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June 21, 2026 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Mississippi River Coalition Commemorates 15 Years Since Fukushima Reactor Meltdowns

By John LaForge

On Wed., March 11, the Coalition for a Nuclear- Free Mississippi River commemorated the 15th anniversary of the triple reactor meltdowns in Fukushima, Japan by hosting a “No More Fukushimas! Close the Monticello Nuclear Reactor” rally on the walkway of the large Lake Street Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The rally piggybacked on the very long-running weekly anti-war vigil on the bridge, which was launched in 2003 by Women Against Military Madness, or WAMM.

The effort to raise awareness of Monticello’s relationship to Fukushima succeeded in bringing out the local news. With signs and banners demanding protection of the public drinking water the Mississippi provides, several rally participants spoke to a reporter from local KARE 11 News, and Nukewatch’s John LaForge ended up in a segment of the evening news calling for the reactor’s shutdown.

Xcel Energy’s 55-year-old Monticello reactor ― 35 miles northwest of Minneapolis/St. Paul ― has the same design as the three devastated Fukushima units.

Two people drove to the rally from the city of Monticello and reported that they’d taken photos of an oil slick on the surface of the Mississippi, which resulted from a leak of lubricating oil from the reactor which began March 9. While Xcel Energy first announced that the oil would not reach the river, the company was forced to admit later that it had.

Local organizations representing thousands of residents in the Twin Cities and surrounding communities, including Monticello, launched the Coalition to raise awareness of the dangers of nuclear power following the massive 829,000-gallons leak of cooling water from the reactor in 2022. The Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011 is often ignored by the media.

At Fukushima, three reactors suffered complete core meltdowns and hydrogen explosions. It was the world’s worst industrial disaster and the second-worst accidental radiation release in history ― after Chernobyl. Following the March 11, 2011 earthquake (Japan’s worst ever) and its resulting tsunami, Fukushima’s GE “Mark-1” boiling water reactors ― identical to the Monticello unit ― suffered smashed reactor foundations, and a station black-out, or total loss of electric power.

A station black-out is a severe reactor crisis, because it stops the circulation of cooling water. This loss of cooling, if not reversed, causes fuel melting, massive radioactive releases, and ⸺ from Fukushima and from Chernobyl ⸺ radioactive “fallout” which spreads around the world.

Several common natural disasters could lead to a station blackout at Monticello: severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and straight-line windstorms (derechos); floods, wildfires, and blizzards ― or some combination ― could cut power to the station. Back-up emergency generators are on hand to power cooling water circulation, but they are also subject to failure, as happened in Fukushima.

To learn more, see nuclearfreemississippi.wordpress.com or write to the Coalition at nuclearfreemississippi@zohomail.com.

January 15, 2025 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Protesters Vow to Shut Down Xcel’s Monticello Nuclear Reactor

Ta Pe’juta Wi’chac’pi Win, Erica Crazy Hawk (Star Medicine Women), member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and Indigenous Earth Protectors, at the Rally at Xcel Energy offices in Minneapolis. Photo: Kelly Lundeen

Editor’s Note: Nukewatch is a founding member of the Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Mississippi River which held its first rally to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the most recent tritium leak at Xcel’s Monticello nuclear reactor at the Xcel Energy offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ta Pe’juta Wi’chac’pi Win, Erica Crazy Hawk (Star Medicine Woman), member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and Indigenous Earth Protectors, said of the radioactive leak that reached the Mississippi River and Bdote, the sacred Dakota site of creation: “We were driven from this sacred ground through genocide, a tragedy echoing in places like Palestine today. Now, to see these waters and lands poisoned with radiation adds another layer of unbearable desecration. It is my heartfelt prayer that someone will rise to the occasion and make the morally correct decision and action.”

By Sarah Martin

MINNEAPOLIS — On Thursday, November 21, 50 members of the newly formed Coalition for a Nuclear-free Mississippi River and their supporters rallied in front of Xcel Energy headquarters on Nicollet Mall in the heart of downtown. They demanded the energy company keep to its 2030 shutdown date for the Monticello nuclear reactor because of serious threats posed to public health, the Mississippi River, and drinking water for millions.

As rush hour traffic passed by, motorists and pedestrians saw protesters holding signs reading, “Don’t nuke our river.” Chants like “Xcel let’s be clear, Monticello reactor is not wanted here” were loudly amplified by the surrounding buildings. After chanting for a half hour, demonstrators heard from several speakers.

George Crocker, executive director of the North America Water Office and longtime anti-nuke activist, said, “We’re here today because Xcel Energy wants to continue nuclear operations at Monticello until 2050, and that is a really bad idea for a long list of reasons. There’s equipment failure issues, like what’s going on now after a pipe corroded to pieces and almost a million gallons of [water contaminated with] radioactive tritium leaked into the environment, some of which is now contaminating Minneapolis drinking water. The potential for cataclysmic equipment failure is not diminutive, and it is mounting as reactor components age. There’s nuclear waste issues, as there is no known technology or location capable of isolating irradiated fuel and other radioactively contaminated material from Earth’s biosphere for the required geological periods of time.”

John LaForge, longtime activist with Nukewatch, spoke about the dangerous radioactive leaks at the reactor and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and media misinformation, stating, “Over and over, Xcel and the NRC told the press that the radioactive tritium did not and could not reach drinking water. They lied, but the media dutifully repeated this lie many times on the radio, in the papers, on television. Any of the reporters could have found out that all the groundwater under the reactor moves toward the Mississippi — drinking water for 20 million people.”

LaForge continued, “The record is clear, but Xcel’s and the NRC’s public statements have been lies. Nothing they say to the press should be believed. As a coalition, we must see to it that the reactor’s 2030 expiration date be enforced, and that this leaky, dangerous, accident-prone nuclear jalopy be permanently shut.”

Whitney Wildman of the Climate Justice Committee stated, “We stand with groups organizing to shut down the Monticello Nuclear plant because we know that we can’t trust giant corporations to operate with the people’s health and safety in mind because that’s not their priority. We know that under capitalism these companies plan to exploit the land and its people to the breaking point, all in the name of profits.”

The program concluded with a lively, creative street theater piece depicting the cozy and alarming relationship between the NRC and the officials at the Monticello nuclear power reactor.

The coalition held a teach-in on the dangers of the Monticello reactor and nuclear power on December 4 at the New City Center in Minneapolis.

— Published by Fight Back! News, Nov. 25, 2024

⸺ See www.SaveTheMississippi.com, for more on the Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Mississippi River. Sign the petition to stop the license extension for the Monticello nuclear reactor.

January 15, 2025 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

European Human Rights Court Rejects Complaints by U.S. and German Nuclear Resisters

By John LaForge

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected the complaints of three nuclear weapons resisters who unsuccessfully appealed criminal trespass convictions in German courts. The cases stemmed from political trespass and/or property damage convictions that followed nonviolent “go-in” protests against the stationing and threatened use of U.S. nuclear bombs at Germany’s Büchel Air Force Base.

In decisions handed down October 21, the Strasbourg-based ECHR ruled that the defendants’ complaints failed to show “a violation of rights and freedoms set out in the Constitution” of the Court. The ECHR considers appeals from individuals, NGOs, or states within the 46-member Council of Europe, but only after applicants have exhausted all the paths of recourse in their own country.

The Court rejected complaints by Germans Marion Küpker of Hamburg, Stephanie Augustin of Dortmund, and yours truly John LaForge of Luck, Wisconsin. All three of us were convicted of trespass and/or damage to perimeter fencing at Büchel AFB, the German NATO base 80 miles southeast of Cologne. The base has been the object of decades of protests because of its maintenance and readiness to use the U.S. thermonuclear bombs (known as B61s) stationed there. German Tornado fighter jet pilots at the base plan, prepare, and train to use the U.S. Air Force H-bombs in attacks against Russia, most recently in the “Steadfast Noon” rehearsal that ended October 25. The transfer of the U.S. nuclear bombs to Germany and four other NATO states is part of a practice quaintly known as “nuclear sharing.”

Küpker, the nuclear weapons spokesperson with Fellowship of Reconciliation Germany, peace activist Augustin, and I appealed our convictions all the way to the Constitutional Court, Germany’s highest. This high court has routinely rejected similar appeals a total of 20 times in separate cases of nuclear weapons protests at Büchel. In January of 2023, I was the first U.S. citizen ordered to prison in Germany in the long-running campaign of civil resistance against the U.S. H-bombs kept at Büchel and was incarcerated for 50 days.

Two other U.S. citizens have been jailed after Büchel trespass convictions. Dennis DuVall with Veterans for Peace, formerly of Prescott, Arizona, now living in Germany, served 60 days in prison in 2023. Susan Crane of Redwood City, California, is currently serving a 229-day prison sentence in JVA Koblenz, Germany, the longest sentence ever imposed in the 28-year-long campaign.

I argued in my complaint to the ECHR that its mandatory requirements were violated by German courts when they prevented me from presenting a complete defense. The complaint argued that the trial courts erred by refusing to consider expert witness testimony, which would have corroborated my defense of “crime prevention.” I had offered the testimony of the eminent international law scholar Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois who has said that international treaties prohibit any and all planning or preparation for nuclear weapons attacks, and also forbid nuclear weapons “sharing” by any state which is party to the 1970 Nonproliferation Treaty. But the ECHR ruled that Germany’s trial court’s decisions were not “unfair” and did “not appear arbitrary or manifestly unreasonable.” The ruling is final and is not subject to appeal.

We gave the human rights court a chance to examine the legality of transferring U.S. nuclear weapons to Germany. At a time when threats and risks of nuclear attacks over Ukraine are reported almost daily, the ECHR ducked the opportunity to shame the “sharing” of U.S. nuclear weapons and to condemn the U.S./German violation of the Nonproliferation Treaty.

Three other nuclear resisters have filed similar complaints with the ECHR including Germans Ariane Dettloff of Cologne and Johanna Adickes of Emden. Susan Crane of California had her application dismissed on a technicality.

July 22, 2024 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Ten Arrested in Protest at Honeywell Corp. Nuclear Weapons Factory in Kansas City

By John LaForge

Fifty anti-war activists from eight states converged on the giant nuclear weapons plant in Kansas City, Missouri Monday, April 15, Tax Day, in a protest against the ongoing production of weapons of mass destruction, and against plans to expand the site — which would double its current size. The early morning demonstration took place at the nuclear weapons production site run by Honeywell. Three people were handcuffed and arrested for entering the construction site, which is being readied for the factory’s expansion, and placing “CRIME SCENE” tape around a giant earth-moving vehicle. Another seven people were arrested after walking through the main gate toward the Honeywell, Inc. complex. All ten were later released with trespass citations ordering them to appear in court in June.

The 1.5-million sq-ft Kansas City facility procures and produces over 80% of the (non-nuclear) mechanical and electronic parts that make up U.S. nuclear weapons. The parts include firing and arming systems, radars and guidance systems, foams, adhesives, reservoirs for tritium, etc.

Known as “Kansas City National Nuclear Security Campus,” an academic euphemism used to disguise the complex’s purpose, its website says the complex “plays an integral part of weapon modernization from concept through design, production, delivery, and lifecycle management.” Every nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal is made up of materials that are procured, engineered, or assembled at the site, under contract to the National Nuclear Security Administration. The factory was called “Kansas City Plant” from 1949 until 2014, when the new $750 million facility replaced its forerunner.

Jane Stoever of Kansas City and Scot Bohl of Duluth, Minnesota, were detained while placing crime scene tape on earth movers at the expansion site across from Honeywell’s H-bomb factory. Photo by John LaForge

“The U.S. has embarked on the largest and most expensive nuclear build-out ever,” according to the December Scientific American. This is the 30-year-long, $1.7 trillion nuclear weapons and infrastructure replacement program launched in September 2014 by then President Barak Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. The New York Times reported then, “The administration has told the Pentagon to plan for 12 new [nuclear-armed] missile submarines, up to 100 new [nuclear-armed] bombers, and 400 [nuclear-armed] land-based missiles, either new or refurbished.” Honeywell in Kansas City makes weapons for all this nuclear madness.

“I’m protesting because nuclear weapons are illegal,” said Charles Carney, a protest organizer from Kansas City, Kansas. “And it’s a moral outrage that we are ramping up our death-dealing poison machine, when we should be spending the money on healthcare for our most vulnerable citizens.”

As if weapons giant Honeywell needs corporate welfare, State Rep. Chris Brown, a Kansas City Republican, has authored a bill offering an exemption from sales taxes on all materials needed to expand the weapons complex. According to the Kansas City Star, Brown’s proposal initially won bipartisan support from Kansas City-area lawmakers and the Missouri House, and the tax give-away was approved by legislators May 17. The Star report noted that since moving to the new location in 2014, “the facility has grown from 2,400 employees to more than 7,000.”

Ann Suellentrop, a national board member for the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility from Kansas City, and member of Kansas City Peace Works which helped organize the Tax Day protest action, told the Star, “We’re going the wrong way. We’re manufacturing our doom.”

The public prosecutor in Kansas City has chosen not to pursue charges against the ten people detained April 15. While all were handcuffed and delivered to a local precinct’s holding cells for several hours, none of the ten were called to court for their appointed arraignment. Sometimes local law enforcement officials object to carrying water for the feds in cases involving controversial federal government programs. With no U.S. district attorney threatening to bring separate charges, the cases appear to be nullified.

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