The National Radioactive Waste Coalition

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2021

Your group is invited to join a newly formed national organization. The National Radioactive Waste Coalition (NRWC) which was officially launched in November 2020 now has forty-one organizations from across the country. Among the members are the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World, Citizens Awareness Network, Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, and Nukewatch. See our new website at radioactivewastecoalition.org. (If it isn’t running yet, check back in a few days.)

This new coalition is working to build solidarity and unity across the country among various groups working on nuclear waste issues and others that support this work. The coalition will continue to expand current actions regarding legal, legislative, and regulatory issues while also bringing new people and groups into the movement — especially front-line communities, Indigenous Peoples, younger people, and people of color.

Goals

The main focus of the coalition is to mount a strategic campaign with a multi-pronged approach to involve and mobilize organizations and individuals to achieve the following goals:

• Halt permanently the Yucca Mountain repository;
• Stop all consolidated interim storage;
• Keep high-level radioactive waste as close to its current sites as possible and “harden” the storage so it is as safe as it can be;
• Reduce the inherent dangers with storage of high-level radioactive waste at decommissioned nuclear reactors and other nuclear sites.

Principles

The National Radioactive Waste Coalition is committed to stopping the production and the reprocessing of radioactive waste. The isolation of radioactive waste is critical for protecting all living things, from the tiniest organisms in the soil and water to all the humans living on our planet. We are committed to working to ensure this isolation is accomplished. We are committed to preventing the unnecessary movement of radioactive waste.

Our goal is to build solidarity through strong collaboration and honoring the needs of local communities.

Our work is grounded in respect for all people, and we reject oppressive decisions, actions, or the creation of sacrifice zones. We commit to ending environmental racism. We will engage many diverse people in both the work of the campaign and the process to find effective approaches to isolate radioactive waste.

We will work together to hold the nuclear industry, government officials, and offices accountable for their actions, for enforcing our laws and treaties – and for keeping us all as safe as possible. We are committed to non-violence as a movement and the equitable distribution of resources to do our work together.

Help increase the strength of the coalition by becoming a working member.