“No Nukes — No Kidding,” demonstrat­ors proclaimed Friday, July 15


A group of around 50 protestors, accompanied by a small marching band and a large, mock nuclear waste cask, carried signs from a rally at Pritchard Park to the Federal Building late Friday afternoon, July 15. Their message: nuclear waste is not welcome traveling on area roadways, nor in a repository once proposed for north Buncombe County.
Photos by Jerry Nelson.

There’s a glow in the Smokies tonight: Nuclear waste and WNC **UPDATED*­*

Our research on the past and present of nuclear waste in WNC dug up two interesting campaign items from a 1980s citizen-based effort to keep radioactive waste out of the community. The campaign, which resulted in Madison County commissioners adopting a resolution against nuclear waste transit on county roadways, featured a photo of local music producer Steven Heller wearing a hazmat suit and seated on a tractor, as if plowing a field of contaminated soil. The photo was part of a campaign that appeared on billboards with the catch-phrase, “Don’t think it can’t happen here.” Heller produced a piece of music written to support the campaign (listen to it within); go ahead and sing along as “…the bears in the park/Are glowing in the dark/There’s a glow in the Smokies tonight.”
Look for a full report on nuclear-waste facts, fiction and fears in the July 13 Mountain Xpress.

Deadly decisions

Asheville? Nuclear waste? Why worry that Asheville City Council declined to pass a measure that would have sent federal planners the message “Don’t come through here” with these deadly wastes? Taken in a larger context, this nonaction by City Council may be vitally important. Folks have a right to know about some very local nuclear […]