Beyond Nuclear names Rose Gardner of AFES, NM as Dr. Judith H. Johnsrud "Unsung Hero" award recipient at ANA's 2019 DC Days

Left to right, front row -- Rose's daugther Bridget, granddaughter Aubrey, Rose Gardner, daughter Jessica; back row -- Beyond Nuclear's Linda Gunter, Paul Gunter, Kevin Kamps. Photo by Molly Johnson.From May 19-22, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability will hold its annual "DC Days." Beyond Nuclear has been a proud ANA member group since our founding in 2007. A highlight of every DC Days is the awards ceremony. Beyond Nuclear gives the Dr. Judith H. Johnsrud "Unsung Hero" Award* each year. We are happy to announce this year's "Unsung Hero" awardee: Rose Gardner, with the Alliance for Environmental Strategies (AFES) in Eunice, New Mexico.

(See a photo of Rose with her grandchildren, in the following NPR link. The photo is captioned "I've got three little babies here and nobody's speaking up for them," says Rose Gardner, who's worried about what the proposed facility would mean for her grandchildren's future, and was taken by Nathan Rott/NPR. See his April 11, 2019 story, "New Mexico Is Divided Over The 'Perfect Site' To Store Nation's Nuclear Waste," here.)

Rose is our ally in the fight against irradiated nuclear fuel consolidated interim storage facilities (CISFs) at Interim Storage Partners/Waste Control Specialists, across the state line in Texas, just several miles from her home (including helping to provide us legal standing in this case, as a member and supporter of Beyond Nuclear), and at Holtec/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, halfway between Carlsbad and Hobbs, NM, about 40 miles from her home (see Beyond Nuclear's Centralized Storage website section, for more info. on the CISFs).  

 

Also receiving awards at DC Days are: Congressman Adam Smith, of Washington's 9th District; Patricia Mellen, attorney; and the Bill Mitchell Grassroots Activist of the Year Award, the mystery recipient to be announced at the ceremony itself, taking place Tues., May 21st from 6-7:30pm Eastern, at 2060 Rayburn House Office Building, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC. See ANA's awards reception announcement, here. It is not too late to register for and attend DC Days, if you can make it. 

 

*Judith Johnsrud (1931-2014) was a founding board member of Beyond Nuclear. She also co-founded Nuclear Information and Resource Service, as well as the Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Power. One of her many claims to fame was helping co-lead the intervention against the building of the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the first place, in the 1970s, years before the TMI-2 meltdown. Another was being honored, in 2012, by Sierra Club for a half-century of anti-nuclear activism. See a tribute to Judith on the bottom of the last page of our 2014 newsletter about the Three Mile Island meltdown.