Alliance for Nuclear Accountability Celebrates 1987 Founding with Day-long Conference and Reception in Seattle on Sat. Sept. 22
For immediate release, August 28, 2012
Contact: Bob Schaeffer (239) 395-6773 or Susan Gordon (505) 473-1670
Leaders of organizations that monitor nuclear weapons production and cleanup program will gather in Seattle, Washington, on Saturday, September 22 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA). Local, regional and national ANA network members watchdog U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons sites and advocate for programs that protect human health and the environment.
Founded in Seattle as the Military Production Network (MPN), the alliance is currently headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico near the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory. ANA’s three dozen groups represent the concerns of communities downwind or downstream from U.S. nuclear research, testing, production, waste storage, and cleanup sites. Over two and a half decades, MPN and ANA have played key roles in changing nuclear policies, including stopping new weapons systems, advocating for billions of dollars in clean-up funds, and developing local advisory boards at many sites (see list of milestones below)
A highlight of the daylong program at the historic Good Shepherd Center is an award presentation to former U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary for her effective advocacy for openness and accountability. During her tenure at DOE, Ms. O’Leary made public the history of human radiation experiments, revealed the scope of contamination from aboveground nuclear testing, and initiated policies to protect whistle-blowers and encourage citizen participation in decision-making.
Sec. O’Leary will also deliver the opening keynote address. Grassroots and national experts on nuclear weapons and waste issues from across the U.S. and Russia will then speak on panels evaluating ANA’s work of the past two-and-a-half decades and planning future campaigns to clean up radioactive contamination and stop unnecessary production facilities. A display by renowned photographer Robert Del Tredici will document the dangers of nuclear weapons production and the impact of oversight. Del Tredici’s book At Work in the Fields of the Bomb won multiple awards.
That evening, ANA will host a reception at Pike Place Market. The featured speaker is Kristen Iversen, author of the highly praised new book Full Body Burden, which describes her life growing up in the shadows of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons site in Colorado. A second exhibit, Life and Death in the Nuclear Age by the Atomic Photographers Guild, will feature images from around the world, including Fukushima, Japan.
“Grassroots community organizing plays a uniquely powerful role in shaping U.S. nuclear weapons policy,” explained ANA Director Susan Gordon. “Activists who live near DOE facilities are excellent monitors of both dangerous projects and cleanup programs. By linking local groups together, ANA conducts effective national campaigns that have stopped DOE boondoggles and forced the government to address the toxic, radioactive legacy of nearly seven decades of nuclear weapons production.”
Registration for the day-long conference is $50, including breakfast and lunch. Tickets for the evening fundraising reception begin at $25. To sign-up or for more information about ANA’s twenty-fifth anniversary, go to http://www.ananuclear.org or call (505) 473-1670.
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Note to journalists: both September 22 events will be open to media coverage
ALLIANCE FOR NUCLEAR ACCOUNTABILITY
25TH ANNIVERSARY MILESTONES
- 1987 – Military Production Network (MPN) founded at La Foret Conference Center, Black Forest, Colorado
- 1988 – MPN begins using internet communication to allow instantaneous reporting on weapons complex developments, systematic planning, and coordinated reactions
- 1989 – Neighbors of Fernald (Ohio) uranium production plant win $78 million of health monitoring coverage in landmark legal settlement of offsite contamination lawsuit
- 1989 – First Annual “DC Days” brings leaders from communities in the shadows of U.S. nuclear weapons sites to DC to meet with national policy-makers
- 1990 – MPN issues failing “Report Card” to Department of Energy (DOE) Sec. James Watkins, focusing media attention on weapons production dangers and cleanup delays
- 1990- National lobbying and media campaigns led by Idaho activists put an end to plans for Special Isotope Separator and New Production Reactor
- 1992 – Passage of Federal Facilities Compliance Act establishes that weapons plants are subject to state environmental law enforcement
- 1993 – Responding to grassroots pressure, Site-Specific Advisory Boards and Heath Effects Subcommittees created at many nuclear weapons complex sites
- 1994 – Energy Sec. Hazel O’Leary’s launches openness initiative to address community concerns about weapons complex secrecy
- 1996 – Long-hidden report on radioactive I-131 fallout from above-ground nuclear weapons tests forced to be released and broadly disseminated
- 1997 – Name of network changed to Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) to more accurately reflect its mission
- 1998 – Lawsuit against DOE establishes the multi-million dollar Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund as part of the settlement agreement
- 2000 – ANA leaders help Russian allies organize first “Moscow Days” so local activists can pressure their government officials
- 2004 – Modern Pit Facility plutonium weapons trigger factory blocked
- 2006 – Activist criticism kills “Risk-Based End States” plan, which would have left more plutonium behind, and forces end to “Enhanced Test Site Readiness” weapons scheme
- 2009 - Global Nuclear Energy Partnership reactor fuel reprocessing program and Reliable Replacement Warhead weapons escalation blocked by citizen pressure
- 2009 – Federal support for Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dump terminated after multiyear, nationwide campaign
- 2010 – Community Involvement Fund added to DOE Environmental Management program to assist public participation by local groups
- 2012 – ANA opens Southeast office to expand campaign to cancel program making Mixed-Oxide (MOX) reactor fuel from nuclear weapons plutonium