Navtec, a nuclear power company was building two nuclear power plants, one near St. Mary's on the Yukon River and one on the Kuskokwim River close to Bethel. They were designed to power all the villages on the respective rivers. The St. Mary's region extended from Russian Mission to Hooper Bay. The Bethel region was from Aniak to Tuksuk Bay. The company officials said these plants would get rid of all the fossil-fueled generators and would also be more efficient and cost less.

Navtec also wanted to set up nuclear waste sites along the Y-K Delta to store the waste from the power plants. Some of the sites chosen for the waste were Marshall, Bethel, Hooper Bay and Aniak. They were chosen because the company thought they had suitable land to hold the nuclear waste and because they were pretty close to the power stations themselves. Bethel would be the primary holding facility. Although there was a problem with Bethel and Hooper Bay because they were located

on the tundra and the waste would soak into and pollute the land, they decided to build them anyway. g build them anyway. r

The state and federal government opposed the idea of Navtec building nuclear power plants in the region because nuclear power was something new to the natives and something might go wrong and cause a nuclear catastrophe. It could also pollute the wetlands of the Y-K Delta and kill a lot of wildlife and destroy their habitat. The people and their local governments were also against the building of the power plants and the waste sites because they knew that nuclear power and the waste sites would be very harmful to their way of life. It was the regional Native corporation, Calista, that was for going ahead with this because they would be running the plants and earning all the profits at the same time. This caused a big uproar between Calista and the local and state governments. But Navtec proceeded with their plans anyway.

The villagers in the proposed waste site areas were determined to stop the construction, though, and tried to stop some of the Navtec surveyors from coming to their villages and testing the land. They knew the land wasn't suitable enough to hold the nuclear waste. The surveyors went back and told the company president, Zed Mack, what had happened, but he said they would still go on with the projects. Some of his own workers opposed the decision, saying it would lead to the worst environmental disaster in history. But he fired the workers. He said he didn't care just as long as the company made some money. But he was trying to keep this aspect of the project a secret because he didn't want the public to find out.

But the public did find out and once the word got out and the villagers voiced their concern about their area being affected by the nuclear plants and their waste sites, the President of the United States and the Governor of Alaska both put a stop their construction. Navtec was charged with several counts of violating state and federal laws along with many environmental laws. Zed Mack was fired and jailed for the things he did and tried to do. After that the local village councils and corporations made the decision to forbid any construction of projects that would do harm to the people or their surrounding environment.

Fred Alstrom