reprinted with permission from [Rau'l Montenegro]
Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS,
THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
pages 102-104
In '87 happened the first public demonstration in Argentina
against nuclear power -- remember, we had a long period of
military government -- in '87 was the first public demonstration
against nuclear power and against uranium mining with more than
500 people in my city. For you maybe few people, for us it was
really a lot of people. Despite the movements of our
vice-president in government, the pressure over this private
company increased. And more and more control was applied to the
uranium mining. Our pressure from FUNAM and from friends in NGOs
increased, and due to a more and more complicated system of
control, the price of the uranium and the price of the system of
production increased. Thus and finally, in '89, for economic and
environmental reasons, the uranium mining of Los Gigantes was
closed. And this is one example of the very, very few examples of
success in our country against nuclear power.
. . . the work of my organization -- my joint organization --
we have more than 1,100 NGOs in my country, and I think they are
100 percent anti-nuclear -- we propose for The Uranium Hearing in
Salzburg some, I think, interesting proposals to be discussed.
The first of the proposals is to constitute the world coalition
against uranium trade and mining, taking into account these
experiences. Second, to produce through our organization -- to
constitute to the anti-International Atomic Agency -- in fact, I
never understood why Austria that is non-nuclear received our best
and big enemy. And third place, to produce through our
organization our own standards on nuclear non-safety and also to
fight and to reject all the criteria of ICRP, UNCR and BEIR. And
finally, to create the global coalition of victims of radiation,
people that is getting affected by x-rays, by gamma-rays, by
alpha-beta particles, toxic materials that are also radioactive
and so on.
. . . my organization worked in more than 42 countries with
children, 600,000 children, children from the Soviet Union, from
Ruanda and Uganda, and they made this appeal with the words of
children. I repeat, 600,000 children of the world, and they said
this concerning nuclear power -- this is not my 20 minutes, it's
the minutes of the children -- they said:
"We want you to stop using nuclear power and nuclear testing in
our oceans and seas. We demand the removal of all nuclear power
stations. The earth is a single country and all the people are its
citizens. We have to share this planet, so don't be selfish. We
want food to be shared so that everyone has enough. We want clean
water and a home for all people. We are worried about pollution,
war and children starving, while others don't appreciate the food
they get. We are afraid that the world will soon belong only to
the rich. This earth is more valuable than all the money in the
world. We want all countries to work together to protect it."
November 5, 1998: Raúl Montenegro is honored as one of four
recipients of the 1998 Nuclear-Free Future
Award in the area of Education.d
(local copy of announcment)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Raul Montenegro
Raul Montenegro, Argentina. Biologist, founder and President of
Fundacion por la Defensa del Ambiente (FUNAM), winner of the
"Global-500" Prize.
First, I apologize for my English, it's really bad, but I think
that it's best to speak English language. Concerning the
presentation, in fact I am a mutation, because I combine activism,
research and teaching. I am now President of FUNAM, that is
Environment Defence Foundation. I'm an NGO from Argentina, and I
am also Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of
Cordoba, one of the oldest universities in Latin America. In fact,
I worked in both fields, I have been vice-president of Greenpeace
in the first Third World office in Argentina, and also President
of the Argentine Association of Ecology, that is a scientific
body. That is, all our work -- not only my work but of our
foundation -- links activism, research and education.
I will describe all the processes that have developed in my
country. It started in '82 and they finished it after a long, long
fighting with finally the end of the uranium mining of Los
Gigantes. But I think that it is very important for you to know
which is the nuclear plan of Argentina, because it's one of the
most dangerous in the Third World.
In fact, our nuclear power plan, our nuclear program was
developed in Argentina through military governments and not by
civilian governments, as everywhere from the United States to
China or to Germany; every time nuclear power is linked with
military people and not with civilian people. In our country we
have first activities of uranium mining, we have a lot of uranium
mines in activity. Now the most important is Sierra Pintada in
Mendoza with a production of seven tons a year, and we have a lot
of uranium mining stand by. We have also one uranium-dioxide
production facility located in my province, Cordoba, that produces
uranium-dioxide for nuclear fuel. We have also two different
facilities to produce fuel for heavy-water and light-water
reactors. At the same time, we have in my country one facility to
produce heavy water. In fact, it was an investment of (...?) from
Switzerland, and we have also a plant in Pilcaniyeu to produce
enriched uranium. At the level of nuclear power plants, we have
two nuclear power plants functioning: Embalse, in my province at
90 kilometers of my city, of around 700 megawatts electricity; and
Atucha I in Buenos Aires, around 340 megawatts electricity; and
under construction -- to be finished, I think, next year -- Atucha
II, with 700 megawatts electricity.
At the same time Argentina built a reprocessing plant. This
reprocessing plant, LPR(?), is a plant that will produce five tons
of plutonium-239 per year. This plant is in 80 percent finished,
but was stopped by our activities. We will describe this
afterwards. And finally, we have developed the project of a
repository for 3,000 containers of 3.5 tons each for a waste of
high activity. And we have first in development and jointly with
Brazil -- you will listen to the program from Brazil with my
friends from Gamba later -- they are developing the project of a
nuclear submarine, and we have the possibility of the atomic bomb.
The atomic bomb is all ready, we need only the decision. This is
the same for Brazil.
This is in summary the nuclear plan in Argentina. It is a very
dangerous plan, and I think it is very important for you to know
this plan, because it was partially born in Europe, in Germany,
and partially in Canada and everywhere. For this reason, our
organization, FUNAM, fought during years, since 1982, against --
first against uranium mining, all the red dots are the targets of
our organization working with lobbies, with coalitions of other
organizations. We fight that, the uranium mining, and finally we
closed, I think, the uranium mining of Los Gigantes. We're
fighting against uranium-dioxide production facilities, but we
failed, that is, they continue to work; against nuclear power
plants, against the reprocessing plant, and now is stopped the
building; against the repository that now is delayed, and against
the bomb possibility. But now, I think it is important to
summarize our process in uranium mining of Los Gigantes.
In fact, this surface mining was opened in 1982, also during
military governments, and the responsible was an enterprise named
Eduardo Sanchez Iranel, working jointly with the Atomic Energy
Agency. The first environmental problems appeared in 1983,
particularly pollution of waters due to acidic compounds released
by the uranium mining. And our fightings against this uranium
mining started between '82 or '83 and '84, and our battle was
increased particularly in '84. We presented by television
testimonies of people of this area that moved the public opinion
against this uranium mining. Also, we started to work in this
period jointly with the trade unions, particularly with the trade
unions that include the people that work in uranium mining. At
this moment -- and this is an interesting story -- at this moment
the vice-president of my country, Victor Martinez -- he was
vice-president evident during the period of Alfonsin -, this
vice-president was lawyer of the enterprise that was administering
the uranium mining. Thus, from the vice-president -- he pushed a
lot of mechanism to stop the action against uranium mining. And it
is very funny, because in the year -- I don't remember the year --
when I received the Global 500 Award from the United Nations, the
vice-president was present with me. And he knows me and our
organization. And I used this opportunity to speak against uranium
mining of Los Gigantes and to speak about the participation of
leaders of the government in the process; and his face was really
very serious. In 1985, we started legal actions against uranium
mining, and some bad things happened in '86: In '86 a bomb
destroyed a monitoring system in the river San Antonio. It is
located in the basin where this uranium mining released its waste.
This bomb destroyed totally the system of monitoring, and in the
same night my car -- my car has four wheels as all the cars -- and
all the four wheels have been destroyed, each of them with a stick
of iron, and at that same time it started, the threatening by
phone with my family and with also members of our organization.
In '87 happened the first public demonstration in Argentina
against nuclear power -- remember, we had a long period of
military government -- in '87 was the first public demonstration
against nuclear power and against uranium mining with more than
500 people in my city. For you maybe few people, for us it was
really a lot of people. Despite the movements of our
vice-president in government, the pressure over this private
company increased. And more and more control was applied to the
uranium mining. Our pressure from FUNAM and from friends in NGOs
increased, and due to a more and more complicated system of
control, the price of the uranium and the price of the system of
production increased. Thus and finally, in '89, for economic and
environmental reasons, the uranium mining of Los Gigantes was
closed. And this is one example of the very, very few examples of
success in our country against nuclear power. But we have a very
nice news: The former proprietor of uranium mining, his name is
Eduardo Sanchez Iranel, is now in jail due to corruption. And this
is very nice because, you know, we received that in journals, he's
fighting using the journals -- and now, in fact, we received the
good news that he is in jail, and I expect that for more than the
period of the plutonium -- 25,000 years.
Which are now our next steps, working every time with a lot of
organizations? First, we are supporting the battle of the citizens
and our NGO friends in Mendoza, because Los Gigantes is closed,
but now you have Sierra Pintada, it's the most important. And I
think that the atmosphere is really positive in this field.
Second, we are pushing atomic energy authorities to be
indefinitely responsible for the health of the workers, because
when the mining is closed, no more people -- I don't know the word
in English -- all the workers that worked in the uranium mining
are not -- employed, no, but that is not the problem, the problem
is that they don't receive care after they have left the mine. And
we are pushing for this. And third, and this is very important, we
are increasing our battle against our two nuclear power plants
and, concerning this, one of our recent battles is that in my
country children, teenagers, adults visit nuclear power plants,
with tours as in Salzburg, but visiting nuclear power plants.
Thus, we started a strong campaign to stop this, and we sent a
letter document to the Ministry of Education at some authorities,
stating that they are responsible for all their life for any
accident that will happen inside the nuclear power plants,
independent if they are or not in the public function as
functionalists in the government. Thus, I will ask to you after
signatures for a document that we are producing to ask the ban of
visits to nuclear power plants not only in Argentina, but also in
the Third World and also in the First World, because it is not new
that a lot of nuclear power plants, as you said, are places for
tours, beautiful tours.
Finally, evidently, this is only a part -- this is not the job
of FUNAM, of our organization, it is the job of a lot of NGOs that
have worked in my country.
And -- I lost all my ... Yes, I think we have two minutes, I
kept time, because, you know, the people from Brazil will be very
furious with me, if --
Dr. Zephania Kameeta (Moderator)
I didn't stop him!
Raul Montenegro
Yes, this is a technique. -- And finally, in one minute and 25
seconds, the work of my organization -- my joint organization --
we have more than 1,100 NGOs in my country, and I think they are
100 percent anti-nuclear -- we propose for The Uranium Hearing in
Salzburg some, I think, interesting proposals to be discussed.
The first of the proposals is to constitute the world coalition
against uranium trade and mining, taking into account these
experiences. Second, to produce through our organization -- to
constitute to the anti-International Atomic Agency -- in fact, I
never understood why Austria that is non-nuclear received our best
and big enemy. And third place, to produce through our
organization our own standards on nuclear non-safety and also to
fight and to reject all the criteria of ICRP, UNCR and BEIR. And
finally, to create the global coalition of victims of radiation,
people that is getting affected by x-rays, by gamma-rays, by
alpha-beta particles, toxic materials that are also radioactive
and so on.
And I have my finally finally, because my organization worked
in more than 42 countries with children, 600,000 children,
children from the Soviet Union, from Ruanda and Uganda, and they
made this appeal with the words of children. I repeat, 600,000
children of the world, and they said this concerning nuclear power
-- this is not my 20 minutes, it's the minutes of the children --
they said:
"We want you to stop using nuclear power and nuclear testing in
our oceans and seas. We demand the removal of all nuclear power
stations. The earth is a single country and all the people are its
citizens. We have to share this planet, so don't be selfish. We
want food to be shared so that everyone has enough. We want clean
water and a home for all people. We are worried about pollution,
war and children starving, while others don't appreciate the food
they get. We are afraid that the world will soon belong only to
the rich. This earth is more valuable than all the money in the
world. We want all countries to work together to protect it."
Thank you.