Mildred McKini McCain

reprinted with permission from
Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS,
THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
pages 275-277

We must reiterate for the world records: The nuclear weapon's production-chain has and continues to endanger the lives and livelihoods of millions of indigenous people around the world. From the Aborigines in Australia to the Western Shoshone people in Nevada to the peoples of the French Pacific, indigenous peoples have witnessed the destruction of their lands and their children by this diabolical monster. We must unite beyond our race, religion or class and put an end to this madness! Our land and its people are the Creator's most precious recources' and we can no longer act as co-conspirators in this death and destruction through our own silence. Our voices must drown out the cries and the screams of Mother Earth, the tears of the mountains, the deserts and the waters must be replaced with chants, songs, poems and prayers for an end to this nuclear nightmare. . . .
We know that the scientists say that there is a controversy over the health effects of low radiation, but I am here to tell you, my friends -- along with the others -- that low radiation doses is deadly, dangerous and it causes death. Death through leukemia, death through cancer. I lost my sister through leukemia, and my grandmother through cancer, and many of my friends who live in Chatham County suffer from cancer. We, the second largest county in the state of Georgia, has the highest incidence of cancer in our state. . . .
I have experienced many emotions at these Hearings because I have suffered the pain with my brothers and sisters. I have fought on the front line, and I am still committed. These diabolical practices and effects are certainly known by the so-called experts! They know yet because of their greed and their need for more money and more power and control these evil people continue to tell the lie, the public is not at risk!



Mildred McKini McCain

Mildred McKini McCain, African-American, Georgia, USA. Member of Citizens for Environmental Justice, Savannah.

I have asked my sister to sit with me because today I am not feeling well. I am from the tribe of the downstreamers who live in and around Chatham County, down from a place called the Savannah River Site where tritium and plutonium is produced.

At the age of 17, I was diagnosed with a disease drinking from contaminated milk. It was diagnosed as a disease that would take my life by the time I was 35, and I am grateful that the Creator has seen fit to use me further, because very soon I will be 45. So I have been granted ten extra years.

This day is unusual because we started without prayer, and we know that through prayer, songs and chants we are able to strengthen ourselves to continue fighting on for all humankind. I have the tremendous task of ending the list of witnesses today. You have heard and shared our pain, you have heard and shared our struggles, you have heard and shared our strengths, and we know that together we will win.

People of colour in the United States have long regognized that the social, economic, environmental and racial problems facing their communities are global in nature. Mainstream white environmental organizations in the U.S. also have identified the global link and constantly used slogans like: "We are all in this together," "There is a great circle of poison to which we all belong," and the term "everybody's back yard." This approach may make it appear that problems of environmental degradation are faced equally by all people. But as we have heard, we know that when we look at the environmental issues internationally, a pattern of disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards and dangers exist among those who are non-white, poor, less educated, and politically less powerful. The international linkage and the role of poverty and race can be seen clearly defined by exploring specific global issues, such as the environmental impact of war and nuclear testing, development aid and trade policies, and the exploration of hazardous industries and wastes.

The production of nuclear weapons from the mining of uranium to the manufacture and testing of weapons has had far reaching and devastating health and environmental effects, as evidenced by the witnesses and lecturers over the past few days. We must reiterate for the world records: The nuclear weapon's production-chain has and continues to endanger the lives and livelihoods of millions of indigenous people around the world. From the Aborigines in Australia to the Western Shoshone people in Nevada to the peoples of the French Pacific, indigenous peoples have witnessed the destruction of their lands and their children by this diabolical monster. We must unite beyond our race, religion or class and put an end to this madness! Our land and its people are the Creator's most precious recources' and we can no longer act as co-conspirators in this death and destruction through our own silence. Our voices must drown out the cries and the screams of Mother Earth, the tears of the mountains, the deserts and the waters must be replaced with chants, songs, poems and prayers for an end to this nuclear nightmare.

I live downstream from the Savannah River Site. The Savannah River Site occupies 300 square miles on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River. It produces plutonium and tritium for nuclear weapons. It plays a crucial role in the United States Department of Energy's nuclear-weapons production complex which covers more than 3,900 square miles in 13 states and employs over 100,000 people. So you see, when we fight the plant, we are fighting the people because they say: "This is our livelihood, these are our jobs!" So we suffer from job blood-mail, job white-mail, where we have to decide: Do we work for the survival of our families or do we fight this nuclear nonsense and demand that it is taken out of our communities?

Plutonium and tritium are produced in nuclear reactors called production reactors, as you know. The Savannah River Plant was built in the early 1950's to produce only tritium, but the reactors have also been used to produce plutonium. As you know, there is only one other production-reactor site in the United States, and you have been told about the Hanford/Washington Plant which was gallantly fought against by another downwinder. The Savannah River Site has five reactors, named C, R, P, K and L. The C and R reactors are permanently shut down, the remaining three have been shut down since 1988 because of maintenance and operating problems, but the great, evil person called Admiral Watkins has seen fit to make the decision to re-open the K reactor, and so operational tests are now in effect and they have said that it will be able to produce tritium. In 1988, when the Savannah River Site reactors were shut down, the U.S. had approximately 20,000 war heads in its arsenal. This stockpile contained 100 metric tons of plutonium and 500 to 600 metric tons of uranium; materials which we have heard decay so slowly that the common supply will last thousands and thousands of years to come. Tritium decays at a much faster rate, but even at that rate of 5.5 percent a year, we will still have enough tritium to fuel thousands of bombs of destruction over the next several decades. This tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen and it is used to boost the explosion of nuclear weapons. You get more bang, more boost for your money!

We know that the scientists say that there is a controversy over the health effects of low radiation, but I am here to tell you, my friends -- along with the others -- that low radiation doses is deadly, dangerous and it causes death. Death through leukemia, death through cancer. I lost my sister through leukemia, and my grandmother through cancer, and many of my friends who live in Chatham County suffer from cancer. We, the second largest county in the state of Georgia, has the highest incidence of cancer in our state. Just before Christmas this past year, one of the K reactor's heat exchangers developed a leak. The leak was estimated at 150 gallons of heavy water, containing about 6,000 Curies of tritium. The leak caused enough radiation to raise tritium levels in the Savannah River 80 miles downstream to two to three times the Environmental Protection Agency's average daily concentration guidelines. And since that time, we have had two more leaks, one in the air and one in the facility itself. These leaks are dangerous and deadly to our water, our soil and our people. But the leaks are not the only thing that we have to be concerned about. Direct discharges of radioactive and chemical waste to surface streams and online-seepage-basins and the use of inadequate solid-waste burial methods have resulted in widespread surface water and groundwater contamination. Contamination has seeped into two aquifers, one of which is the most important ground-water source in the Southeast region. Atmospheric emissions of tritium and other radionuclides have resulted in the accumulation of radioactivity in the soil, the vegetation and the milk. The milk -- the milk -- I ask you, who drinks the milk? It is the mothers, the pregnant women, and the children! Tritium in air emissions is discernible in rain fall in about 100 miles' radius of the plant, and environmental monitoring indicates that the Savannah River Site may be responsible for relatively high levels of SR-90 in milk produced near the site.

We African Americans stand with the indigenous people and we charge: Genocide! We charge: Genocide! We charge: Genocide!

I have experienced many emotions at these Hearings because I have suffered the pain with my brothers and sisters. I have fought on the front line, and I am still committed. These diabolical practices and effects are certainly known by the so-called experts! They know yet because of their greed and their need for more money and more power and control these evil people continue to tell the lie, the public is not at risk!

I want to be able to stand one day like my friend Ruth Bosa who has stood on the front line, fighting the nuclear fight for decades. Like the people of Hanford/Washington we find ourselves in Savannah in a hell of a fix, but also like the brothers and sisters in Hanford we will not take this blatant affront on our humanity lying down. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired! We cannot tolerate this offense to our Mother Earth any longer, nor to ourselves!

I am coming to a close. There are 35 million gallons of highly radioactive waste stored in aging underground tanks, some of which have leaks. But the Department of Energy is kind of smart, and they said they've built a facility which is going to turn this waste into glass and then store it in some canisters and then find somewhere to put it. But they don't know where they are going to put it yet! Is it going to be in your back yard? In your front yard? In your house, in your home, to affect your children, your babies, your generations to come? I say: Dare to say: No! Dare to say: Hell, no! We will not accept this in anybody's back yard!

I have just one more minute.

On this last day of the Uranium Hearing I say to each of you, let us use the power of the water, the mountains and the sacred fire to heal and strengthen ourselves for this incredible fight to win back our land and all of her wonders. I say to you: Fight on! No passaran, no sarinhe! Do not surrender! Don't give up! Remember our people united will never be defeated! Our people united will never be defeated, and when you leave this place and you feel tired and sick, remember the words of my grandmother, who was half Cherokee and half African. She said: "My daughter, when you feel as though you just can't go on, say these words to yourself [she sings]:

Amanla ingawe tu(?) -- Power to the people! Power to the people! Power to the people! Fight on against the nuclear nightmare!

Thank you. Fight on for the children! Fight on for the land and the earth!