27JUN'09,WKRG.COM–A Canadian company is one permit away from reactivating an Arizona uranium mine near the Grand Canyon where conservationists have been pushing for protection from new mining operations, a state official says.Thousands of mining claims dot a 1 million-acre area around the canyon, but Arizona Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Mark Shaffer says only Denison Mines Corp. has a pending air permit with the agency for a site about 20 miles from the canyon's northern border.

Most of the claims for uranium are staked in an Arizona strip, a sparsely populated area immediately north of the Grand Canyon National Park known for its high-grade uranium ore. The silvery white metal is used in nuclear energy and weapons and for medicine. If the permit is approved, Denison would be the first to restart mining at the Toronto-based company's Arizona 1 site, some 20 years after previous operations ceased. More from WKRG.com...

21JUN'09,NEW YORK TIMES–The European project known as Desertec is nothing if not ambitious.

It aims to harvest the sun’s energy — using a method known as concentrating solar power, or C.S.P. — from the vast North African desert and deliver it as electricity, via high-voltage transmission lines, to markets in Europe. Eventually, its backers say, it could satisfy as much as 15 percent of the European Union’s power needs.

Munich Re, the large German insurance company, is leading the charge to bring the concept to fruition, and a meeting is scheduled for mid-July to formalize the coalition, which includes companies like Siemens, Deutsche Bank and the energy giant E.On.

"The time now is perfect to start this initiative," Alexander Mohanty, a Munich Re spokesman, said in an e-mail message Friday, "as climate protection has become an urgent issue and our economies need new impulses." More from TOM ZELLER Jr...

See also:
24JUN'09,wsj.online–RWE Exec: N Africa Solar Project Not For Europe Supply
26JUN'09,Bloomberg.com–E.On Says 'Man to the Moon' African Solar Plan Needs EU Backing

In a secret health and safety report, the chief nuclear inspector admits Britain's watchdog force is short of experienced staff

21JUN'09,guardian.co.uk–&The scale of safety problems inside Britain's nuclear power stations has been revealed for the first time in a secret report obtained by the Observer that shows more than 1,750 leaks, breakdowns or other "events" over the past seven years.

The damning document, written by the government's chief nuclear inspector, Mike Weightman, and released under the Freedom of Information Act, raises serious questions about the dangers of expanding the industry with a new generation of atomic plants. And it came as the managers of the UK's biggest plant, Sellafield, admitted they had finally halted a radioactive leak many believe has been going on for 50 years. More from Terry Macalister and Rob Edwards in The Observer...

14JUN'09–"All of this area," Mitchell Capitan says, gesturing to the valley of sage and shrub brush below, "there's a lot of uranium underneath there. That's what they're after."

Capitan and his Navajo neighbors are battling a license granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Hydro Resources Inc. (HRI)– a subsidiary of a Texas company, Uranium Resources – one of several firms that have laid claim to the minerals beneath thousands of acres on and around the lands of the Navajo Nation and three American Indian pueblos in northwestern New Mexico. A group called the Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining is suing the NRC to block mining in Crownpoint and another Navajo community. A panel of federal judges in Denver heard the case in May 2008 but has yet to issue a ruling.

A resurgence of interest in building nuclear power plants, touted as a nonpolluting alternative to carbon-fueled plants, has sparked a uranium rush. Since 2007 the NRC has received seventeen license applications for twenty-six new reactors, causing a flurry of applications for uranium mining permits across the Four Corners region, where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet. In February Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that the Energy Department would expedite the approval process for $18.5 billion in federal loan guarantees for utilities that are building nuclear plants. The guarantees, along with other Bush-era incentives, are meant to spur construction of new plants.

The anticipated rise in demand for uranium has led the industry back to the very places it deserted three decades ago when it abandoned hundreds of mines, seven polluted uranium mills, billions of gallons of contaminated groundwater and mountains of radioactive waste. More from Shelley Smithson in the 29 June edition of The Nation...

See also:
23MAY'09–Hopis ready nuke waste suit

19MAY'09–Appeals court upholds uranium mining curb on Navajo lands

14JUN'09–The Clean Energy bills navigating their way through the Senate and House sound good at first glance. Consider the sales pitch:

* Create clean energy jobs.
* Achieve energy independence.
* Reduce global warming.

Who can argue with such lofty goals? Not you, not me – not unless we look at the fine print on Jeff Bingaman's 21st Century Energy Technology Deployment Act (S. 949), and the Markey/Waxman American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454).

Here's the dirty little secret.

These not-so-clean energy bills would also provide financing for a new generation of commercial nuclear power plants. Let's take a closer look – more from Marcy Winograd,OpEdNews.com...

Contractor noticed water
from radioactive cooling pond
that posed 'significant risk
to operators and public'

12JUN'09–A nuclear leak, which could have caused a major disaster, was only averted by a chance decision to wash some dirty clothes, according to a newly obtained official report.

On the morning of Sunday 7 January 2007, one of the contractors working on decommissioning the Sizewell A nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast was in the laundry room when he noticed cooling water leaking on to the floor from the pond that holds the reactor's highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel.

As much as 40,000 gallons of radioactive water spilled out of a 15 foot long split in a pipe, some leaking into the North Sea. The pond water level had dropped by more than a foot (330mm) – yet none of the sophisticated alarms in the plant sounded in the main control room. More from The Guardian's Mark Gould...

To view the UK Channel 4 report
please click here

28MAY'09, OLKILUOTO, Finland (By JAMES KANTER, New York Times)– As the Obama administration tries to steer America toward cleaner sources of energy, it would do well to consider the cautionary tale of this new-generation nuclear reactor site.

The massive power plant under construction on muddy terrain on this Finnish island was supposed to be the showpiece of a nuclear renaissance. The most powerful reactor ever built, its modular design was supposed to make it faster and cheaper to build. And it was supposed to be safer, too.

But things have not gone as planned.

After four years of construction and thousands of defects and deficiencies, the reactor’s 3 billion euro price tag, about $4.2 billion, has climbed at least 50 percent. And while the reactor was originally meant to be completed this summer, AREVA, the French company building it, and the utility that ordered it, are no longer willing to make certain predictions on when it will go online.

While the American nuclear industry has predicted clear sailing after its first plants are built, the problems in Europe suggest these obstacles may be hard to avoid. More from JAMES KANTER...

24MAY'09, JADUGODA–There are seven mines near Jadugoda (except one open cast mine Banduhurag all are underground) two ore processing plants (Jadugoda and Turamdih) besides four tailing dams (three in Jadugoda, one in Turamdih). Since the uranium deposits in the oldest mine of Jadugoda would be exhausted in the coming year, Uranium Corporation of India (UCIL) already has Baghjanta mine in the pipeline for ore extraction.

This mine is 35 K.M. east of Jadugoda, hence it would be economical for them to run the ore processing plant in Jadugoda itself. The Bhatin and Narwa Pahar mines are also closer to Jadugoda than the newly constructed Turamdih mill; hence the idea of continuing the Jadugoda mill is more for their cost benefit. Beside one mill, three tailing dams Jadugoda has its office complex, colony. These were built in the sixties covering a total area of 531.21ha.with manpower strength of 1806.

People smelt something fishy, when they found UCIL officials trying to visit their villages and started spreading words, "if the local people would continue to oppose us then we would close down our mines and related activities". But what they really implied with such vague statements could not be initially understood… We then started digging up and it was only then we came to know that some sort of an expansion was in the offing.

UCIL has a lot of tribal workforce, from the families that had lost their land to UCIL. Their job today is the only source of income and sustenance for the family. So, UCIL has resorted to unabashed black-mailing of the villagers, asking them not to participate in the Jharkhandi Organisation Against Radiation (JOAR) meetings. But strangely, it has not so far produced any related documents before them or even summery of the EIA EMP reports. However rumors are already around that public hearing would be held on May 26 2009 but what would be its ultimate purpose in the interests of the villagers – we do not know! More from Shri Prakash of JOAR, 2004 recipients of the Nuclear-Free Future Award...

See also:
a pair of Pioneer news clippings authored by Ranchi's Moushumi Basu describing the situation in Jadugoda (submitted by Shri Prakash).

These two JOAR videos
are posted on YouTube:
Jadugoda – The Black Magic
UCIL Public Hearing Mockery

5MAY'09, FRANKFURT– Germany's environment ministry denied approval for nuclear operator Vattenfall Europe to keep its Brunsbuettel reactor open longer, a fresh blow to operators' attemps of getting around a national closure plan.

Vattenfall in May 2007 had asked to transfer 15 terawatt hours of power production quotas from its nuclear plant at Kruemmel in north Germany to Brunsbuettel, in order to lengthen Brunsbuettel's life cycle by another two-and-a-half years. More from Reuters...

22APR'09, AP–President Barack Obama's call for a nuclear weapons-free world is welcome, but the huge U.S. defense budget may prove an "insurmountable obstacle" to reaching that goal, former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev said Thursday.

Talk of nuclear disarmament would be "just rhetorical" if other nations were asked to give up nukes while the United States maintains an overwhelming conventional military superiority, Gorbachev said. What's needed, he said, are talks to "demilitarize" world politics. More from wire.antiwar.com...

14APR'09–For 10 years now, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been busily extending the operating license of nuclear power plants – designed to run for 40 years – another 20 years.

Imagine driving down a highway in a 60-year-old car. More from Nuclear-Free Future Award advisor Karl Grossman...

7APR'09, MAINICHI DAILY NEWS–Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba held an impromptu press conference on Monday to praise the speech given by U.S. President Barack Obama in Prague in which he indicated his strong commitment to the abolition of nuclear weapons.

The mayor said he plans to request that Obama consider Hiroshima as the site for the international summit meeting on nuclear security that the U.S. president has pledged to hold by next year.

"President Obama said, 'As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act,' defining U.S. responsibility in a historical context." Akiba said of Obama's speech. "The world is gradually turning into one in which denuclearization is possible."

Akiba said he hopes to meet with President Obama when he travels to New York next month to participate in a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference Preparatory Committee meeting.

See also:
Remarks of President Barack Obama,
Prague, Czech Republic, April 5 2009

2APR'09, ICBUW–NATO will follow the World Health Organisation’s lead on health risks but claims no responsibility for choice of weapons deployed by its members. In a meeting with campaigners, NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Security Cooperation and Partnership said that the organisation is prepared to take a fresh look at the health and environmental impact of uranium weapons.

Speaking to representatives of the European Parliament, European Association of Military Associations (EUROMIL), Italian Anti-War Scientists Committee and the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW), Robert F Simmons said that NATO would update its position on uranium weapons in light of the position taken by the United Nation General Assembly when it again considers the issue in 2010. More from ICBUW...

28MAR'09–Thirty years ago, on March 28, 1978, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania malfunctioned, sparking a meltdown that resulted in the release of radioactivity. It was the worst nuclear accident in US history. The accident at Three Mile Island fueled the nuclear debate in this country that continues to rage to this day. We speak with anti-nuclear activist Harvey Wasserman. Watch the Amy Goodman interview now – rush transcript also available...

Originally entitled, EARLY WARNINGS: VOICES FROM THREE MILE ISLAND, this two-hour public radio documentary was first broadcast nationally on 65 public radio stations across the United States on the one-year anniversary of the near nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island Listen, online, now...

15MAR'09,Tucson–An effort in the Legislature that would redefine "renewable energy" to include nuclear power could do irreparable harm to the state's budding clean-energy industries and deserves to be thrown onto the trash heap of non-recyclable ideas.

House Bill 2623, sponsored by Lucy Mason, R-Prescott, has several problems. First, it would include nuclear and hydroelectric power (dams) in the definition of "renewable energy," which is generally considered power derived from natural sources – such as the sun, wind, biomass, tides and geothermal heat.

Secondly, it would allow utilities to count energy savings achieved through conservation or efficiency toward the goal of producing 15 percent of their power from renewable energy. Utilities should be practicing conservation and efficiency regardless of state law. They shouldn't be rewarded for doing what they are supposed to do. Lastly, it would strip the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees most of the state's utilities, of its authority to set the state's renewable-energy policy and give that power to the Legislature. More from the Arizona Daily Star...

We have caused quite a "splash" here in Canada about tritium. So much so that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which has regarded tritium releases to the environment as "of no concern" and "perfectly safe", has decided to put my letter to Michael Binder, President of CNSC, on their web site, together with his response.

Check it out: Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission

Here is the Tritium Awareness Project as broadcast across Canada:
CTV Newsnet, 5 March 2009

See also:
4MAR'09–A Media Briefing from the Tritium Awareness Project

What is the Tritium Awareness Project?

What we know about tritium
in the Ottawa Valley

13MAR'09–Gordon Edward's latest communication to Mr. Binder.

16MAR'09–Tritium Fact Sheet

28FEB'09–President Barack Obama took the first step this week toward ending the twenty-year old idea of establishing a permanent nuclear waste site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain by slashing money for the program in his first budget.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-Nev) celebrated the measure, telling Nevadans on his website: "President Obama has made a critical first step towards fulfilling his promise to end the Yucca Mountain project, and I could not be happier for the people of Nevada. Make no mistake: this represents a significant and lasting victory in our battle to protect Nevada from becoming the country's toxic wasteland. I have worked for over two decades with help from our state's leaders and thousands of Nevadans to stop Yucca Mountain. President Obama recognizes that the proposed dump threatens the health and safety of Nevadans and millions of Americans, and his commitment to stop this terrible project could not be more clear."

See also:
2MAR'09–"For decades, nuclear proponents have been saying that the solution to the problem of safely storing the highly toxic radioactive wastes created by nuclear reactors – for millions of years – is to dig a hole and bury it."

More from Dr. Gordon Edwards
on this simplistic notion...

Youth for a Nuclear Free Finland (YNUFF) invite you to join and help create the 'International Youth Exchange for Nuclear Free Sustainable Living' to be held in Finnish Lapland from July 18 - 27, 2009. We are seeking partner youth organizations to participate in the EU funding application and youth exchange program, which will be held simultaneously with the Nuclear Climate Camp July 20 - July 26. We are also looking for people to help organize this event, to give workshops, facilitate skillshares, and mobilize your local groups to come to Lapland!

This international, intercultural youth exchange aspires to encourage and empower youth participation in European energy policy, addressing climate change, non-sustainable energy (especially) uranium / nuclear power, while promoting positive alternatives, environmental justice and Indigenous Peoples rights. Project objectives are to facilitate understanding of these issues and developing wide-ranging skills to participate in local and European level civic democracy.

For further information about this
EU project, please check out:

Youth for a Nuclear Free Finland (YNUFF) EU project overview
EU program guide
EU application form (Action 1.1)

By Helmut Schmidt, Richard von Weizsäcker, Egon Bahr and Hans-Dietrich Genscher as published in the International Herald Tribune,
Friday, 9 January 2009

In 2007 Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, William Perry and Sam Nunn issued an appeal for a world free of nuclear weapons.

Their knowledge and experience as respected secretaries of state and defense and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee under Republican and Democrat administrations gave their concerns about the growing nuclear threat special weight.

Being realists, they knew that the abolition of all nuclear weapons could only be achieved gradually, and therefore they proposed urgent practical steps aimed at realizing this vision.

The appeal met with broad approval and prominent support in the United States; as far as we know no supporting decisions by European governments were issued.

Our responses takes into account Germany's expectations of the incoming Obama administration. More from the International Herald Tribune...

Each of the authors of this nuclear-free world appeal held high office in the Federal Republic of Germany: Helmut Schmidt, a Social Democrat, was chancellor (1974-1982); Richard von Weizsäcker, a Christian Democrat, was president (1984-1994); Egon Bahr, a minister in Social Democratic governments, was an architect of the "ostpolitik" policy; and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, of the Free Democrats, was foreign minister (1974-1992).

In mid-November 2008, a committee set up by the US Congress released a landmark report on Gulf War Illness (GWI), an event widely reported by the media. It was considered a landmark study, as it stated categorically that the ill effects suffered by veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War were real, and amounted to a distinct medical condition.

The report identified two probable causes of this illness – pyridostigmine bromide (PB) pills which were given to troops to protect them from nerve agents, and pesticides which were liberally used to protect troops from insects.

However, amidst all the fuss, some incredibly damning information on the US government's response to the use of uranium weapons was completely ignored by the media. The section on DU related a litany of irrelevant research, obstructive and incompetent behaviour by the US government, and confirmation that a touchstone study on veterans affected by DU covered up an incidence of cancer in the group (more from Dave Cullen at wildclearing.com)...

Download Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses Report

A Medicine Man
Changed Him into an Author

We are saddened to learn that our old friend Richard Erdoes, civil rights activist, peace activist, anti-nuclear activist, and cultural ambassador, passed away on July 17th at the age of 96.

Photo of Richard Erdoes courtesy of Erich Erdoes

The adventurous life of the prize-winning illustrator, photographer, and author, Richard Erdoes

He was the man they called, Inyan Wasicun. Native Americans are rather reserved when it comes to giving white people names – a name can turn an outsider into family. It's not the head-dresses politicians slip on before running cameras that really speaks of something across Indian Country – no, a name is what's important.

Richard Erdoes fled across the Atlantic in 1940; the Gestapo was not amused by his caricatures. By then the twenty-eight year-old art student was already a veteran wayfarer: he had lived in Vienna, Frankfurt, Berlin, Budapest, Paris, in Italy, the Balkans...

"I am the embodiment," Richard loved to say, "of the old multicultural, multilingual Hungarian-Austrian Empire. I am equal parts Austrian, Hungarian and German, as well as equal parts Catholic, Protestant and Jew – plus I even have a little Mohammadan in me" (more from Claus Biegert)...

Red Crow:
a brave brandishing a guitar

Claus Biegert remembers our long-time supporter, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, the Indian singer, actor and activist who recently passed away.

What is the role of the IAEA? Why is there no difference in principle between civil and military nuclear systems? How hard is it to set up a secret nuclear weapons program – just like Spain, Sweden and Switzerland already have in the past? Could terrorists build a nuclear weapon? What ironclad duties does the Non-Proliferation Treaty spell out? International energy consultant and Right Livelihood Award recipient Mycle Schneider demystifies the proliferation muddle with his insightful answers.

See also:"Residual Risk", a report by Mycle Schneider on events in nuclear power plants that was the basis to Steve Stecklow's article "Nuclear Safety Reports Called Into Question" in the Wall Street Journal.

Download.
Kick back.
Help out.

That's right, you heard it here first: "Music for a Nuclear-Free Future." Download music, abolish nuclear weapons. Download music, pull the plug on nuclear power. Sound too good to be true? Nope: each tune you download will mean seventy more cents for those working to delouse the planet of the pro-nuclear mindset. We'll try to hit all the right buttons with Arlo and friends, plus, and etc... in order to have the music portal installed as soon as possible. You all come back now, you hear? Or hey, if you're a musician youself, check this out...

Thomas Dashuber of the Büro für Fotografie in Munich doesn't solely photograph moth-ridden stuffed animals -- Germany's mothballed and supposedly mothball-bound nuclear power plants are another of this dedicated young artist's original focuses. Come see.

2008 Nuclear-Free Future Award Recipients

Press Release
Press Photos
2008 Award Brochure

What most people fail to realize is that the nuclear curse begins the moment the uranium is mined from the earth: 85% of the uranium orebody’s radioactivity is left behind in the open rubble. Around the world three-quarters of nuclear energy's front-line victims come from First Nations: the Cree, Mirarr, Urguren, Pitjantjatjara, Tewa, Navajo, Tschuktschen, Kokotha, Apache, Touareg, Sami... Quite often, these are peoples who live in vital connection with the earth, who hunt and fish, grow crops and raise livestock. Their traditional living spaces are being destroyed by radioactive dust spread by winds from open-pit mines, their aquifers laced by radionuclides from the in situ leach process. The inexorable consequence: leukemia, cancers, miscarriages, mutations in genes... Because these peoples come from cultures and regions remote from the mainstream, their tragic plights raise no blips on our media's radar...

Since 1998, the Nuclear-Free Future Award "the globe's most prestigious anti-nuclear prize" (taz) – has sought to correct this deadly oversight. This year the Award honors two outstanding indigenous activists, one from each hemisphere:

Jillian Marsh of the Adnyamathanha Aborigine clan, Austrailia

Manuel Pino of Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, USA

United in their struggle to save their traditional lands and cultures, Jillian and Manuel demand: "The uranium must remain in the earth!"

Here the historic World Uranium Hearing took place in 1992, here we arrived in 1998 for the first annual Nuclear-Free Future Awards ceremony – and here, again at the invitation of the Salzburg State government, we returned for the 10th Nuclear-Free Future Awards ceremony.

The Nuclear-Free Future Award travels the globe honoring individuals, organizations and communities for their outstanding commitment towards creating a world freed from the threat of nuclear weapons and atomic energy. Our central message: Leave the uranium in the ground!

The Awards ceremony took place in the Salzburg Archbishop's Residence on 18 October 2007. Friday, Oct. 19, was devoted to networking between past and present Award recipients and anti-nuclear NGOs, and on Saturday we hosted – in cooperation with IPPNW-Germany (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) – a public symposium entitled: "Klimawandel – nein danke, Atomkraft – ja bitte?" (Global warming – No thank you. Nuclear power – Yes please?).

The 2007 Award recipients:

RESISTANCE
Charmaine White Face and the Defenders of the Black Hills, USA

for defending the sacred lands of the Lakota from further uranium mining debasement on behalf of the coming generations and all of humankind

EDUCATION
Siegwart-Horst Günther, Germany

for his courageous medical commitment and moral act of whistleblowing helping to alert the world to the toxic peril of depleted uranium

SOLUTIONS
Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba, Japan,
and Mayors for Peace

for illuminating the way, on behalf of all citizens of the world, out of the labyrinth of our nuclear madness

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Freda Meissner-Blau, Austria

for her decades of dedicated commitment in the peace and environmental movement helping to install Austria at the forefront of a nuclear-free world

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Armin Weiß, Germany

for his selfless activism as a professor who risked his academic career to help force the curtailment of Wackersdorf

See also:
Dr. Akiba's acceptance speech on behalf of Mayors for Peace

Rapid City Journal: "White Face collects award for Defenders of the Black Hills"

19 July 2007, BLACK HILLS–"Are you Oglala or Wasicu?" by Charmaine White Face

Been to Window Rock, the 2006 Nuclear-Free Future Awards

In 2006 the Awards were presented on 1 December in Window Rock, Arizona, during the Indigenous World Uranium Summit. Our international jury decided that the Awards should go to:

RESISTANCE
Sun Xiaodi, China

for his moral courage to petition for an end to the toxic mismanagement corrupting Chinese uranium mining and milling

EDUCATION
Dr. Gordon Edwards, Canada

for his enduring role in demystifying nuclear technology and helping the public understand its perilous predicament

SOLUTIONS
Wolfgang Scheffler
and Heike Hoedt, Germany

for the valuable contributions their solar reflectors have made towards improving the quality of life in developing regions

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Ed Grothus, USA

for his unique brand of gadfly peace activism in the community of Los Alamos, the birthplace of the bomb

SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Phil Harrison, Navajo Nation

for his many years of struggle as a visionary activist calling the uranium industry to account for its blind and poisonous greed

SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Southwest Research and Information Center, USA

for helping people and communities across the Southwest understand and overcome their radioactive legacy

See also:
14FEB'09,WINDOW ROCK–Who's that nuking at my door?
Navajo vice president tours energy facilities in France
17 AUG'08,GALLUP– NFFAward Recipient George Arthur: "We still are faced with the unknown"
25 JUL'08– Deadly denial: Navajo miners stand ground in a different kind of Cold War
24 MAY'08,GALLUP–Kennedy sees money in wind, sun – proposes green energy production for Navajo
21 MAY'08– Navajo Nation versus U.S.
19 APR'08– Navajo Challenge Uranium Mining Permit on Tribal Lands
2 APR'08–Plight of Sun Xiaodi in wake of Award cited in 2008 United Nations document
30 MAR'08– Navajo President
Joe Shirley, Jr., tells congressional subcommittee Navajo Nation will not watch another generation harmed by uranium mining

15 FEB'08, from Dr. Gordon Edwards–"During his testimony to the Standing Committee on Natural Resources last Tuesday, February 5, 2008, Brian McGee – Vice President of AECL – indicated that the worst possible radiation release from the NRU reactor at Chalk River, even if all the pumps failed, all the coolant boiled away and no operator action was taken to ameliorate the situation, would be the equivalent of about HALF the radiation exposure of a CAT-scan for the workers in the plant, and little more than the equivalent of a medical X-ray for members of the public. I noted at the time that I disagreed with this assessment. Today I have sent this memorandum to the committee.

29 SEPT'07, WINDOW ROCK–Phil Harrison Jr. – Navajo downwinders face uphill battle for RECA compensation
14 JUN'07–"Why Geologic Storage Can Not Solve The High-Level Radioactive Waste Problem", presentation from Dr. Gordon Edwards
2 JAN'07–Environmental Activist Sun Xiaodi Faces Stepped-up Harassment after International Award

9 JAN'07, LOS ALAMOS–Mock nuclear bomb stolen from Ed Grothus' Black Hole

6 JAN'07–Chinese Nuclear-Free Future Award recipient denied cancer treatment
12 NOV'06– Chinese uranium whistleblower honored on Navajo Nation

From the Navajo Nation: Six honored with 2006 Nuclear-Free Future Awards during international Indigenous World Uranium Summit

Sun Xiaodi Receives International Nuclear Activism Award

Sun Xiaodi Sends a Message to the Indigenous World Uranium Conference

Indigenous Groups Honor Recipients of Nuclear-Free Future Awards
In Their Efforts to Stop Uranium Development

World comes to Window Rock
Summit panelists alarmed at new need for uranium

The presentation NFFAward jury member Prof. Karl Grossman gave at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Sante Fe on the eve of the Indigneous World Uranium Summit.

3 MAR'08–Letter to the Editor from Stuart Mills calling Dr. Edwards' competence in question.
3 MAR'08–Dr. Edwards' reply.

Courtesy of the Seventh Generation Fund and the Native Youth Coalition, the Nuclear-Free Future Window Rock Awards Ceremony MP3 Audio Files.
Download to disk, then open:

Track 1: The Honorable Joe Shirley, Jr.
Track 2: Cora Maxx Phillips
Track 3: Claus Biegert
Track 4: Feng Congde
Track 5: Message from Sun Xiaodi
Track 6: Robert Del Tredici
Track 7: Dr. Gordon Edwards
Track 8: Micheal Horse
Track 9: Wolfgang Scheffler
and Heike Hoedt
Track 10: Willem Malten
Track 11: Ed Grothus
Track 12: Jill Momaday-Gray
Track 13: Phil Harrison
Track 14: Southwest Research and Information Center

Our jury member John Mohawk passed away last December at the the age of 62. Claus Biegert looks back on the life of this Native American philosopher and historian.

In cooperation with Norske Leger mot Atomvåpen, IPPNW-Germany, Nei til Atomvåpen, and the Seventh Generation Fund, USA, the Franz Moll Foundation was honored to present on Saturday, September 24th, at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, the 2005 Nuclear-Free Future Awards to:

Hilda Lini, Vanuatu
Preben Maegaard, Denmark
Mathilde Halla, Austria
Joe Shirley, Jr. & George Arthur from Navajo Indian Country

One of the first to send a letter of congratulations to the Navajo Nation was Academy Award winning director and actor, Robert Redford.

See also Karl Grossman's Solutions Award presentation speech

The 2004 Award ceremony was held on 28 November in Jaipur, India, as the culminating event of the three-day Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CDNP) National Convention (more info: www.cndpindia.org ).

Resistance: JOAR, India
Education: Asaf Durakovic, USA
Solutions: Jonathan Schell, USA
Lifetime Achievement: Hildegard Breiner, Austria
Special Recognition: City Montessori School, India

Jaipur Award ceremony
2004 Award recipients
JOAR photo
Prof. Asaf Durakovic photo
JOAR at the ceremony
Jonathan Schell in Jaipur
Photo of Hildegard Breiner
Photo of Indian youth
Jonathan Schell with Indian youths
Asaf Durakovic in Jaipur
Indian musician
Claus Biegert at the Barefoot College
Photo of Jonathan Schell
Liam O' Moanli's head-wrapping
Barefoot College solar technician
Barefoot Jonathan Schell
Claus Biegert photo

See also:
18 FEB'07–International activists demand full investigation of radioactive spill in Jharkhand
14 FEB'05–email from Jonathan Schell

ROBERT DEL TREDICI PRESENTS
JONATHAN SCHELL'S AWARD

Dr. Wolfgang Heuss interviews Jonathan Schell

JUTTA WIESENTHAL PRESENTS
HILDEGARD BREINER'S AWARD

Hildegard Breiner's Acceptance Speech

In 2003, our international jury members chose the following individuals as Award recipients:

Resistance: Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson, and Ardith Platte, USA,
Education: Dr. Souad Naij Al-Azzawi, Iraq
Solutions: Corbin Harney, Newe Sogobia
Lifetime Achievement: Inge Schmitz-Feuerhake

See also:
23 JUL'08–Ian Zabarte remembers the vision of Corbin Harney
10 JUL'07–Corbin Harney, spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone, passes on
15 NOV'06–NFFAward Nuns' canned-food offer isn't up to prosecutor's palate

In 2002 the Awards ceremony, hosted by the Russian environmental organizations "Green World" and "Coalition Clean Baltic", was held on October 5th in St. Petersburg. The Awards went to:

Resistance: Mordecai Vanunu, Israel
Solutions: Helen Clark, New Zealand
Education: Ole Kopreitan, Norway
Lifetime Achievement: Aleksei Yablokov, Russia / Fran Macy, U.S.A.
Special Recognition: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, U.S.A.

See also:
EURASIAN NUCLEAR DRAIN

18FEB'09,SOSNOVY BOR–St. Petersburg used as transport corridor for radioactive waste from East and West – a report from Nuclear-Free Future Award advisor Oleg Bodrov of Green World, Russia.

31MAR'08Public Information Act reveals: CIA said in 1974 that Israel has nuclear weapons

7 July'07– Mordechai Vanunu again behind bars (by Daniel Ellsberg in Counterpunch)
Visit the NuclearNo.ru profiles (in Russian) of the 2002 Nuclear-Free Future Award recipients

2006 Greenpeace report:
The Chernobyl Catastrophe
Consequences on Human Health by Prof. Aleksei Yablokov

The 2001 Nuclear-Free Future Awards went to: Aborigine activist Kevin Buzzacott from Australia (Resistance category); photographer Kenji Higuchi from Japan (Education); MP Hans-Josef Fell from Germany (Solutions)- each of these three prizes is endowed with a money prize of 10.000 Euro. This year three honorary awards went out to David Lowry from England (Special Recognition), Solange Fernex from France (Lifetime Achievement), and, in cooperation with the CarnVaha Event organizers, veteran nuclear opponent David Nolan of Ireland.

The 2000 Nuclear-Free Future Awards went to Yuri I. Kuidin of Kazakhstan (Education), to the Barefoot College of India (Solutions), and to the Inverhuron District and Ratepayers Association of Canada (Resistance). Receiving the Nuclear-Free Future Lifetime Achievement Award was Germany's Klaus Traube. The Awards Ceremony took place on 15 October 2000 at the Rotes Rathaus (Red City Hall) in Berlin.

See also:
14 MAY'08– New Reactors and Waste Dump for East Shore of Lake Huron
15 MAY'03: Ontario Power Generation garnishees IDRA Bank Accounts – Community Group could be forced into Bankruptcy –
Supreme Court Application by the Inverhuron and District Ratepayers' Association (IDRA)
This 2002 PDF document is a succinct statement of the arguments made unsuccessfully by the IDRA to the top three levels of Canada's courts regarding the high level radioactive waste storage facility under construction at the Bruce nuclear site. The IDRA was asking for an independent environmental assessment of the site.

INVERHURON, Ontario – May 15, 2003:
Ontario Power Group garnishees IDRA Bank Accounts – Community Group could be forced into Bankruptcy –

After hearing that OPG had distributed the funds from the IDRA account to local charities, Eugene Bourgeois of the Bruce Centre was reminded that "the IDRA is a registered charity too. OPG could have garnisheed the funds from our bank account to fulfill their responsibility to taxpayers, and then could have given the money back. It would have been great public relations."

The 1999 Nuclear-Free Future Awards Recipients were:
Resistance: Grace Thorpe and Dorothy Purley
Solutions: The Town of Schönau
Education: Lydia Popova
Lifetime Achievement: Stewart Udall

Update Summer 2000: Avanyu crawled the radioactive arroyos leading to Los Alamos and set the birthplace of the atomic bomb in flames, consuming 4 of the 5 historic Manhattan Project buildings.

Been to Salzburg, the
1998 Nuclear-Free Future Awards

Under the patronage of Landeshauptmann Dr. Franz Schausberger, State Governor of Salzburg, the inaugural Nuclear-Free Future Awards ceremony was held at the Archbishop's Residence on 5 November, and honored:

Yvonne Margarula, Australia (Resistance)
Raúl Montenegro, Argentinia (Education)
Hari Sharan, India/Switzerland(Solutions)
Maisie Shiell, Canada (Lifetime Achievement)

22 May,'08–Maisie Shiell, the toughest one-grandmother army in all of Canada, passed away yesterday. Maisie, the first recipient of the Nuclear-Free Future Lifetime Achievment Award, wrote a letter on her deathbed imploring others, for the sake of the generations to come, to study-up and continue her activism to keep the uranium undisturbed in the earth.

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