Outlook and review of the Foundation
Annual Letter of the Nuclear Free Future Foundation
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear colleagues,
it is difficult at this time to express wishes that lie outside the hope that the cruel killing in Ukraine will come to an end. The violence against the civilian population, but also the repression of journalists and critics in Russia leaves us stunned. We could not have imagined the shelling of nuclear power plants and the open threat to use nuclear weapons a few weeks ago. The Ukraine war shows us in a terrible way that we must continue to work tirelessly to end the nuclear age. But we do indeed have a wish with which we hereby address you.
This year, our foundation will again present the Nuclear Free Future Award in the categories of education, resistance and solutions. We hope that through you we can get in touch with people who are so committed and that you will nominate possible award winners or spread the word about our cause.
We have set up a form on our website for nominations. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need further information. We will also be happy to send you the form by post.
The deadline for nominations is 31 May 2022.
The Nuclear Free Future Award 2022 will be presented in November. We will of course invite you to the online event in good time.
The work of the Foundation in recent months
With the Uranium Atlas, we are more than ever in the process of disseminating the background of the nuclear age: After the publication of the German edition in September 2019 and the English translation on 16 July 2020, the Uranium Atlas has virtually become a self-runner.
Second edition Uranatlas German: Publication date is 26 April 2022. It is the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Co-publishers: Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Umweltstiftung Greenpeace, Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland and .ausgestrahlt. The Ukraine war and the dependence on Russian energy imports has also shown us a new aspect in the Uranium Atlas: While Ukraine already decided in 2014 to make its 15 nuclear reactors independent of hexagonal Russian fuel elements and switched to fuel elements from Westinghouse (USA), 18 reactors in the EU are still 100 percent dependent on Russian fuel elements: Loviisa 1 and 2 in Finland, Temelin 1 and 2 and Dukovany 1 to 4 in the Czech Republic, Paks 1 to 4 in Hungary, Mochovce 1 and 2 and Bohunice 3 and 4 in Slovakia, and Kozloduy 4 and 5 in Bulgaria. In addition, about 20 per cent of the uranium needed in the EU comes from Russia and Russia's ally Kazakhstan.
The atlas will be presented at the Waldhotel in Lingen on the publication date of 26 April and at the Zukunftssalon in Munich in May.
French edition Atlas de L’Uranium: The French edition was published on 26 January 2022, produced in close cooperation with Heinz Stockinger/PLAGE Salzburg. Co-publishers are Réseau Sortir du nucleaire, the umbrella organisation of the French anti-nuclear movement, and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
Italian edition Atlante dell’Uranio: With the support of the Nuclear Free Future Foundation, the Italian edition was published in paperback in April 2021 in the series "Terra Nuova Edizioni", published by the publishing company Multimago (Associazione Editoriale Multimage). It should be emphasised here that the Holy See ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 20 September 2017. No other country was quicker.
Czech edition Atlas Urano: Under our leadership, the Eastern Europe Department of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, based in Prague, published the Czech edition in October 2021.
Spanish edition: A Spanish edition has been requested, whether it can be financed is not yet foreseeable.
Other activities
Educational work with the Uranium Atlas: We have had our first experience of presenting the contents of the Uranium Atlas to schools and are in the process of offering an event with the school department of the city of Munich to show teachers of municipal schools how they can use the Uranium Atlas and its contents in school lessons. We will soon be producing a PowerPoint presentation on the contents of the Uranium Atlas for Greenpeace's education department, which will be offered online to schools throughout Germany.
E-learning game on the contents of the Uranium Atlas: In order to be able to communicate the contents of the Uranium Atlas to younger target groups, the Foundation is in the process of developing an e-learning game to introduce 12-16 year old young people to the topics of the Uranium Atlas in a playful way. Through the game, the young people will be accompanied by the avatar Anna, who will show them how they can end the nuclear age on Earth. The game will be completed in the next few weeks. Further development is planned, but still depends on funding.
Website relaunch: The website is currently undergoing a thorough overhaul to make it clearer, more user-friendly and editorially active. If you send us your mail address to info@nuclear-free.com, you will be informed about new entries.
Open letter: The Nuclear Free Future Foundation has published an open letter on the German parliamentary elections 2021 to the leaders of the parties of the democratic political spectrum in Germany and sent the letter with accompanying press work. Tenor: Nuclear power is not a climate saver!
On 22 January 2021, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force. 122 states had voted in favour of it at the United Nations, 86 states have now signed the treaty, 60 have ratified it - still not Germany or any other NATO state. In view of the war in Ukraine, it seems understandable at first sight that Germany also wants to upgrade its armed forces. Even if this is hard to imagine at the moment: the Nuclear Free Future Foundation wants to contribute to the withdrawal of the 20 US nuclear bombs stored in Büchel/Rhineland-Palatinate and to Germany signing the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty. In view of the current Ukraine crisis, they are more than ever a threat to us all.
We thank you for your interest in our work and wish you and all those close to you health and confidence. And we appreciate your friendly, idealistic, cooperative, constructive and also financial support.
With very warm regards
Franz Moll Frauke Liesenborghs Dr Host Hamm
Photo: 12th Biennial Cuba 2015
© F. Liesenborghs