The Nuclear-Free Future Award by Craig Reishus

Announcing the 2008
Nuclear-Free Future
Award Recipients:

Jillian Marsh of the Adnyamathanha Clan, Austrailia

Manuel Pino of the Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, USA

Press Release
Press Photos
2008 Award Brochure

The Nuclear Age
was begun by humankind.
By humankind it must be ended.

Yes, we can do something about the toxic mess radiating from the Nuclear Age –

mega-complex technologies inviting human error, natural calamity, or terrorist madness;
the patent science fiction of a final radioactive waste repository;
the cultural ethnocide perpetrated on indigenous peoples by contaminating their homelands wih radiation;
nuclear arsenals packing ad absurdum overkill

– we can join together and celebrate the achievements of the architects of the Nuclear-Free Age, visionaries who have committed their lives to consigning the 'peaceful' and military uses of the atom to the junk heap of history.

Since 1998 the Nuclear-Free Future Award has annually honored individuals and initiatives working to make the world livable for the coming generations. We help facilitate the on-going work of:

indigenous activists struggling to end the destruction of their traditional lands;
scientists and journalists investigating the toxic consequences of radiation;
jurists who defend victims of the nuclear industry;
initiatives and communities working to solve our energy problems through the enlightened use of sustainable fuels;
politicians advocating nuclear disarmament and/or the end of nuclear power.

To bring these pioneering spirits into the public spotlight is to help them engineer our rescue. The Tibetans say that it is better to light a candle in the gloom than to complain about the darkness. That's a way of seeing things we share. And you? Help us help those who are striving to find a peaceful, sustainable way to keep the lights from going out. Invest in a future with the plug pulled on old-fashioned nuclear power and nuclear weapons pounded into plowshares. Invest in the Nuclear-Free Age.

Our column for Craig and guests

Letter to The Guardian, Saturday, 20 June 2009

In his Friday interview (E.ON chief strives to generate debate about green goals, 19 June) Dr Paul Golby of the German power company, which wants to build several new nuclear power plants in this country, remarks that nuclear waste storage tanks are "secure" and "nuclear waste is actually quite stable". A day earlier, Nuclear Management Partners (NMP), operator of the giant Sellafield nuclear waste storage and processing plant, proudly announced it had finally halted a radioactive leak at the plant – after half a century. The toxic liquid has been seeping from a crack in one of four huge concrete waste tanks, which in the past processed radioactive effluent, before being pumped out into the Irish Sea. NMP presents this as a triumph of technology. Another way of characterising it is a national disgrace.

Dr David Lowry
2001 Nuclear-Free Future Award recipient
Co-author, The International Politics of Nuclear Waste, Stoneleigh, Surrey