Reactors throughout the country are closed and closing. Yankee Rowe, Trojan, Connecticut Yankee, Big Rock, Maine Yankee, and Millstone Unit 1 are shut permanently. Oyster Creek and Zion I & II are closing. The list grows. All are closed because of systemic mismanagement, aging and embrittled reactor components, bad economics, and most importantly the opposition of local people - opposition to the continued sacrifice of their communities to nuclear corporations.

However, closure of reactors opens floodgates for rad-waste throughout the country. To create "clean sites," utilities pit reactor and waste communities against each other. All reactor communities must address this problem. We call it the Ethics of Waste.

We believe that this is a time in which participation of all citizens is essential. We must decide how we want to generate energy in the 21st Century. If the nuclear corporations control the debate on deregulation, our ability to alter the future will be crippled. We must make it clear that nuclear power production is dangerous and unethical - especially when people consider the monstrous rad-waste problem generated by nuclear corporations for which there is no scientifically sound or environmentally just solution.

The Nuclear Free New England Campaign is based on the same issues of aging and embrittlement, systemic mismanagement, bad economics, routine rad waste releases into reactor communities, and environmental racism. The Campaign addresses the Ethics of Waste: poor, rural, and people of color communities are disproportionately chosen for nuclear sacrifice. We supported waste community representation at the camp to open a dialogue among reactor, transport, and waste communities to stop the cycle of sacrifice and contamination.

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