The worst nuclear accident in U.S. history: July 16, 1979, Navajo Reservation

international | environment | other press Saturday July 18, 2009 16:25 by Ann Garrison anniegarrison at gmail dot com San Francisco, CA

July 16th, 2009, marked the 30th anniversary of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, when, at 5:00 A.M., 1100 tons of uranium mining tailings, and 100 million gallons of radioactive water burst through United Nuclear's earthen dam, into the Rio Puerco, at a uranium mine in Church Rock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Reservation. Today, the Navajo Nation remains under toxic siege, by coal mining, uranium mining, and coal-fired power, even though an EPA doc already suggests that the entire reservation is a Superfund site. The Navajo Tribal Council, in 2005, passed a uranium mining ban, the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act, and thus won a Nuclear Free Future Award, but the ban has been under pressure ever since, and uranium mining claims now surround the Navajo Reservation like an advancing army.

Full text and photos at http://tinyurl.com/nk4zqu.