, the National Radiological Protection Board and the World Health Organization — but that those standards were all based on “a single risk model.” That model was created by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, which has close ties to the nuclear industry and receives funding from “governments of nuclear nations.”

“This ICRP risk model has been increasingly questioned by a number of organizations in the last 10 years particularly in its seeming inability to predict or explain a wide range of health effects reported following exposures to internal, that is, ingested and inhaled, radioactive material,” Busby noted.

DU is primarily an emitter of alpha radiation: heavy subatomic particles that can’t usually penetrate the skin, but can do enormous damage to cells and DNA if they can get inside the body via the lungs or digestive system.

While the ICRP model might be useful in predicting gamma radiation damage from a nuclear blast, Busby contended, it was not very good for predicting damage from DU in the lungs or digestive system. The difference, he wrote, was that between “warming oneself in front of a fire” and “eating a red hot coal.”

“In an environment where Mr. Dyson was cleaning vehicles and equipment which had been contaminated with DU dust it is inevitable that he will have been contaminated internally both through inhalation and inadvertent ingestion,” Busby contended. And the convoluted surfaces of the intestinal lining, he observed, “would be excellent catchers for such dust particles,” trapping and holding them until they damaged the surrounding DNA enough to trigger cancer.

The report finds another fault with the ICRP model. Other types of radiation, such as gamma waves, can easily penetrate the skin but do less concentrated damage internally. But Busby said higher-density elements absorbed exponentially more gamma rays, so uranium, the heaviest naturally occurring element, could also increase gamma radiation damage by trapping it and releasing the energy in the form of “photoelectrons of various ranges.”

A bit of DU trapped in colon tissue, he calculated, would absorb 201,000 times the background radiation of living tissue, and then release that energy into surrounding cells. As a result, those cells would get the equivalent of 70 years of normal background radiation in a single year, in addition to the damage caused by alpha particles from the uranium itself.

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense produced its own counter-report for the coroner’s inquest. Its author, Ron Brown, who listed himself as Principal Scientist at the “DSTL Environmental Sciences Department, Institute of Naval Medicine,” attacked Busby’s report as “an extreme view of radiation risk held by a very small minority.”

Brown argued that the vast areas of the Middle East battlefields and the “dilution” of DU with battlefield dust and debris made the levels of contamination so low that “there is no current statutory requirement for the implementation of any health protection measure.”

Brown based most of his argument on “accepted” or “legal” standards of radiation exposure — the very standards that Busby attacked as coming from a single unreliable model. But Brown defended the Royal Society’s standards of exposure, for instance, by saying they agreed with “independent studies,” including those by the U.S. Army and the U.S.’s Sandia National Laboratory.

“The scientific consensus is that DU intakes are only likely to be of concern for those in or on vehicles at the time they are struck by DU munitions or for those who enter immediately afterwards to rescue casualties,” Brown concluded.

The jury sided with Busby.

The U.S. Army and the ICRP

In its handling of DU contamination in Hawai’i, the U.S. Army is using some of ICRP-based standards that Busby questioned. In its presentation to the Hawai’i County Council on May 20, 2008, for instance, the Army cited World Health Organization standards to back up its contention that DU at Pohakuloa Training Area presented no immanent threat to public health. It also cited Nuclear Regulator Commission and Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

“Both the NRC and EPA limits are consistent with the ICRP recommendation of 100 mrem/year to the general public for all controlled sources of ionizing radiation.” wrote Loren Doan U.S. Army Hawaii Garrison’s chief media officer, in an e-mail to Big Island Weekly. But some of the details he gave suggested that the EPA and NRC guidelines were stricter than the IRCP’s.

“The NRC has a 25 mrem/year exposure limit for residual radioactivity under unrestricted release, and the EPA has a 15 mrem/year exposure limit for residual radioactivity for environment cleanup,” he wrote.

Spreading Nano-particles

In addition to the question of what constitutes a dangerous dose of DU, the coroner’s report contradicts the Army’s testimony on another count. In its application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to leave the DU shell fragment contamination on site, the Army asserted that “Available information indicates that depleted uranium metal generally remains in the immediate vicinity where initially deposited with limited migration over the periods that the materials have been present.”

To back up this contention, the Army cited the heaviness of the metal and its propensity for bonding with iron and other minerals in local soils and lavas.

Busby’s report maintained just the opposite.

“On impact, the DU burns to a fine aerosol of ceramic uranium oxide particles of mean diameter from about 1000nm (1I) down to below 100nm,” he wrote. “These particles are long lived in the environment (and in tissue), and can travel significant distances from the point of impact up to thousands of miles (Busby and Morgan 2005). They become resuspended in air, are found in air filters in cars at some distance from the attacks, and of course are respirable. Because their diameters are so small, below 1000nm, they are able to pass through the lung into the lymphatic system and in principle can lodge anywhere in the body.”

Different rounds, different threat levels?

Of course, there are some major differences between the radiation exposure a soldier like Dyson might receive and what civilians might get from the old shell casings at Pohakuloa. In the Gulf War, for instance, the U.S. and Britain fired off hundreds of tons of DU in the form of anti-tank shells and bunker-busting bombs. Anti-tank shells work by spewing a fountain of white-hot, liquefied, burning DU that literally melts its way through armor, creating Busby’s “fine aerosol of ceramic uranium oxide particles.” DU burns at about 600 degrees Fahrenheit, producing the DU-oxide particles that Busby believes are so dangerous.

According to the U.S. Army, the rounds fired at Schofield Barracks and Pohakuloa were not armor-piercing rounds, but spotter rounds for a weapon called the Davy Crockett: a Cold War-era cannon that fired small nuclear bombs. The spotter rounds were not bombs: they struck the target area and marked their point of impact with a plume of smoke.

Doan thinks that the Davy Crockett rounds are unlikely to create the ceramic DU nano-particles that the armor-piercing shells produce.

“The Davy Crockett does not work the same way [as armor-piercing rounds]. The type of metal that comes off of it is larger chunks,” he told Big Island Weekly. But when we asked him if the smoke-producing incendiaries in the spotter rounds reached 600 degrees, he said he didn’t know.

But if Busby and the sources he cites are right, then DU could have potentially profound health effects for thousands of current and former army personnel based in Hawai’i.

According to Doan, all U.S. military personal returning to Hawai’i from Iraq an Afghanistan undergo health assessments that include “evaluations of potential exposures to DU.” However, if those assessments are based on the ICRP recommendations, they may be inadequate.

Back in 2006, a bill was introduced that would make funds available to test for DU in Hawai’i National Guard members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. That bill is still languishing; the current legislature has put off action on it until 2010. The Dyson case may provide a new incentive for that bill’s passage.

Source: http://www.bigislandweekly.com/articles/2009/09/23/read/news/news02.txt

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NRC faced angry citizens on DU in Hawaii

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/08/28/18620043.php

NRC faced angry citizens on DU in Hawaii

by DLi
Friday Aug 28th, 2009 11:40 AM

Last night the Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a meeting in Hilo, Hawaii on the Army’s application for a license to deposit unknown amounts of Depleted Uranium(DU)at the Pohakuloa Training Area on Mauna Kea, considered by many native Hawaiians as a sacred temple. Over 50 concerned citizens confronted the NRC on its checkered past in safeguarding health & safety of citizens from the nuclear industry, as well as its rubber-stamping of the Military’s mishandling of DU. It was revealed that the NRC had never turned down an application from the U.S. Military.

But the bulk of the citizens’ anger was focused on the Army’s willful non-compliance of Hawaii County Council’s resolution to demand a stop to all live fire exercises at PTA until an assessment and cleanup of DU has been completed. Dozens of citizens from the environmental, kanaka maoli, Peace and scientific communities all testified on the U.S. Military’s sordid history of stonewalling, disinformation and illegal dumping of toxic wastes on the revered aina of Hawai’i.

The consensus from the community? Stop all bombings and live fire at Pohakuloa! And Stop desecrating the land while training troops for foreign invasions! As in the previous night’s meeting in Kona, citizens are united in demanding that the NRC do its job and deny any license for the Army to leave DU and other toxic substances in place. All citizens agree that they will not accept a nuclear dump site to be established up at Pohakuloa or any other community in Hawai’i. And the Public is asked to write to the NRC(website: http://www.nrc.gov) before October 13, 2009 to demand a formal hearing to be held.

CORRECTION:

To review the application and other documents, visit http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html

Click on “begin ADAMS search”.

Select “Advanced Search”

Enter docket number “04009083”

Comments may be sent to: john.hayes@ncr.gov

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‘Blowing in the Wind’ – Kona speaks out against DU

http://www.bigislandchronicle.com/?p=8314

‘The Answer My Friend Is Blowing In The Wind’; Depleted Uranium At Pohakuloa And How The U.S. Military Seeks To Further Contaminate The Island

27 Aug 2009

By Megan Magdalene

A meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in Kona last night, Aug. 26, 2009, brought out concerned citizens who testified before the Commission. Testimony from the public will be heard tonight, Aug. 27, 2009, at the Hilo High School Cafeteria from 6-8 p.m.

If it isn’t YOUR business what goes on our mountain top, then whose is it? Consider coming to Hilo’s meeting to testify tonight! Mahalo to the excellent work of Big Island Live who will be streaming a live broadcast of the Hilo meeting. To listen in to live streaming audio broadcast from 6pm please go here: http://www.bigislandlive.com/

Written testimony can still be submitted via email at OPA.Resource@nrc.gov to request that the NRC investigate further community concerns regarding the licensing process for nuclear waste on Pohakuloa. Also, call NRC at (301) 415-8200 to air concerns.

“Nobody likes being on a bummer” was the explanation someone gave for the the small but lively meeting between the public and a panel of NRC employees, to discuss the unsavory subject of nuclear waste on the base of Pohakuloa. She was referring of course, to contrast between this meeting and the the much more well-attended meeting earlier this week concerning the closure of the Natural Energy Lab of Hawaii Authority (NELHA).

Clearly, it seems that it is easier to get 400 to 500 people out about “beach access,” with various council members, former council members and politicians showing up to be “champions” of this cause. It seems that it is harder for citizens to face up to the now well-established fact of nuclear contamination on the island.

A lively meeting was hosted last night in Kona by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission involving 60 well informed citizens. The task of the NRC was to explain to the public the process they have initiated since receiving an application from Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) for a license to store nuclear waste on the mountain training base.

This license is to be granted to the PTA to manage an area contaminated by Depleted Uranium (DU). The meeting hosts delivered the PR message of the evening: This panel is in charge of taking public comment and showing us that they are “very concerned'” to know the community input. It was made clear that once the license is granted, there are supposedly “experts” that the NRC will be sending in to observe and monitor the licensing and implement the “plan” that is delivered (by the NRC) for the PTA to implement. It was spelled out to the audience that this pretty much is a standard procedure that results in a license being granted.

Through the course of asking questions of the panel, it was established that this Nuclear Regulatory Commission has a very detailed “plan” that they explain to communities about the process they go through before they grant a license to a military base to have nuclear waste on their base. They have never actually refused a military base a license once the licensing process begins.

The basic format was that the entire evening was introduced by a woman who identified herself as Hawaiian and explained that she would be facilitating the meeting. She led a pule, saying she was going to chant to “call in the Ancestors.” The pule was followed by a ‘power-point’ presentation which was around 30 minutes long. The power-point presentation was presented in sections, each presented by a member of the panel and it was interrupted twice with a question. It seemed that the panel went to answer those questions but both times the facilitator stopped them. Basic tenets of the ‘science’ around radiation were put up on the screen. Considering all the facts available about Depleted Uranium, this seemed a glaringly obvious case of ‘glossing over the facts’ and ‘over simplification of the facts’. It was pointed out by several speakers throughout the evening that the people attending seemed to know more about the hazards of DU than the panel did.

Many testifiers who spoke, brought up the fact that DU is known to be a hazardous waste that they cannot possibly contain on the base because it is extremely ‘pyphoric’ (ie it burns spontaneously or at below room temperatures). For this reason any military activity up on Pohakuloa is going to increase the spread of DU because it will disturb DU on the base, causing it to ignite and turn into fine dust that travels on wind currents off base and to populated areas on the island.

Given this key scientific fact concerning DU, the idea that Pohakuloa Training Area will be granted a license to ‘contain DU contamination’ on the base, is of course ridiculous. It means that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is nothing more than a ‘rubber stamp’ that says the military don’t have to clean up the DU and can continue to drop bombs on the area and engage in live-fire training that will continue to spread the contamination of the radioactive dust.

If one were to summarize this meeting, I think that it would be appropriate to say, This panel of NRC representatives seems like it is made up of a bunch of people who feel conflicted and miserable about their job and they cover it over with a lot of repetitive meaningless phrases such as ‘The NRC is an independent organization and is not a part of the Department of Energy of the Department of Defense’. Also we heard a lot ‘We take our job very seriously’ ‘We take your concerns very seriously’. ‘You should know that we consider all of the information you are giving us very seriously.’ etc. The testimony that the public provided was informed by current research, statistics and scientific findings. Testimony ranged from the ironic and humorous to the angered and outraged.

The following is a summary of the key points of testimony given at the meeting:

The Land doesn’t belong to the USA

Several Hawaiian Kupuna spoke and challenged the legality of the NRC hosting such a meeting because of issues never resolved between Hawaiian Kingdom and USA. One was asked if the meeting were ‘formal’ or ‘informal’ in a legal sense and he was told it was ‘informal’ but it was at this point that they identified the attorney present. Several Hawaiians who spoke, brought up issue of liability on the part of the panel for issuing permits in a process that is not legal because of land claim issues. Each time the legal question of whether USA was entitled to be in negotiation over annexed sovereign land, members of panel referred to the ‘political process’ that was outside of their scope. One uncle made fun of the ‘Hawaiian Translator’ hired by the NRC for the evening by making a sexual reference which the young female translator wasn’t able to translate. “See they don’t teach you the real Hawaiian, up at that college you go to”.

There is a Hawaii County Council resolution in place already requiring the Military to “cease and desist” and this has been ignored

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was informed by several testifiers that the council of Hawaii County has passed a resolution that required the military to stop training & live-fire until DU hazard is remediated. They were told that this resolution has been ignored by the US Military and the command personnel that are stationed there and given responsibili\\ty for handling Depleted Uranium contamination issue. Hawaii’s county council has requested that a medical doctor, Dr. Pang and the nuclear physicist Dr Rainer be included in their meetings and procedures, to date, they have not been included and willful obstructions on the part of the military to include them have been noted by Hawaii County Council during hearings on the subject. Public involvement in the process was also requested and to date, this also has been obstructed

The science is poorly presented by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

A man who works in the field of medicine says he’s researched the facts about DU. Complained that they didn’t name specific compounds associated with the DU. Specifically they didn’t talk about Alpha radiation and how harmful that is when a particle of DU dust is lodged right next to the cell tissue.

DU is dangerous because it is highly flammable and can easily become airborne

A testifier spoke further to the fact that the science presented in the Powerpoint was lacking substance. “The people out here know more about this than you do”. He raised the issue of the pyphoric nature of DU and the likelihood of Du igniting and spreading off base that was extremely high. He cited an instance where a group of residents had gathered to protest the opening of the new Saddle Road in May 2007. While there, along with a group of dignitaries including U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and Mayor Harry Kim, the group of residents observed a spike in radiation readings recorded by a handheld radiation device. An explanation of this has been needed said the speaker but could best be explained by understanding the fact that DU easily burns and once ignited, forms aerosol-ized particles which become airborne. The distinction was made for the public record between large visible chunks of DU in it”s metal form (fragments of weapons) and the microscopic particles of aerosol-ized dust. “These are microscopic, smaller than a virus that can travel a long way from the base. In understanding how easily DU burns, we can understand how easily it causes a hazard for the whole island.”

The Animals on the base are sick and have tumors

A man who identified himself as Hawaiian and speaking for Hawaiian hunters on the island, said that he noticed a number of animals and birds that appeared to have tumors on their bodies. “Sometimes we have to throw aside the carcass because it cannot be used. It’s been too damaged.” He requested an explanation for the kinds of deformities he and other hunters were observing in the animals on and around the Pohakuloa base.

Cancer Clusters in Kona and other illnesses for “down winders” in Kona

Sen. Josh Green, an emergency room doctor, was present at the meeting and raised concern about “cancer clusters” in Kona. Further testimony backed this up. A woman expressed concern that she had been diagnosed with “trigeminal neuralgia,” a rare neurological disorder affecting 1 in 35,000 people. She says she knows of twenty two people in her immediate neighborhood who have reported some kind of condition with symptoms of ‘shocks to the face’ and is still looking for the answer as to why this disease is showing up in a ‘cluster pattern’. Another testifier spoke of the need for the NRC to test residents who live downwind of Pohakuloa for traces of Depleted Uranium. There are tests available and she said one resident returned a positive test for DU in their body but the results couldn’t be conclusive because this was not a lifelong resident. The lab conducting the test has since been shut down so it is not clear where such a test could be obtained. Tests are needed because there are unexplained patterns of illness in the Kona community. “Now purportedly, we have seen a 1992 study of the Hawai’i cancer map, by the State Public Health Dept. that shows Kona to have one of the two, highest cancer rates in the state, the other being Pearl Harbor; a giant ‘Superfund’ site. We have no heavy industry here to account for this high rate and no official wants to talk about it.” This testifier also went on to say:

“The highly reputed study that I read of recently talked of U238 (99.8% of DU) as heavy metal alpha emitter. It will concentrate in bones where it will bombard bone marrow leading to leukemia and can mutate genes and make them cancerous. Alpha particles are 20-30 times more biologically damaging per unit of energy than beta or gamma radiation. ..I know of an inordinate amount of adults and young people in our little town suffering from leukemia and other cancers. Nearly every month lately, it seems I see a couple of ads in our local paper for “benefits” for people with leukemia. I personally know of six people who have died in the past couple of months, three of them, twenty five years old from the same school, along with their principal, who all had leukemia. I’m no expert but I think something is very wrong here.”

Further testimony came from a woman who was also involved in the citizen protest at the Saddle Road. She had witnessed the spike on the radiation monitor and since that time, she says she has had”‘leukemia-like” symptoms and believes that her illness is as a result of the radiation she was exposed to at the Saddle Road in May 2007.

Can you protect us from those crazy maniacs with bombs?

Humor, be it of a dark, ironic sort, was ever-present at the meeting. A man asked the panel who the public should actually contact if a violent fundamentalist group with a distorted world view were to take over the top of the mountain and start setting off bombs and spreading DU. “Will the Nuclear Regulatory Commission come out to save the community if this is the case? I don’t think they will so can you please tell us who we should talk to who can protect us?”

If you aren’t a “rubber stamp,” then what are you?

The panel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was asked, was there an instance that they could cite of a military base being denied a license? The “manager” of the NRC panel, Keith, turned to his whole panel and asked if they knew of any because he didn’t. Nobody could think of an instance where that had ever happened. This brought forth lots of laughter from the public attending the meeting because in that moment it was made crystal clear that the NRC would be granting a license to Pohakuloa Training Area no matter what evidence was brought against them. One testifier made a complaint for the record that the format of the evening was to provide a smokescreen to hide from identifying themselves. She objected to what she said was “The fake ‘Aloha’ of a Hawaiian facilitator who has the job of leading a Hawaiian prayer, and cutting people off after 4 minutes.” She noted that it was culturally insensitive to ask a Hawaiian and a translator to make it seem like this was a genuine process when clearly it is a rubber stamp for a “license” that is going to be granted anyway.

“Wake up and realize the truth”

A man in his forties identified himself as a member of the “next generation” … “Since our Kupuna are passing on, I’m stepping up.” He gave the most powerful delivery of the evening and pretty much wrapped up the night. He took the microphone and stood before them, making eye contact with each of the panelists. He spoke to them of their responsibilities to their creator, to their children. “You know this is wrong. But everybody’s got to eat eh?.. You just doing your job, aren’t you?” His tone was sometimes loud and sometimes soft and he covered a range of emotions and fears that were present in the room. He spoke about the fear generated from the lies being told by the government to the people. He spoke clearly and delivered to them this message: “This mountain is not your mountain. It’s the most sacred mountain. It’s not your place to allow it to be contaminated.”

The Qualifications of members of the Panel were in question

Several people attending spoke to the procedural “errors” of the evening. The panel members never introduced themselves and identified their qualifications. Eventually, at the end of the meeting, they did so and it was established that the panelists’ qualifications consisted of either a Bachelor degree or a doctorate in fields of nuclear engineering, environmental science, geology, chemical engineering – plus a bunch of years experience in a government agency and with the NRC. The man in charge of the process is a man named Keith and he said, “I’m no longer a practicing geologist. I’m a manager.” He noted that he had been with the NRC about 20 years. There were no qualified medical doctors represented on the panel. At a certain point in the meeting, a man introduced himself as an attorney who had been employed by NRC for about 10 years.

Summary of Meeting:

A well informed group of citizens turned out for the meeting. They came affiliated loosely with a number of groups, like the Kingdom of Hawaii, or simply as interested citizens representing themselves and their concerns. People who testified were sometimes funny and sometimes had an angry and indignant tone. The fact that many of the testifiers who spoke wanted particular surveys and scientific findings entered onto the record made it clear that this was a well informed citizenry.

Over and over people testified that the proceedings didn’t seem legitimate because it had failed to address legal issues over the US entitlement to use of land at Pohakuloa and that the science they were presenting didn’t seem valid or thorough. The conclusion testifiers made repeatedly was that this process was not a genuine inquiry as to the merits of granting a license, but a routine checklist of procedures that would result in a license being granted.

It was noted that there were no Hawaii County Council representatives present. This truly was a missed opportunity to look out for the interests of the community as this license is about to be issued and the DU matter literally “dispersed to the winds.”

This lack of interest on council members’ part is a little out of character, since last year they passed a resolution stating that there are well-documented health hazards relating to DU requesting that the Military cease all bombing and live-fire training until the DU contamination is thoroughly identified and the DU is cleaned up.

Council members Brenda Ford, Emily Naeole, Dominic Yagong and Pete Hoffman are all on record as showing they were very concerned to know of the DU hazards. Brenda was on record as saying that she wanted a meeting with Pete Hoffman and the military. Unfortunately, when we contacted her about that this week, she didn’t seem to remember this fact and reported that no such meeting had occurred. It seems as though the fear and concerns raised by council members, when they listened to testimony from an informed public and from key witness Dr Lorin Pang, have now been forgotten.

As Bob Dylan would say, “How many times can a man turn his head, pretending that he just doesn’t see? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind… ” It will take a lot more than just 60 citizens paying attention to see that we are protected. Amazingly, it is still not too late to become involved. You have until October to contact the NRC and let them hear you say “…not in my backyard.”

Megan Magdalene is a resident of Hilo concerned about depleted uranium and a number of other issues our island community faces.

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Kona residents reject finding that DU at Pohakuloa poses no health risk

Residents Just say no

Army’s depleted uranium claims questioned

by Chelsea Jensen
West Hawaii Today
cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com

Thursday, August 27, 2009 9:42 AM HST

Despite a report released by the U.S. Army in July saying that depleted uranium at the Pohakuloa Training Area poses no risk to the public, Big Island residents urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wednesday evening to investigate deeper before granting the Army a license to possess the radioactive material.

“The facts scare us. We know the facts and we also know the misinformation because we’ve had two, three years of the military trying to twist the facts around to make it seem depleted uranium is safe and we have nothing to worry about,” said Meghan Isaac Magdelan. “It makes people sick and it makes people die.”

Jon Viloon added, “We need a second opinion because I’m not convinced that your calm reassurances reflect reality.”

About 40 people attended the public hearing on the U.S. Army’s application to possess residual quantities of depleted uranium on Wednesday evening at King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. The commission, an independent agency created by Congress, also outlined the agency’s review process and inspection and enforcement policies.

The Army’s application would cover nine locations throughout the United States, including the Pohakuloa Training Area and Schofield Barracks on Oahu, said John Hayes, a project manager for the NRC’s Materials Decommissioning Branch.

An inspection would initially only be required every two years for PTA, however, compliance could extend or decrease the period between inspections, said Region IV Inspector for the NRC’s Nuclear Materials Safety Branch Robert Evans.

Depleted uranium is the leftover byproduct of the process that enriches uranium for commercial and military use.

Following its discovery at Schofield Barracks in 2005, research led to records of 714 spotting rounds for the now-obsolete Davy Crockett weapons systems being shipped to Hawaii during the 1960s. The discovery of depleted uranium at Pohakuloa was announced in August 2007 after a single M101 spotting round was discovered. Two additional pieces of radioactive material were later found during a survey at the military training area situated between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.

Among the top concerns raised by residents was the Army’s continued dropping of 2,000-pound test bombs in the area, despite the county council passing a nonbinding resolution in 2008 requesting the military halt live-fire training.

“The name ‘depleted uranium’ is very deceptive. It’s ‘lethal uranium’ — that’s what it should be called and we have a lot more knowledge about it because we have been faced with it, we are downwind of it and many of our friends have died or suffered,” said Barbara Moore, president of the Hawaii Island Health Alliance, who added that she believed radiation she was exposed to near Pohakuloa in 2007 may have lead to her being diagnosed with leukemia.

She added, “We’re asking you to stop the bombing, to close down the live fire at PTA. We want remediation. … We don’t want to kill our citizens with depleted uranium that is being blasted around in dust.”

Further, residents requested that the commission look into the effects depleted uranium radiation may have had on Hawaii’s population citing an increase in cancer, birth defects, deformations and other maladies, said Marya Mann, a local psychologist.

The public has until Oct. 13 to submit comments or to make a hearing request as outlined in the National Federal Register.

Source: http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/articles/2009/08/27/local/local01.txt

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Chain Reaction: Nuclear regulators hold hearings in the Islands after the Army’s depleted uranium problem is uncovered by chance

Joan Conrow wrote this excellent piece in the Honolulu Weekly about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission public meetings in Hawai’i to take comments on the Army’s application for a permit to “possess” nuclear material, in this case, Depleted Uranium (DU), since they don’t intend to clean up the DU that contaminates O’ahu and Hawai’i island.

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Chain reaction

Nuclear regulators hold hearings in the Islands after the Army’s depleted uranium problem is uncovered by chance.

Joan Conrow

Aug 26, 2009

Environment

The Army doesn’t know how much depleted uranium it has lost in Hawai‘i.

After years of denying the existence of depleted uranium (DU) at its installations in Hawaii, the Army is now seeking a permit to possess tons of the radioactive material.

DU has been confirmed at Schofield Barracks and the Pohakuloa Training Area, and is suspected at the Makua Military Reservation and Kahoolawe. The toxic material was used to make M101 spotting rounds for the Davy Crockett recoilless gun, one of the smallest nuclear weapons ever built. Soldiers were trained on the weapon in Hawaii and at least eight other states throughout the 1960s.

“Enough depleted uranium remains on the sites to require an NRC possession license and environmental monitoring and physical security programs to ensure protection of the public and the environment,” according to a press release from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which this week is conducting hearings in Hawaii on the Army’s application.

The material is of concern because it has been found on active firing ranges, including the area where the Stryker Brigade plans to train at Schofield. When DU is burned or exploded, it creates tiny particles of depleted uranium oxide (DUO) that travel on the wind and can penetrate skin, respiratory masks and protective clothing, said Dr. Lorin Pang, a medical advisor to Hawaii County on the issue of DU.

“If it’s inhaled, then it’s in your lungs,” Pang said. “[It’s] insoluble and persists in the body for decades and becomes the most dangerous form of radiation of all, because it’s in the body.”

The Army is pursuing a single permit to possess and manage residual quantities of DU at all of its American installations. The Army’s disclosure responsibilities under the permit application are limited to the big Davy Crocket round, even though uranium munitions are used in more than 24 weapons systems. The Army’s application does not address DUO.

“It seems like the Army is trying to do the minimum possible on this,” said Cory Harden of the Sierra Club’s Moku Loa group. “Overall, this should be a wakeup call. If something like this was forgotten [from decades past] what else was forgotten?”

Some 29,318 M101 spotting rounds containing 12,232 pounds of DU remain unaccounted for, according to the Army’s permit application. The Army is seeking permission to possess a maximum of 17,600 pounds of DU.

It’s unclear how much DU is located in the Islands, or exactly where. Initial surveys were conducted at just three Hawaii installations, and the effort was severely limited by dense vegetation, rugged terrain and what the military characterized as “safety considerations” due to unexploded ordnance.

“This is exactly the problem,” said Kyle Kajihiro, executive director of the American Friends Service Committee. “If you don’t look, you don’t find and you don’t have to report and be accountable for it.”

Kajihiro said NRC officials advised him they likely will issue the permit because the material is already here. But the agency can impose conditions on how it is possessed and monitored.

The Hawaii County Council has asked the Army to conduct no live fire training in areas contaminated with DU in order to minimize the creation of DUO. But absent a public outcry, Kajihiro believes it’s unlikely the NRC will impose such restrictions, given the strong political support the military enjoys in Hawaii.

The existence of DU in the Islands came to light inadvertently through the ongoing litigation over live fire training at Makua. Kajihiro said the Army has stalled Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests he made in 2007 seeking more details about contamination at Schofield and Pohakuloa.

“There’s just been a sustained effort to keep the public in the dark and bury this,” Kajihiro said. “There needs to be some sort of call to account by the Army: why was this material here and why didn’t you know about it?”

Harden concurred. “The Army has appeared in rather controlled situations where it’s difficult to ask questions. We have repeatedly invited them to a public forum. They’ve been putting us off. Yet they make statements that there’s no risk to public health.”

Kajihiro said the discovery of DU underscores the ongoing environmental contamination issue at Hawaii’s military sites.

“It’s really the toxic cocktail of all the hazardous material out that there that we’re concerned about, with DU one of the more insidious ones,” Kajihiro said. “We need to be prepared to deal with this toxic legacy for a long time and just insist on the highest level of clean-up that’s possible. This stuff wasn’t here to begin with. We shouldn’t have to live with it. It’s a basic decency issue.”

Pang believes it’s “virtually impossible” to clean up the DU, which is why he’s urging the Army to “stop the activities that create DUO” and conduct meaningful air monitoring programs.

Comments on the permit will be accepted through Oct. 13. Submit to John J. Hayes, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop T8-F5, Washington, D.C., 20055-0001 or [email: John.Hayes].

To review the application and other documents, visit [www.nrc.gov], click on begin ADAMS search and enter ML090070095, ML091950280, ML090900423 and ML091170322.

Source: http://honoluluweekly.com/feature/2009/08/chain-reaction/

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