Some of the waste has been used to build houses or schools. In many mining areas, the death rate among children is higher than among the miners. In New Mexico, Arizona and South Dakota, radiation from uranium mining tailings has contaminated water resources. The Shoshone have fought for decades to end nuclear testing on their land in the Nevada desert which has exposed them to levels of radiation many times higher than that generated by the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War.

Now the authorities want to dump nuclear waste on native lands as well. Two proposals are currently being mooted: a high-level radioactive nuclear dump on Yucca Mountain in the lands of the Shoshone in Nevada; and a low level radioactive waste dump in Ward Valley in the California Mojave desert, an area which is sacred for five native peoples, the Fort Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Cocopah and Colorado River Indians.

An estimated 30,000 tons of nuclear waste are in temporary storage in the US, either in underwater pools or in steel and concrete casks, at 109 nuclear reactors across the country. But these stores are nearly full. Some plants may have to shut down within the next few years unless more storage space is found. There is no central facility in the US for handling, processing, storing or disposing of nuclear waste.

KOYAANISQATSI