January 20, 2010
I have just returned from a speaking tour of Finland.

I visited Lappland, Karelia, and other regions, including two towns where new reactors are proposed, and several towns where new uranium mines are being considered.

Here is a press statement given out in Helsinki.

How dare the world’s media fall into the trap set by contrarian propagandists without reading the whole set?

Canadian Green party leader Elizabeth May has done, here what most journalists have not: she read ALL the leaked emails and comments on the basis of primary sources. Her conclusion? We've been had. Read her whole analysis here...

Second shipment of uranium heads to China, environmental whistleblowers still in jail

18NOV'09, AUSTRALIA–Sun Xiaodi, a warehouse manager at China’s No. 792 uranium mine in Gansu Province, was ignored when he first began to report on corruption and radioactive contamination by mine operatives in 1988.

The military-run mine, located in Gansu’s Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, one of China’s most important bases for uranium, was pouring radioactively contaminated water into the Bailong River, Sun said, selling contaminated equipment, and ignoring safety guidelines for workers. More from Shar Adams in the Epoch Times...

5OCT'09–A well known environmental activist and recipient of the 2006 Nuclear-Free Future Award, Sun Xiaodi, has recently been sent to a 're-education through labour' (RTL) camp for his ongoing efforts to expose corruption and dangerous pollution from China’s nuclear industry.

His daughter, Sun Dunbai, has also been given a one and half year sentence for her involvement in what a Chinese court has described as 'criminal acts that endangered state security.' Their crimes include inciting the public with libellous slogans including "nuclear pollution" and "human rights violation". More from Australian Convervation Foundation...

See also:
Environmental Activist Sun Xiaodi Sentenced to Two Years of Reeducation-Through-Labor; Daughter to Year-and-a-Half

26OCT,ALBOURQUERQUE,NM–This past weekend over 200 Indigenous Peoples from Alaska, North America, Bolivia and Japan converged near Acoma Pueblo for the 7th Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum in Sky City, New Mexico. Although the forum focused on the uranium developments being proposed at Mount Taylor and throughout the grants mineral belt of New Mexico, it also provided an opportunity for affected communities to share knowledge, experiences, and strategies to combat the current onslaught of nuclear power throughout Indigenous territories worldwide. More...

23OCT,ACOMA, NEW MEXICO–On the Navajo Nation, almost everyone you talk to either worked in uranium mines themselves or had fathers or husbands who did. Almost everyone also has multiple stories of loved ones dying young from cancer, kidney disease and other ailments attributed to uranium poisoning. More from Kari Lydersen, inthesetimes.com

See also:
23SEPT– Cry me a river: Uranium and genocide in Indian country
19SEPT.–Arizona Tribes Unite Against Uranium Mining
1AUG–Don't drink the uranium
26JUL–Uranium Contamination Haunts Navajo Country
27JUN–Canadian Company Seeks to Mine Uranium Near Grand Canyon
14JUN–Radioactive Revival in New Mexico
23MAY–Hopis ready nuke waste suit
19MAY–Appeals court upholds uranium mining curb on Navajo lands

19SEPT'09–The future of missile defense in Europe is secure. This reality is contrary to what some critics have alleged about President Obama’s proposed shift in America’s missile-defense plans on the continent — and it is important to understand how and why. More from Robert Gates in the New York Times...

18SEPT'09–Yesterday we witnessed a flurry of emails and articles proclaiming victory after President Obama's announcement that he was going to scrap George W. Bush's plans to deploy missile defense interceptors in Poland and a Star Wars radar in the Czech Republic There is no doubt that our peace activist friends in those two countries do indeed have reason to celebrate after their hard and determined work to stop those deployments. We also need to recognize and thank the many people around the world who acted in solidarity with them during these past couple years of intensive campaigning.

But now that we've had a day to rejoice, the time has come for more reflection on what the Obama administration intends to do next. I've quickly learned during these eight months of watching Obama in action that when he gives something with one hand it is wise to watch what his other hand is taking away. More from Bruce K. Gagnon of the Global Space Network...

October 22, 23, 24 2009
Sky City hotel & casino
I- 40 at Exit 102, Acoma Pueblo, NM

The 7th Indigenous Uranium Forum proposes to focus much needed public attention on the rape of Mount Taylor and to serve as a vehicle to launch a regional inter-tribal campaign to end this madness in the Grants Mineral Belt, Lakota Lands, and elsewhere in Indian Country from the Grand Canyon to White Mesa where deadly and runaway uranium technology threatens the lives of future of our water, land, people, and our winged, four legged and those that crawl relatives. More from www.siuf.net...

Nuclear-Free Future Award advisor Karl Grossman reports that nuclear energy is not the solution the nuclear lobby has been promoting. Take a look...

11SEPT'09–The Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) said Thursday that Germany's controversial nuclear waste storage facility in Gorleben cannot be considered as a permanent depot after new allegations about its safety emerged this week.

Documents from 1983 have shown that Helmut Kohl's conservative government tried to suppress unfavourable reports on the Lower Saxony site. Current Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel from the centre-left Social Democrats has confirmed the existence of the files and called them a scandal. More from thelocal.de

13AUG'09,JOHANNESBURG–Africa has officially become a nuclear-free zone after more than half of the signatories to a treaty banning the development, production, testing or acquisition of nuclear weapons ratified the document, a South African think-thank said Wednesday. The African Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone Treaty, also known as the Treaty of Pelindaba after a nuclear research facility in South Africa, came into force after Burundi became the 28th signatory on July 15, the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said. More from earthtimes.org...

1AUG'09–No industry in history has held more promise, been more welcomed, received more favours and failed more spectacularly than the commercial nuclear power industry.

When U. S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower launched a civilian nuclear program in the early 1950s, it was to universal acclaim. Not only would nuclear reactors be safe and provide electricity that was too cheap to meter, it would help redeem a technology that had unleashed horrors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

...There was no shortage of goodwill for commercial reactors; the failure of this technology to succeed was internal to itself. More from Lawrence Solomon, National Post...

17JUL'09–Two recent mishaps have provided an opportunity for anti-nuclear forces in Germany – and their flagbearer, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel – to take the offensive. But some German commentators think that, in trying to win votes for his party, Gabriel might actually drive them into the arms of the Greens. More from spiegel.de

9JUL'09–Sweden's government-owned electric utility, Vattenfall, has admitted that fuel rods may have been damaged when one of its German nuclear power plants underwent an emergency shutdown last Saturday.

The company said it discovered that "possibly a few" of the 80,000 uranium fuel rods inside the reactor were "defective."

Vattenfall has blamed the plant manager for failing to install discharge detectors on a transformer as promised to German authorities.

The incident last weekend is the second major mishap after a 2007 electrical transformer fire at the Kruemmel power station near Hamburg. More from DEUTSCHE WELLE...

See also:
12JUL'09, reuters: Vattenfall in exclusive talks to sell German grid-sources to Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Allianz

2JUL'09(Reuters) – Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano won the election to be director-general of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, on Thursday. Here are some details about Yukiya Amano: http://www.reuters.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:
1JUL'09,Franz Alt: Electricity from the Sahara for Germany? Last week, several German firms announced the biggest investment ever for renewable energies. They aim to attract 400 billion euros to generate solar electricity for Europe in sunny Africa. The idea sounds convincing. But is it thoroughly thought-out?
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...

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...

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...

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

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).

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.

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.

Download.
Kick back.
Help out.

"Music for a Nuclear-Free Future Volume 1" is on iTunes. Download music, abolish nuclear weapons. Download music, pull the plug on nuclear power. Sound too good to be true? Nope: each tune you download means another donation towards ridding our planet of the pro-nuclear mindset. More...

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:
24MAY'09, JADUGODAJohar from Jadugoda
24MAY'09–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

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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