Portland Mayor Sam Adams went to the annual US Conference of Mayors gathering last week, introduced 4 resolutions, and all four passed unanimously!

One of those was titled: ESTABLISH AS A POSITION OF THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF MAYORS THAT CORPORATIONS SHOULD NOT RECEIVE THE SAME LEGAL RIGHTS AS NATURAL PERSONS DO, THAT MONEY IS NOT SPEECH AND THAT INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURES SHOULD BE REGULATED

Read the full resolution here.

The second resolution advocated for on-site treatment of radioactive waste where it is produced instead of shipping it elsewhere, especially Hanford.  It was titled: REQUIRE THAT THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY FOCUS ON THE TREATMENT AND STORAGE OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE ON-SITE WHERE APPROPRIATE TO MITIGATE HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS OF TRANSPORTING LOW, HIGH AND MIXED LEVEL WASTE TO OFFSITE TREATMENT FACILITIES. 

Read this full resolution here.

Read the blogposting by Mayor Adams here and take a minute to comment, thanking him for his leadership on these matters. 

You can read about the other two resolution there as well.

Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state is in danger of being designated a national nuclear waste dump site in spite of vast quantities of nuclear waste already on site which is leaking into the Columbia River.

Should this happen, 20,000 to 30,000 truck loads of nuclear waste could start traveling on Oregon highways carrying the waste for storage at Hanford. A US Department of Energy study concluded that over 800 death would result. However, we know that the number would be much higher as they used the average adult male to obtain the figure. Women and children would die at a higher rate than adult males.

Beyond the danger from leaking radiation, accident or terrorist attacks could happen. If that happened on a freeway in Portland, hundred of square miles would need to be evacuated, economic activity would be disrupted up and as many as 1000 people could die.

The state of Washington could say no to the plan. They have the right to refuse shipments of chemical wastes at Hanford. Nuclear waste is not pure but is a toxic stew of nuclear and chemical waste and therefore subject to regulation by the State of Washington.

The Washington Dept. of Ecology will hold a public hearing at which you can comment. The meeting date/time is Wed. May 16th at 7 PM at Red Lion Jantzen Beach. Heart of America NW will hold a pre-hearing learning session starting at 6:15. They are the main advocates for clean-up of Hanford.

Additional information is available at the Alliance for Democracy website at www.afd-pdx.org, including two 5 minutes YouTube videos containing good talking points.