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Uranium Development Panel Report Hearings, Prince Albert Exhibition Centre, Prince Albert, SK. June 8,2009 by George Glenn
My response to the Uranium Development Panel Report takes the form of three oil paintings completed this Spring. Because a visual presentation is not a usual report format I would like to speak briefly to the visual metaphor of each of the paintings and some of the concerns which occupied me while I was working on the paintings.
The Cancer Society’s annual fund raising drive coincided with the presentation of the report and given the correlation between cancer and uncontrolled exposure to radiation I wondered how the Cancer Society felt about further uranium development in Saskatchewan.
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The first painting is called "Flowers of Hope". In the foreground is a clear vase containing daffodils, in the background the iconic tower of a nuclear power plant. Encircling the base of the vase an elliptical red line is imagined magnified and distorted as it is seen through the back of the vase. This deviation from the stable ellipse represents the unpredictable path of the nuclear process, a process combining nuclear physics and human relations. An example much in the news has been the continuing malfunction of the Ontario plant producing medical isotopes. And, at the other end of the health spectrum, a nuclear issue we hear less about, the use of depleted uranium for the production of "dirty bombs" such as those used in the first Iraq war and during the "Shock and Awe" campaign of 2002. Ingestion of dust from the detonated bombs has inflicted the untold suffering and death of thousands of Iraqi citizens.We have no basis on which to believe that the unpredictable nuclear path is either effectively or ethically managed.
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The second painting called "North Saskatchewan River" depicts an image of one of Bruce Power’s nuclear plants in Ontario. The sulphurous colour used in this painting is similar to that rendered by uranium oxide a colourant that is permanent, expensive, and now, fortunately, obsolete. While I was doing this painting I wondered about how even low levels of emissions might affect the river system. I also thought about the possibility that global warming may cause water levels in the river to drop below what is required to cool the reactor core.
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The third painting "Red Ink" imagines a corporate desk at a nuclear security facility on one day of many thousands years after electrical generation has ceased. Who will clean up these sites and monitor the storage of the waste? In this painting no one is at the desk. The nuclear industry has had thirty years, arguably sixty years to find a solution for permanently storing radioactive waste. Why are we being asked to make a decision about nuclear development while the issues of waste disposal have not been settled?We are facing unprecedented environmental challenges, which threaten our existence on Earth. We must meet these challenges creatively imagining a world other than the status quo of our recent past. We have a right to expect access to full information, open debate and farsighted leadership.
URANIUM HALLELUJAH
Music by Leonard Cohen, Lyrics by Jeff Woods
(From The Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium)
I heard there were some secret laws,
That take away what you thought was yours,
'cause you don't really read the fine print, do ya?
Well the house is yours, the car, the yacht,
But all that's under your land is not
And make a fuss, they'll incarcerate or sue ya.
Chorus
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I'd like to know what you leaders think,
What food you'll eat,
What water you'll drink,
When all this crap comes down the river to ya.
And then you'll realize all your fears,
For some inconceivable number of years,
By then you'll glow so much we'll see right through ya.
Chorus
And just a common man I be,
But it don't take no genius to see,
That what you sow will usually come back to ya.
Don't give me sir, I beg you please,
Some unpronounceable disease,
Like a Myelogenous Glioblastomic too-ma.
Chorus
So you've grown an extra cranium.
You think it was the uranium.
Your legs, your arms, your feet they all outgrew ya.
But maybe in a billion years,
A couple more eyes and a couple more ears,
You may find they're much more useful to ya.
Chorus
I'm thinking about Iraq today,
Depleted uranium, 'bombs away',
We sent in some troops, and we subdued ya.
Some children wrapped in bandages,
And missing some appendages,
In Bagadad, in Tekrit, and in Fallujah.
Chorus
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