Since 1998 the Nuclear-Free Future Award (NFFA) is an award given to anti-nuclear activists, organizations and communities. The Award annually honours the architects of a nuclear-free planet. The 2012 Nuclear-Free Future Award Recipients come from Japan, France, Germany, Portugal, and Switzerland.
This year, the NFFA international jury of activists and scientists has selected as Award recipients in the categories of Resistance, Education, and Solutions (three prizes totaling $30,000) the following nominees:
Resistance: Gabriela Tsukamoto and MUNN
Up until 1991, Portugal with its sixty-two uranium mines was one of the world's most important suppliers of nuclear fuel. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima contained uranium from Portugal. Today, the specter of uranium mining returns. Gabriela Tsukamoto, the mayor of the small town of Nisa, and the initiative Movimento Urânio em Nisa Não, are firmly opposed to plans to restart uranium mining, reminding people of the dire health and environmental consequences. Portugal rejoins the international anti-nuclear movement.
Education: Katsumi Furitsu
This Japanese physician from Osaka is a longtime member of IPPNW (Inter-national Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War/Physicians for Social Responsibility); she has shared her expertise at many nuclear crisis hot-spots around the world. In the aftermath of Fukushima she assured the flow of uncensored news to the world press. Unlike many of her colleagues at IPPNW-Japan, alongside the threat of nuclear warheads, Dr. Furitsu has for the past thirty years also warned of the perils of nuclear power. She was nominated by the Alternative Nobel Prize laureate Rosalie Bertell, who passed away last June 14th.
Solutions: Yves Marignac
Yves Marignac is widely acknowledged as the leading independent energy consultant in France. With his expertise he leads the non-profit organization WISE-Paris (World Information Service on Energy). He is co-author of the manifesto NégaWatt, a work that outlines the steps needed to turn France into a nuclear-free nation.
The Nuclear-Free Future Award will also bestow two honorary Awards:
Lifetime achievement: Sebastian Pflugbeil
The physicist and former East German civil rights activist is a long-time atomic detective: for decades he has been a source of dependable data, filtering out the lies and laundered statistics of the nuclear industry. Sebastian Pflugbeil is President of the Gesellschaft fuer Strahlenschutz ("Society for Radiation Protection"), founded in 1991, and the chief editor at Strahlen-Telex.
Special recognition: Susan Boos Editor-in-chief at the Swiss weekly WOZ, Susan Boos is one of the few reliable authorities on nuclear energy in the European media world. Her most recent work, Fukushima lässt grüßen ("Fukushima Sends Greetings"), publis-hed by Rotpunktverlag, has won great acclaim.
The 2012 Awards Ceremony, hosted by Verein Dunant2010Plus in coopera-tion with IPPNW Switzerland, will take place on 29 September 2012 in Heiden, Switzerland.
Source and contact: www.nuclear-free. com