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LOCAL News :: Environment

The "Beginning of the End" of the Nuclear Age Comes to Chicago

Nuclear Power and Childrens' Health: What YOU Can Do -- a symposium to educate and explain what YOU can do to protect our kids and the planet from the effects of ionizing radiation.
On December 3, 1942, Chicago was witness to the Dawn of the Nuclear Age, when Enrico Fermi and his research team initiated the world’s first sustained, controlled chain reaction in a secret lab under the squash courts at University of Chicago.

On October 15th, 2004, Chicago will be witness to what some activists and organizers hope will be the “Beginning of the End of the Nuclear Age,” as hundreds gather from Illinois and beyond for a national symposium dedicated to ending nuclear perils of all kinds.

“Nuclear Power and Children’s Health: What YOU Can Do,” will be a two-day symposium on current issues and findings about the hazards of nuclear power and low-level radiation exposure. It is particularly aimed at those populations most genetically and physically threatened by the effects of ionizing radiation: children, seniors and those with immune deficiencies.

This Conference (materials available online at www.nuclearpolicy.org ) is being conducted by internationally renown pediatrician and peace activist Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Nuclear Policy Research Institute (NSPI) of Washington, D.C. in cooperation with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) of Washington, D.C.; and locally by the Chicago Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR-Chicago), North Suburban Peace Initiative (NSPI), and Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS). It will be held at St. Scholastica Academy in West Rogers Park, Chicago, on Friday and Saturday, October 15-16; and is expected to draw 400 participants from Illinois communities and other states.

This Conference is offered as a means of becoming educated and updated on new developments and findings on nuclear concerns. State and federal officials have been invited to the event. An opening welcome will be provided by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D.9th-IL), in whose the district the Conference is being held. It will also be attended by a representative from the office of Lt. Governor Patrick Quinn, who recently chaired a state committee which released a report on the condition of the electric grid system in Illinois.

“What better place to plan the end of the Nuclear Age than in the “belly of the beast” – Illinois, the most nuclear-reliant state in the U.S.; the one responsible for producing more high-level radioactive wastes than any other state; the place where it all began!” notes Dave Kraft, director of the Evanston-based NEIS, active for 23 years watchidogging Illinois’ 14 nuclear reactors.

This Conference comes at a time when:

· The major utilities, heavily nuclear-reliant Exelon among them, still balk and actively work against the adoption of state or federal renewable energy legislation;
· Exelon announces plans to seek extended operation permission from federal regulators for its four aging Dresden and Quad Cities reactors, among the oldest, most decrepit and heavily fined reactors in the U.S.; and seeks permission for an “early site permit” for the possible construction of new nuclear reactors in Illinois, sometime before 2010, at the downstate site of the present-day Clinton-1 reactor near Bloomington and Urbana-Champaign;
· A cancer cluster is reported to exist in the area around the Dresden reactor, yet is dismissed by public health officials and Exelon (a trained health care worker and mother of one child victim of this cancer cluster has been invited to report her experience at the Conference);
· New medical and scientific evidence indicates that low-doses of radiation exposure may have powerfully greater negative effects than previously thought or believed, strongly suggesting the need for a planned decrease, not increase, in nuclear power and other radiation-related industries (findings to be presented by Dr. Caldicott and several researchers and MD’s);
· Former Exelon senior engineer turned safety advocate/whistle-blower Oscar Shirani reports gross violation of NRC standards regarding safety certification and quality assurance issues, yet has his concerns dismissed as inconsequential by the regulators at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (he will present his revelations and conclusions at the Conference);
· Federal regulators at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have thoroughly abdicated their regulatory responsibility to protect the public and the environment, and routinely cave-in to every demand from the nuclear industry (details of this provided at the Conference by experienced nuclear engineer David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists).
· Uranium left over from the manufacture of reactor fuel is now being manufactured into radioactive weapons like “depleted uranium” –DU – the manufacture and use of which continues to expose millions of civilians and hundreds of thousands of military personnel and workers worldwide to potentially hazardous doses of ionizing radiation.

These issues and concerns have enormous significance and implications for the economic and environmental future of Illinois, with its 14 reactors (11 operating), spent reactor fuel pools, and likelihood of becoming a high-volume nuclear waste traffic corridor for the proposed, ill-advised Yucca Mt., Nevada radwaste site. And finally, all Illinois reactors are between 10-28 minutes normal flight time and routing from the world’s busiest airport at O’Hare Field, a fact of incalculable importance in the post-9/11 world. (See NEIS’ October, 2001 report, “Here Today, THERE Tomorrow: Nuclear Power Plants as Potential Terrorist Targets,” available online at www.neis.org )

As Albert Einstein once noted, “The release of atom power has changed everything – except our way of thinking….The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind.” Dr. Caldicott and the other Conference planners say it’s time to move away from outdated and destructive “nuclear” thinking, towards “new-clear” thinking about the hazards of nuclear power; and about how we will consciously replace the Nuclear Age with a sustainable energy future.
TO REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE: download/register online at: www.nuclearpolicy.org Walk-ins will be accepted. Lunch is available both days. A fundraising dinner will follow the Conference each day at 6:00 p.m. at Misericordia Auditorium, at Devon and Ridge. The donation for Dinner Friday night is $125-$175 per plate, and will feature musical entertainment from the Indigo Girls. This event benefits NPRI. The Dinner Saturday night is $25, and features local singer-song-writer Kristin Lems. A special post-conference brunch will occur Sunday Oct. 17 from 11-2 p.m. in Evanston. Suggested donation is $25; proceeds will benefit NEIS and NIRS. (For more information or reservations for this event, call NEIS at (847)869-7650, or go to: www.neis.org).

For more information, contact:

Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS)
Conference Co-Planner
(847)8697650; -7658 fax
neis (at) neis.org
www.neis.org
 
 

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