From You Know Who! WANTED Clean Cotton Rags Castlegar News 197 Columbia Ave. “We have to ge gmt our pao nays BO that we don't want to generate ‘nuclear power, we don't want to build bombs and we don't want to have to evacuate cities after a nuclear accident,” says Jim Terral of the Kootenay Nuclear Study Group, “Uranium causes cancer,” Terral told a small group in a noon-hour talk on uranium mining Thursday at the Castlegar the point of uranium mining,” Terral said, “although radon gas is all over the place.” He said there is only “a small chance of « house sitting on something radioactive.” But statistics lie, Central Kootenay Health Unit Director Money Arnott said of the recent study, which he campus of Selkirk College, where he is an English Back Hoe Work Road Gravel Concrete Gravel Son Drain Rock Top Soil Loading & Hauling Rh Serving Castlegar and Area for 44 Years! WEEKEND WORK NO EXTRA CHARGE. FREE ESTIMATES © SENIORS & CASH i DISCOUNTS Perennials $ 1 75 Asparagus Roots 2yrs. old. Large 10 tor’ d Spanish Onion Plants $199 4° Pot Bunch Jumbo Glad Bulbs 4 for ‘1 Bone Meal Reg. $5.99 9A? Fisons Sunshine Planting Walla Walla Sweets Steer Manure Wkg. bag... Buy 10 a Landscaping Rock Bkg. bag Terral said no one disputes the fact that “high levels of of radon gas and radium in uranium tailings cause raeru levels of lung cancer in people exposed to them.” of are more fread uranium itself, said Terral, with uranium miners p particularly at risk, Uranium causes kidney cancer only, he explained. But there's some Ress ah to general population from water “Radon peg for example, has been known to enter houses in the water supply,” he said. Terral spent six months in 1978 reseaching health and environmental effects of uranium. He undertook the uranium studies after “the Genelle incident” when an exploration company was looking for uranium in the watershed area of that small community just south of Castlegar. “Castlegar was the worst non-mining community in B.C. surveyed,” Terral said of a 1978 government study. A-survey of about 100 homes in the area found radiation levels in four houses 10 times that of the occupational level. Terral was asked whether uranium in the area was a contributing factor in Castlegar’s being named one of the top four cancer “hot spots” in the province, according to a study Rec news Easter Party The Easter Bunny will be at the complex on Wednes- day, April 15. The party starts at 2:30 - 3:30 for chil- dren ages 36 years. You must pre-register by April 14 by calling the recreation oses office at 365-3386. The party includes decorating Easter Good Selection cookies, an Easter story, and Grafted on a Easter egg hunt and a chance hardy root stock. 51.99 to pet a spring chicken. Come join the Easter Bunny at this year's Easter party. Family Bingo Night Proceeds from this bingo night go to the Man in Motion Trust Fund. Gather up the family and head to Blueberry Creek school Friday April 10 Regular $6.49 $499 9599 said against the mortality ratio “in the Pov “On the average, there has been one cancer death a year in Castlegar in the last 25 years,” Dr. Arnott pointed out in a telephone interview Friday. The study in question found 36 deaths in the 23 yéars it’s been conducted.” ‘These statistics are for all types of cancer. Terral said it is low-level radiation and high-level radioactivity. It is a difference “on a seale that doesn’t almost apply here.” Uranium tailings are low-level and don't present a major health hazard. “You may get cancer is you live nearby,” he said, “but uranium deposits, like in Genelle, are not something that glows in the dark.” It is the connection between uranium mining and nuclear power plants that should be a cause for concern, said Terral. “Our government hasn't understood that point. They believe people's concern is that we might get lung cancer. “The truth is that 99 per cent of uranium that comes from the ground goes into nuclear reactors and into bombs,” Terral said. The nearest nuclear facility, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeast Washington state, is kilometres away. “We are connected to it environmentally,” said Terral in. last Thursday's introductory lecture to a conference about Hanford scheduled for April 10-12 in Nelson. Terral is a featured speaker at the conference on “Our nuclear backyard,” as conference organizers have called it. Hanford is a nuclear facility producing plutonium, the first stage in the manufacturing of nuclear weapons. It produced plutonium for a bomb that the ‘United States dropped on Nagasaki at the end of WWII, Terral told the audience. He said the high-level radioactive toxicity accompany- ing the process of nuclear weapons production is one of three reasons the anti-nuclear protest movement in the U.S. wants the facility shut down permanently. Hanford now is temporarily shut. The second reason is that its N-Reactor is “very similar in design” to the Chernobyl reactor, thus posing a threat of a nuclear accident. Unlike the Russian reactor that burned last year, however, “the reactor at- Hanford has no containment bulding.” “There's nothing between us and an accidental explosion of radioactive material other than some sort of a roof over the facility,” Terral said. Another cause for concern, according to Terral, is that the U.S. Department of Energy, which operates the facility, is considering it for a permanent nuclear waste dump. Based on these facts about Hanford, Terral Ottawa must understanc who were worried that their water ; supply was contaminated by uranium. ‘As a result, “the provincial government decided to set up an inquiry commission, which went to communities where uranium was discovered close by.” ‘The commission inquiry led to a moratorium op uranium minin, “The government didn't want to have an inquiry,” said Terral, “but they were forced into it by the people pushing for it — actually with their bodies at times — and we had a moratorium.” The provincial government lifted ‘the moratorium earlier this. year, but Terral says no uranium mining has been resumed so far. However, the Blizzard site outside Penticton, the largest uranium desposit in B.C., has heen the JIM TERRAL subject of intense interest, with more companies involved than ever before. Terral said $20 million worth of uranium has been presold to South Korea if the Blizzard mine goes into operation. Asked about medical uses for radiation, Tertal replied that health hazards, if any, are nimimal as compared to the high-level radioactivity in the processing of uranium. Cobalt not uranium, he said, is used in X-ray medicine. “Nobody ever had to evacuate a city because of a runaway X-ray machine,” he quipped. “No tin-pot dictator has ever gained-control with an X-ray apparatus. Ten clubs take ~ Come see us at Kootenay Weed & Feed oo us 95 $995 Fish Fertilizer My oie LARGE SELECTION OF FLOWERING TREES, FLOWERING SHRUBS & EVERGREENS Columbia Valley Greenhouses 1415 Columbia Ave. Castlegar (next to Mohawk) Open 7 days a wk. 9a.m.-5:30p.m ASYOU DO Savings and we'll show you what Personal can be. is todo. where the fun begins at 7 p.m. This is all sponsored by Blueberry Creek recreation. Bike Racing For all those bike enthu siasts: time trials are taking place April 12, 19 and 26 at 11 a.m. at the Robson turnoff on the Nelson Highway. It is a 7.7-mile route to test your fitness. For more information call Doug at 355-2553. Tennis Anyone The weather is just perfect for a good game of tennis. The Rotary courts up at the complex have been swept and nets are up so come take advantage of this weather. Keep your ears and eyes open for recreation tennis lessons starting in May. y And how easy it anti-nuclear protest in the U.S. has posed the questio! nuclear weapons killing us already?” “The question I want to raise,” he sait “is whether or not people can do anything that. matters?” He believes they can, pointing to a wide protest movement nine years ago, like the one by Genelle residents March saw heavy rains in Castlegar By CasNews Staff Some of the heaviest per- iods of rain ever seen in Castlegar struck last month despite what some may reme remember as a mild month. According to the Castlegar weather office, a major trough of low pressure hung over Castlegar in the first two weeks of March dumping record volumes of rain. Rainfall reached a monthly total of 95 mm and total precipitatiow reached 95.4 mm in spite of the sunny and mild weather during the final 10 days of the month. Total snowfall for March was a mere .4 cms, barely above the record low of .2 cms set in 1981. Overall, March was a mild month, with a mean tempera. ture average of 5.4 C com- pared to the norm of 3.4 and near the record of 5.9. Total sunshine was 119.9 hours, just below the average of 124, while the mean wind speed of 6.1 kph was below the normal of 7.31 for the month. part in activities By MARIE ALLISON Ten clubs and organiza- tions participated in the Robson Recreation Club Ac- tivity Day Saturday in the Robson Hall. The Robson River Otters display consisted of a video presentation entitled the World of Swimming, several club scrapbooks and mem- bership information. Highlighting the Beaver Valley Amateur Radio Clubs operating amateur radio sta- tion was a conversation with a ham radio operator in Col orado. The David Thompson Stamp Club display empha. sized information for begin ning stamp collectors. Be. sides displays of stamps from around the world, they also had tools used by stamp collectors. The work of three mem rs of the Selkirk Weavers and Spinners Guild was dis played. Visitors admired BB.