NEWS

Artwork from Hoodwinted in the Hothouse and Nativemovement.org; Credit: Nativemovement.org
 

By Kelly Lundeen, Nukewatch, and Nancy Price
Earth Democracy Committee

April 2024

Author and anti-nuclear activist Harvey Wasserman recently asked: “If atomic reactors can’t economically compete, can’t be insured, operate uninspected, worsen climate chaos, are sitting ducks for terror attack [sic] and so much more… Why are they still running? The answer is clear: They are the unspoken infrastructure for our nation’s bomb-making machine.”

Nuclear power is the flipside of nuclear weapons and carries its own dangers.

The latest propaganda craze pushing nuclear power is riding the wave of the climate change movement, greenwashing nuclear power as if it were clean and carbon-free. New theoretical nuclear reactor designs are being promoted as real and improved, of which they are neither. Old reactors are getting license renewals rubber stamped to run until the ripe old age of 80 years by the federal government and bailed out to the tune of tens of billions of dollars by taxpayers. The US and international partners recently committed to tripling nuclear energy production by 2050. Uranium mining in the US is being revived.

Nuclear power comes with high risk to our Earth, water, and all life. Risk of allowable and accidental radioactive releases, accumulation of radioactive waste which sits on river banks, and all the waste heat (thermal pollution) produced by the reactor. The high-level radioactive waste created at reactors is dangerous for a million years. Every storage sitting solution that gained political support has been an environmental justice catastrophe, always earning the opposition it deserved from Indigenous and other local communities.

The benefits of nuclear power could potentially outweigh these risks if it could actually solve our climate crisis, but on the contrary, it cannot even withstand climate change. As global water temperatures increase, reactors, which rely on water to cool, have had several shutdowns during heat waves over the last 6 years to avoid meltdowns. Proximity to cooling water is the reason reactors must be sited near water bodies, but that in turn puts the onsite radioactive waste in danger as sea levels rise.

This brings us to Xcel Energy’s nuclear reactor in Monticello, Minn. Situated along the banks of the Mississippi River, it is 200 miles from the headwaters of the Great River and upstream from the source of drinking water for 20 million people, including those in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minn.

This spring, Xcel Energy is expected to issue its environmental impact statement regarding its application for a 20-year operating license extension to the operating life of the reactor. This begins a 30-day public comment period on the “Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement” (Draft SEIS), wherein anyone concerned with the continued operation of the leaking, accident-plagued, 54-year-old reactor can send comments to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in Washington, DC. Once the comment period opens, Nukewatch will provide sample comments you may submit at nukewatchinfo.org/monticello.

Photo: Monticello map; Credit: Carl Sack for Nukewatch. Click here to view larger.

The Monticello reactor made national headlines in March 2023, when Xcel disclosed publicly that it had leaked cooling water contaminated with radioactive tritium, iodine and xenon into the groundwater under the facility. Xcel and local news media reported that an extremely high concentration of radioactive tritium contaminated the leaked wastewater: 5 million picocuries per liter, or 250 times the allowable levels for drinking water. According to WCCO TV, Xcel said that a "small amount of leaked water may have reached the Mississippi River."

The nuclear beast raises its head along the entire nuclear fuel chain – in newly operating uranium mines, at enrichment facilities, weapons testing sites, and power reactors. Right now, we have a unique opportunity to chime in on whether one reactor continues to run. Will you stand up and take this simple action today? Submitting public comments opposing the continued radioactive pollution from this nuclear reactor is something we can all do to stop the nuclear beast in one of its many forms.

For detailed information on the radioactive leak, the license extension, and sample comments to submit, see: nukewatchinfo.org/monticello.  Nukewatch, 740A Round Lake Rd., Luck, WI 54853 715-472-4185; nukewatch1@lakeland.ws; www.nukewatchinfo.org 
Kelly Lundeen  +1(715)933-1941, kellylundeen14@gmail.com  nancytprice39@gmail.com

By Dianne Blais, Cherrill Spencer and Ellen Thomas
Co-Chairs of DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee

April 2024

WILPF Waging Peace in Europe

NATO and US-bases in UK and the Nordic countries was the topic of a Zoom call on Saturday, March 23, by Global Women for peace United Against NATO(GWUAN), to which WILPF US is a partner.  Speakers made it clear that they are a minority in their countries which strongly support NATO. Sweden and Finland have recently joined NATO and signed Defense Cooperation Agreements (DCAs) with the US. 

The US already has military bases in the UK, Norway and Denmark, and Finland is set to get 15 new US bases and Norway eight more.

NATO's Secretary General Stoltenberg's statement that "President Putin started this war because he wanted to close NATO’s door" clarifies that NATO's threat to Russia has started the war and the dramatic increase of arms. In an effort to stop this increase and say "No more NATO", there will be events No to NATO/Yes to Peace the weekend (July 6-7) before the 75th anniversary of NATO official events in Washington, DC.

An East Coast Peace Walk and No to NATO events in DC in July

Please support and advertise Peacewalk2024 in any way that you can and consider attending the "NO to NATO, Yes to Peace" events in Washington DC July 6-7, 2024.

Peace Walk starts in Maine on May 7 and ends in DC in time to attend the NO to NATO, Yes to Peace events. The website's option of "View our Route" shows a map and the current schedule of this walk which is: 

• Maine, May 7
• New Hampshire, May 9-10
• Massachusetts, May 12-17
• Rhode Island, May 18-19
• Connecticut, May 19-June 2
• New York, June 2-4
• New Jersey, June 4-12
• Pennsylvania,  June 12-24
• Maryland, June 24-July 5
• Washington, D.C. July 5

Click on one of the states on the route, and the specific cities to be walked in that state appear in the format:

• Date
• Walkers begin in X, make their way to Y. 
• Y sends $Z million in taxes every year to the Government for military use.

The Peace Walk's web-site option of "Get Involved" notes that besides walking any part of this route, people are needed to find places for the walkers to sleep and help organize events along the route.  

Please support and advertise Peacewalk2024 in any way that you can and consider attending the NO to NATO, Yes to Peace events in DC July 6-7.

The International Uranium Film Festival

The International Uranium Film Festival, which has been traveling around the world for several years, came to Asheville NC the weekend of March 23-24, showing a number of extremely important documentaries, which you can find listed here.  Here are some:

• "Atomic Bamboozle: The False Promise of a Nuclear Renaissance" is about  the Small Modular Reactors that are being sought along Columbia River and around the country
• "Silent Fallout: Baby Teeth Speak"
• "Building Bombs" tells of the toll the Hanford Nuclear Bomb Plant had on the environment
• "The Fukushima Disaster - The Hidden Side of the Story" is about how the nuclear accident affected the oceans (we are considering showing this film at the 2024 WILPF US Congress)
• "Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island

Next stops on the film festival tour are Chicago, Spokane, Vancouver, Seattle, Olympia, Portland, Salem (OR), Las Vegas, and Santa Barbara.  See https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/usacanada-2024-program  

Our DISARM/End Wars Issue committee welcomes new members; we have many ongoing campaigns that need people to work on them.  Write to disarmchair@wilpfus.org to request information and to join the DISARM/End Wars Committee, which meets the second and last Sundays of the month.

April 2024

By Karen James

Barbara Drageaux was born in Seattle in the summer of 1932, the first in a family of seven. In 1952, after she worked her way through the University of  Washington, she married Paul and settled in Portland, Oregon. She was a  devoted teacher in public schools throughout the city and a lifelong  supporter of the OEA/NEA. Her love of children carried on throughout her life. 

After 20 years her marriage ended, and when her husband married another woman (also named Barbara), she said, “I spent 20 years with my father’s name and 20 years with my husband’s name, so now I want to have my mother’s name.” She thereafter was reimagined as a unique “Dragoo”. 

Her work for the rights of the most vulnerable among us took her as far as Argentina to seek ways to help others. She was a tireless, prominent member  of the Portland branch of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. For years Barbara attended weekly vigils in Pioneer Courthouse  Square where she distributed literature to educate the public about WILPF’s  many issues. She staffed the branch office and often contributed to its  monthly newsletter as well as writing numerous letters to elected officials and newspaper editors.

Barbara participated in WILPF national and regional gatherings. An advocate for peace and universal disarmament, she marched in protest of militarism and war. Barbara worked to bring recognition of the impact of armed conflict on women and the contributions women make to conflict prevention, peacekeeping, conflict resolution and peace-building. She stressed the importance of women’s equal and full participation as active agents in peace and security negotiations. Closer to home, she led a group to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Richland, Washington, where she planted balsamroot plants, the “Oregon Sunflower”, as a peaceful protest opposing Handford’s continued operations.

In 1995 she organized a Portland city-wide parade celebration to mark the 75th anniversary of Woman Suffrage. Barbara  designed a ‘75 years’ logo to commemorate the event. She invited  women to ‘teas’ to write their own resolutions for the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and to mark the 1848 tea party that launched the campaign for women’s vote.

Her art and creativity were evident at numerous WILPF activities and events and in 1999 she joined the Seattle WTO protests dressed as a sea turtle! She was a friend, mentor and inspiration to her many WILPF friends.

As a feminist historian, Barbara’s well-researched knowledge of women and  their achievements, no matter how great or small, was extensive and  remarkable. With her close friend Mary Rose, she traveled throughout the US, teaching women’s history to children. She researched the Portland School  District Superintendent Ellen Sabin and held Eleanor Roosevelt, Pauli Murray and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in high esteem. She was relentless in her efforts and support of women’s rights and encouraged others to learn about  women who made history in their communities. 

More recently, Barbara was known to thoroughly read The New York Times newspaper, after which she would share with her neighbor who found the name and image of a certain recent US president totally redacted with black ink!  

An avid gardener, her many flowers and trees brought joy to her neighbors  and passers-by whom she greeted with her warm and welcoming smile. 

Barbara is survived by her sister Marylin, brother Donald and her two sons, Howard and Dan. Her family and many friends are proud of Barbara, grateful for her friendship and will hold dear our many memories. 

Please contact us at the email below if you have any questions about the Congress program, how to attend, how to register, or anything else about the Congress.

congresscoordinator@wilpfus.org

If you have additional questions, you can call Congress Team members.
Please call after 9 am Pacific “California” time and until 11 pm.
Darien De Lu: 916-739-0860 (no texts please)
Nancy Price: 530-402-5804

For most questions, please refer to our Congress website found at https://wilpfus.org/35thCongress.  Or go to the WILPF US homepage and click on the 35th Triennial Congress logo in the Get Involved section in lower left.

To donate, please visit: www.bit.ly/WC2024