[en] This article reviews the efforts of a number of hard-pressed utilities to fund the private development of a monitored retrievable storage facility on the Mescalero reservation in New Mexico. From a group of three nuclear operators running short of on-site storage capacity, the group has now grown to 31 utilities and three other companies. If all goes according to plan, the license application should be submitted in mid-1996, and the license should be obtained by late 1999. The project is estimated to cost the utility participants approximately $66M, and reception of waste is anticipated by the year 2002

[en] The Mushkegowuk Native Council's views on renewable energy sources were summarized. Problems with existing off-grid diesel generators maintained by Ontario Hydro, particularly fuel leakage from buried transfer lines, were described. A study currently in progress, to establish energy-related goals, concerns and objectives of the community, to determine the technologies which should be utilized and the roles and responsibilities of other players in this undertaking, was described. Education about the need for energy conservation was said to be a major concern. Reference was made to a 1994 conference of the Independent Power Producers' Society of Ontario (IPPSO), where it was concluded that First Nations needed to discuss alternative energy issues including independent power production, ownership and management of utilities, compensation for past development, renewables and energy planning studies. At the same time, the speaker acknowledged the importance of safe and reliable energy and competitive prices, within the framework of sustainable development

[en] Environmental justice is a term that has developed as a result of our need to address whether some of the environmental decisions we have made -- and others we will make -- are fair. The idea of environmental justice has been actively pursued by the Clinton Administration, and this consideration has resulted in Executive Order 12898, which was signed by President Clinton on February 11, 1994. The Executive Order calls for adverse impacts of Federal actions on minority or low-income populations to be identified before decisions implementing those actions are made. Numerous studies show that noxious facilities, such as incinerators and landfills, have been constructed in minority or low-income communities. And since the Department has not yet decided on sites for high-level waste storage or disposal facilities, it will have to take the new Executive Order into consideration as another piece in the complicated quilt of requirements that cover facility siting. An interesting twist to this is the fact that twenty Native American Indian Tribes expressed interest in voluntarily hosting a high-level radioactive waste management facility for temporary storage. They made these expressions on their own initiative, and several Tribes continue to pursue the idea of negotiations with either the Federal Government or private entities to locate a temporary storage site on Tribal land. The Executive Order goes beyond simply studying the effect of siting a facility and addresses in spirit a criticism that the Federal Government has been guilty of open-quotes environmental racismclose quotes in its siting policies -- that it has intentionally picked minority or low-income communities for waste management facilities. What Department of Energy staff and others may have considered foregone conclusions in terms of interim storage facility siting and transportation options will have to be reevaluated for compatibility with provisions of the new Executive Order

[en] Three lettes are presented here, all addressing the problem of nuclear waste disposal. Robert M. Bernero (former director of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, US NRC) points out there are only 4 options for managing toxic and nuclear waste (recycling, outer space disposal; deep-ocean disposal, geologic disposal) and that the stragegy should prevent people from inadvertently stumbling onto the waste site. Robert Holden (director nuclear Waste Program, National Congress of American Indians) uses Yucca Mountain to illustrate problems and solutions that must be implemented if tribal people's concerns are to be respected. George E. Dials (Manager, Carlsbad Area Office, US DOE) focuses on a positive assessment of WIPP as part of the solution

[en] Many communities in the area surrounding Los Alamos are very concerned about the environmental impact past and current Laboratory operations have on their communities. Their main concerns are contamination of water, soil and air as well as the hazardous and radioactive wastes stored at the Laboratory site. Environmental surveillance results show that contamination may have migrated off-site through the canyons of the Pajarito Plateau to the Rio Grande. San Ildefonso Pueblo and Cochiti Pueblo are located downstream from the canyons that drain the Los Alamos town site and Laboratory lands. Several other pueblos are also located downstream from the Laboratory. The Pueblos located upstream from the laboratory indicated that contamination of air and worry about the contamination of the animals they hunt for food is a more important concern to them. There are many canyons that drain the areas where Los Alamos and Laboratory property are located. To be able to characterize those canyons that are known or suspected to have received contamination, the ER Project needs to prepare RCRA Facility Investigation (RFI) work plans for approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Once EPA approves the work plant, characterization activities can start for the specific areas identified in the work plan

[en] This cultural resources assessment of the Washington Windplant No. 1 has been issued as a draft pending ongoing review of Yakama Indian Nation oral history information and identification of traditional cultural properties. A technical memorandum, dated February 2, 1995, summarizing the current status of this work, is appended to the end of this report

[en] Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) proposes to fund the Hellsgate Winter Range Wildlife Mitigation Project (Project) in a cooperative effort with the Colville Confederated Tribes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The proposed action would allow the sponsors to secure property and conduct wildlife management activities within the boundaries of the Colville Indian Reservation. This Final Environmental Assessment (EA) examines the potential environmental effects of acquiring and managing property for wildlife and wildlife habitat within a large project area. This area consists of several separated land parcels, of which 2,000 hectares (4,943 acres) have been purchased by BPA and an additional 4,640 hectares (11,466 acres) have been identified by the Colville Confederated Tribes for inclusion in the Project. Four proposed activities (habitat protection, habitat enhancement, operation and maintenance, and monitoring and evaluation) are analyzed. The proposed action is intended to meet the need for mitigation of wildlife and wildlife habitat that was adversely affected by the construction of Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph Dams and their reservoirs

[en] Indian tribes have been directly involved in the development of nuclear energy and weapons production by the United States from its very inception since many uranium mines are located on or in proximity to American Indian lands. Tribal involvement with nuclear energy is increasing and another milestone in the relationship is the siting of a Monitored Retrievable Storage facility. The MRS is not just another DOE facility but is a symbol of tribal sovereignity and a testing of tribal cultural values. For once, tribes were given the same opportunities as states and counties; yet, tribes were criticized for exercizing their rights under existing legislation. Fifteen tribes applied for grants on the basis of the non-coercive, and purely voluntary, nature of the Nuclear Waste Negotiators invitation. The zeal with which the tribal decisionmakers were verbally attacked was surprising and completely unforseen. The greatest lesson that can come out of the siting process is that a tribe has made its own decision about the MRS and has exercised its sovereignity in the face of severe opposition. Regardless of the decision, if it is made in an informed and wise manner, then it should be applauded as a statement of sovereign rights

[en] The Yakama Indian Nation (YIN) is a sovereign government located in the Northwestern United States. In 1855, the US government recognized Yakama Nation dominion on 12.2 million acres of land, or more than one-quarter of present-day Washington State. In the Treaty of 1855 between US and Yakama representatives, the YIN ceded control on 10.8 million acres of its ancestral land to the US government, but retained certain perpetual rights to that land. The Hanford Nuclear Site is located on Yakama ceded land, upon which the YIN retains rights to fish, hunt, gather roots and berries, and to pasture horses and cattle. The YIN has been recognized by the US Department of Energy as having regulatory authority concerning Hanford operations. This authority requires incorporation of YIN Treaty rights in the development of environmental cleanup standards for D and D and ER actions. The legal and policy framework upon which YIN environmental protection standards are based includes protection of the health, safety and well-being of YIN Tribal members, protection of the environment necessary to support Treaty protected resources, and preservation of the culture which sustains the unique YIN lifestyle and religion. The basis for Yakama cleanup standards will address risk, environmental, and cultural factors. It is recognized that the unique Yakama lifestyle and diet create specific exposure pathways for hazardous and radioactive materials which are not routinely factored into risk models used to calculate doses

[en] This plan describes the long-term surveillance activities for the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project disposal site at Mexican Hat, Utah. The US Department of Energy (DOE) will carry out these activities to ensure that the disposal site continues to function as designed. This long-term surveillance plan (LTSP) was prepared as a requirement for acceptance under the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) general license for custody and long-term care of residual radioactive material (RRM). This LTSPC documents the land ownership interests and details how the long-term care of the disposal site will be accomplished