Summer 2020
Dear Friend of Nukewatch,
Nukewatch is back on track. This tenacious organization will not stop, even as the world continues to become a stranger and scarier place. War profiteers have not stopped the building of new nuclear bombs. Corporations have not stopped construction of new nuclear power reactors. Radioactive waste has not stopped piling up without a safe disposal solution. Since nothing has yet stopped these deadly nuclear industries, nothing is stopping Nukewatch: not cancer surgery, from which Co-Director John LaForge is recovering remarkably, and not coronavirus. We have a job to do and so do you. Do your part by making a contribution today.
Disturbing nuclear problems are cropping up globally faster than we can report on them. This just in: on May 13th a convoy carrying nuclear weapons and involving 50 personnel traveled from the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Burghfield, England, through Glasgow’s city center, then on to England’s nuclear sub base at Coulport. “It is never right to possess and deploy nuclear weapons and transport them on public roads. Doing it right now is completely irresponsible,” says Jane Talents with Nukewatch UK. More info is in your recent Quarterly.
So far, seven U.S. nuclear reactor sites have reported Covid-19 cases among staff members. Germany continues to demolish nuclear power with plans to shut off the last of its reactors in 2022. The Department of Energy is rolling out yet another scheme: this time for small, mobile nuclear reactors to power remote U.S. military installations with an initial investment of $160 million in taxpayer funds. Taiwan demands that Japan stop polluting the ocean with 200 tons of radioactive water every day, as it has been for the past nine years. Nukewatch has been reporting on it from the beginning. This is the kind of news that the public needs to know, and Nukewatch delivers it. Send a donation to keep the information flowing.
In the face of the pandemic, Nukewatch and its sister organizations had to cancel our much-anticipated Stop the New Nuclear Weapons Race conference scheduled for May. Despite the threat of the virus, there were already 70 paid participants, 30 sponsors and a dozen internationally and nationally renowned presenters committed to this event. We had so eagerly anticipated seeing your faces and making our plans together for nuclear abolition. Nukewatch is now in its forty-first year. We missed our 40th birthday party at the conference and we missed seeing you there, but we are committed to keeping this momentum going.
The peace camp in opposition to U.S. nuclear weapons in Germany has also been taken off the calendar. While we work to limit the spread of Covid-19 and keep activists safe, the military, bomb makers and nuclear energy waste producers carry on as usual.
As a Nukewatch supporter you have been a part of a long list of campaigns, from the early days of missile silo hunting, to truck watches and peace camps, to closing Project ELF. Nukewatch is a veteran nuclear watchdog group, as are many of our supporters who have sustained this movement and created these successes.
One way our seasoned members can help is by considering a bequest to Nukewatch. Email nukewatch1@lakeland.ws or call us for more information on how to leave the kind of legacy you want for the future.
We are working to bring in younger supporters. There’s another thing you can do for Nukewatch, and that is to discuss it and nuclear issues with others. Help us build our list of supporters. Having you to count on keeps us going, so having many more of you would ensure that Nukewatch, now middle aged, grows old. Have that conversation with friends and family and when interested send us a name and address. You can be part of our future.
While the Pentagon gets more and more taxpayer money, organizations working for peace receive no guaranteed government endowments. Nukewatch’s grassroots work depends solely on you to get us through year after year.
You help pay for printing the Nukewatch Quarterly: you make the difference between someone answering the phone and blowing the whistle, and no one listening. Researching and writing articles takes time as does filing taxes, responding to mail, ordering supplies, updating the website, stamping envelopes—we do all of this on a shoestring budget, but it all takes dollars.
Please give so that Nukewatch can continue our critical work.
This organization has worked hard to move forward without the physical, mental and dynamic presence of Co-Director John LaForge. He will be returning soon from Germany, on leave following cancer treatment. The good news is that Kelly Lundeen, our new master coordinator, developed a team of volunteers to help in the office. Your enclosed newsletter is evidence of Kelly’s expertise. Now the need is a gift from you.
We all have a job to do. Since my own retirement after 28 years in the Nukewatch office, I still volunteer and do what I can to keep this organization going. Please do the same.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Urfer
Nukewatch Volunteer, Board of Director, Retired Staff
P.S. Your tax deductible donation can be sent by mail or online at nukewatchinfo.org.
Email us at nukewatch1@lakeland.ws or call (715)472-4185.
In addition, do you like mud? Cutting wood? Keeping fires going? The solar-powered Plowshares Land Trust, home to Nukewatch, also has space for new community members. In the peace and quiet of rural Luck, Wisconsin, where the blue sky frames the white birch trees, there is a home waiting for the right person or people. Responsibilities are seasonally dependent — summertime gardening, winter fires, and springtime maple syruping. Call the Nukewatch office, (715) 472-4185, for more info.