Other people's posts that leave me humbled.

At present in Rio de Janeiro, The Second International Uranium  Film Festival is taking place. It's on until July 14th and if you visit their website, , the breadth and depth of coverage may surprise you.  This independent  film festival is, amongst  its other virtues, a rich source of the often unheard and certainly unseen history of people caught up in the nuclear legacy. http://www.uraniofestival.org/index.php/en/programme
When I was looking for some more background information about uranium mining, I came across an article written in 2009 by Winona LaDuke in Orion Magazine,  She begins by telling one of the Dine creation stories.... the people were gven the choice of two yellow powders.  They wisely chose the yellow dust of corn pollen and were told to leave the other yellow powder, uranium, in the soil and to never dig it up.  If it were to be taken from the ground, they were told, a great evil would come   http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4248/   This is someone writing who knows what they re talking about and has been involved in the outcome of uranium mining.
On Thursday, The return of Navajo Boy will be screened, in Rio de Janeiro, this film is already an acclaimed documentary, and there is a long list of others you can read about, some of which are world premieres. http://www.uraniofestival.org/index.php/en/programme  It is an exceptional list and I certainly had no idea of the range of issues covered, including uranium mining across the world.
What can I do about it all? Only what I can.  At the moment, the world waits while our future is being decided in one of the most consequential games of "Pick a sticks"  imaginable as the engineers face the problems with damaged reactors and the highly radioactive fuel rods in the spent fuel pools in Japan...
I can sign a couple of petitions.  One is for everyone to sign,  to the EPA: Don't Sacrifice Navajo Water for Uranium Mining   https://www.change.org/petitions/epa-don-t-sacrifice-navajo-water-for-uranium-mining  and the other one is for British citizens or a resident in the U.K. against nuclear power in the UK
It's the E petition  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1035

And I can leave you with the final question.. How many atom bombs have been dropped on the planet earth between 1945and 1989?  Is is 22...220...1212... or 2201?
The answer is in Peter Greenaway's film, nominated for a yellow Oscar, http://www.uraniofestival.org/index.php/en/programme/53-en/films/46-atomic-bombs-on-the-planet-earth

So why would twenty Quebec doctors resign en mass?

     It's not usual for one doctor to resign on principle but when twenty Canadian doctors walk together, there has to be a pretty powerful reason.  The cause for this extreme move was the concern they had about the proposed mining of uranium in their province.  Two other provinces had already refused to allow it.  This happened in December of last year and I only recently came across it.  You can read the details in the Spring Edition of Nukewatch Quarterly.. under: twenty doctors resign (!) These guys aren't stupid, nor are the members of the Australian trades union, who refuse to work in uranium mines.
    ....Last year twenty doctors, including specialists, resigned en mass from their hospital in Sept Isles, Canada in protest at the Quebec government's decision not to ban uranium mining in their province, unlike British Columbia and Nova Scotia, who already have. There were plans for Uranium mining on the North Shore of Quebec.  The doctors wrote about the historical contamination of drinking water,environmental destruction and, irreversible health hazards. You can read the full report at http://www.nukewatchinfo.org/Quarterly/2010spring/page1%5B1%5D.pdf (It's at the bottom of the page on the right hand side.)These are professional people, and they resigned as a group in an advanced nation.  Canada has around 20% of the world's uranium supplies.
     Cross to Australia and you will find that the electricians in a  trades union.the ETU Queensland and Northern Territories Branch are opposed to uranium mining....The branch refuses to let any of its members work in uranium mining projects "When the Dust Settles" is a DVD production to explain to Members and the people of Australia the dangers and effects that Uranium mining creates.
     Now come back to America, and an indigenous people.  I read that the Navajo Nation has banned Uranium mining on their land.
     According to Wikipedia,
     "For a people that historically had almost no cases, currently several types of cancer are in evidence at rates higher than the national average on the Four Corners Navajo Reservation. (Raloff, 2004) Especially high are the rates of reproductive-organ cancers in teenage Navajo girls, averaging seventeen times higher than the average of girls in the United States.
      It has been suspected that uranium mines, both active and abandoned, have released dust into the surrounding air and the water supply. Studies done on mice, exposing them to a soluble form of uranium similar to what might enter groundwater from the mines, showed heavy increases in oestrogen levels which might explain the increased cancer levels among Navajo girls. The amount of uranium given to the mice was half the level permitted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and one-tenth the level found in some wells on the Navajo reservation."
     Water contamination for many thousands of years is one of the problems that people fear in the areas surrounding uranium mining.
You will see that this is one reason why they don't want it, apart from a history of exploitation, sickness and deaths,from mining..
     Now, ask yourself where the uranium mining  exploration and granting of licenses is going on at full speed, and one of the places is Africa, and the people who will be affected are some of the poorest and least formally educated in the world.  Do you think that their voice will be heard?  It's a struggle for people in developed nations with a history of sickness and deaths from uranium mining.
       High burn up fuel is not the answer. The waste  has to be kept on site for a minimum of 50 to 160 years before it can be safely moved.  This is hardly a fair legacy to leave a generation in this country as yet unborn, facing we know not what problems and who will get no benefit from it? I have read that it is too hot to bury safely. 
     We have brilliant people working on renewables. In this country we have enough wind and wave and tidal energy to keep us supplied and have spare to export.  In Australia, in the desert, Dr. Karl states that an area 50km by 50km of solar voltaic would provide enough electrical energy for the whole of Australia and an area 500km by 500km would supply enough electrical energy to supply the whole world. Come on guys, we can do it.   Think what a future you could be leaving your grandchildren.  Think happy.