IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – A documentary explores the lives of women affected by the Three Mile Island accident – the waste from which eventually ended up in Idaho.

This year marks 40 years since the partial meltdown at the nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.

Accidents Can Happen: The Women of Three Mile Island features four mothers left in the dark as the accident occurred, inspiring them to join the anti-nuclear movement.

Heidi Hutner, the film’s director, has visited the Idaho National Laboratory where the melted core is stored and says the reaction from Idaho women ties into her story, as folks remain concerned about the waste.

"Environmental degradation, the poison from this technology lives on for thousands of years, remains radioactive and very dangerous,” she points out. “We don't really have a safe, long-term means of storage.

“And this idea that we can take it somewhere else – there is no 'somewhere else,' really. We live on a small planet."

Hutner notes that Idaho women in the 1970s and '80s would “bear witness” to trains arriving with nuclear waste from other places, including the melted core from Three Mile Island.

Hutner plans to come to Idaho and film women here for the documentary.

Kerry Cooke is the former executive director of Snake River Alliance, a nuclear watchdog group that formed in the immediate wake of the Three Mile Island accident.

She says the group was – and still is – concerned about the waste stored at the Idaho National Laboratory and its threat to the Snake River Aquifer, which supplies water for about 300,000 Idahoans and much of the region's agriculture.

Cooke says as groups such as Snake River Alliance speak up, the government has become more forthright. But that wasn't the case in 1979.

"Midway through the transports of the Three Mile Island core to Idaho, public clear across the country – because of groups like the Snake River Alliance – were up in arms, saying, 'You cannot bring that to our communities,’” she states. “’This is extremely dangerous for all of us.' And the public felt very much like this was a decision made with no public input."

Hutner notes that women and girls are most vulnerable to radiation exposure. She says women historically didn't have a voice on nuclear issues, but they're standing up around the world.

"You find these powerful women in Idaho who have done extraordinary work on protecting the people of their state and women in Three Mile Island and women at Rocky Flats and women in Japan,” Hutner points out. “You find these clusters of frontline women doing extraordinary work, and it's very inspiring."

Environmental groups in Tennessee will soon learn more about the approval process behind a radioactive waste landfill which has been processing and storing highly enriched uranium for six decades.

The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility sued the Environmental Protection Agency to gain access to documents related to the approval of the Y12 Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge.

Jeff Ruch, Pacific director for the group, explained the landfill is being built despite objections from senior government officials. He said they used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the documents and the EPA has agreed to provide 400 documents a month, through September.

"The fact that EPA is not being candid about this indicates that they have something to hide," Ruch contended. "And they've already produced several hundred documents, almost none of which are substantive. We do a lot of FOIA litigation and for us, it's a kind of a safe form of whistleblowing."

Ruch pointed out one issue is the Clean Water Act protections for the streams running by the landfill and emptying into other bodies of water have been set aside. He added unacceptable levels of radiation in the water will affect the fish and wildlife. Critics of the uranium-enriching process say it poses safety and health risks to Tennesseans.

Tanvi Kardile, coordinator for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, said her group continues to raise concerns to local communities and lawmakers about what it sees as the environmental hazards and public health risks tied to creating a landfill for toxic waste.

"Oak Ridge has pretty high cancer rates already, because of the Y12 weapons complex," Kardile asserted. "As an organization, we're worried about the increase of cancer rates because of a radioactive waste landfill."

"We all live downriver from Hanford," is the message painted on the windows of the Patagonia store in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. It is a reminder of the continuing danger created by the remaining toxic nuclear waste at the Hanford Site in Benton County.

Advocates with the nonprofit Hanford Challenge painted the mural to remind people everyone will suffer if the waste seeps into the groundwater and into the Columbia River.

Nikolas Peterson, executive director of the Hanford Challenge, tracks the cleanup efforts.

"We are holding the federal government -- the contractors doing this work -- accountable," Peterson explained. "To make sure that they don't walk away from this cleanup and leave a mess that future generations will have to deal with."

During World War II, U.S. government nuclear scientists at Hanford created the plutonium used in atomic bombs, contaminating the soil and leaving behind 56 million gallons of high-level toxic waste. The current plan is to transform much of the waste into a glasslike material, put it in steel tanks and bury it underground.

The Yakama Nation's Environmental Restoration/Waste Management program has teamed up with the nonprofit Columbia Riverkeeper to teach future generations about the ongoing cleanup and offer field trips to the site.

Peterson noted his organization is working to get Hanford into the standard curriculum in all Washington state high schools.

"We want people, in especially the Pacific Northwest, to really take ownership of Hanford," Peterson emphasized. "And we can demand a better and safer cleanup for all of us."

The U.S. Department of Energy maintains a page dedicated to the Hanford Site cleanup. People interested in volunteering can contact Hanford Challenge and Columbia Riverkeeper.


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A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing health and safety concerns about the development of a landfill for radioactive waste from the Y12 Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge.

For six decades, Y12 has been processing and storing highly enriched uranium.

Tanvi Kardile, coordinator for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, said her group is raising concerns to the community and lawmakers about what it sees as the environmental hazards and public health risks that come with creating a landfill for toxic waste.

"There's been some violations with the Clean Water Act," Kardile pointed out. "Right now, a radioactive waste landfill in Oak Ridge is approved to be built, but this required waiving the Clean Water Act rules. So, there's upcoming litigation around this."

Kardile noted the landfill concerns are in addition to the ongoing threat of radioactive contamination in Oak Ridge's land, water and air due to the Y12 weapons complex activities. She stressed the issue is not new, citing a lawsuit against the Department of Energy over mercury released decades ago. Critics of the uranium-enriching process say it poses safety and health risks to the community.

According to Kardile, she has spoken directly with Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration officials, raising her group's objections to the $8 billion Y12 processing facility over serious health concerns. But proponents of the weapons plant point to the jobs and economic impact it has for the local area.

"They're not concerned about environmental issues at all," Kardile observed. "They were like, 'This is necessary for our nation's security,' like building our nuclear weapons stockpile is 'necessary.' So, it's something that we have to do. And they also said that it provides jobs for people in the area."

Kardile acknowledged the Alliance does not want to see anyone lose their job, but said closing the facility would also provide employment opportunities through an extensive cleanup phase. The latest defense spending bill, approved by both houses of Congress in July, authorized $760 million for Y12's Uranium Processing Facility.