ANA's 25th anniversary "DC Days" a big success
April 24, 2013
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Diane Curran, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, Kathleen Sullivan, and Kristen Iversen receive ANA awards during DC Days on April 16, 2013 at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Behind them is a quilt of anti-nuclear tee shirts from across the U.S. and even overseas, created by ANA's past executive director, Susan Gordon.For several weeks in the lead up to the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability's (ANA) annual "DC Days," Beyond Nuclear promoted participation on its website and in its weekly email bulletin. DC Days is one of the most ambitious and effective annual anti-nuclear lobby efforts at the federal level nationwide!

The event, from April 14 to 17, was a big success. ANA is a coalition of three dozen groups, of which Beyond Nuclear is proud to have been a member for the past five years. While many of the groups are grassroots watchdogs living in the shadows of the U.S. Department of Energy's nuclear weapons complex facilities, ANA also has an explicit anti-nuclear power policy position. Thus, Beyond Nuclear and ANA are a perfect match!

Scores of participants from across the country took part, from the training day on Sunday, to the lobby days on Capitol Hill and across the Obama Executive Branch agencies, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps was honored to be tapped by ANA to "team lead" several lobby visits in both the U.S. House and Senate.

A highlight of DC Days is the annual awards reception on Capitol Hill. This year's awards went to the following well deserving recipients: U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, for his longstanding commitment to the cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear [Weapons Complex] Reservation in Washington State; Diane Curran, Washington D.C.-based attorney at the law firm Harmon, Curran, Spielberg + Eisenberg, LLP, for her tireless legal efforts, on behalf of environmental coalitions, such as her victory against the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) bogus Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision, her victory for security upgrades on high-level radioactive waste storage at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in CA, etc.; Kathleen Sullivan, disarmament educator and anti-nuclear activist, for her documentary film "The Ultimate Wish: Ending the Nuclear Age"; Kristen Iversen, for her internationally acclaimed book Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats; and Bobbie Paul, retiring executive director of Georgia Women's Action for New Directions (WAND), and Judith Mohling of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, for the extraordinary activism of not just the past year, but their lifetime achievements.

See ANA's 2013 fact sheets here, which formed the basis for the lobby visits to Capitol Hill and Obama administration agencies such as DOE, NRC, EPA, etc.

Here is another photo of Diane Curran, Sen. Wyden, Kathleen Sullivan, and Kristen Iversen receiving their awards, taken by Tom Clements of FOE in South Carolina. Tom himself won an ANA activist of the year award in 2009, as shown in the DC Days photo from that year posted on ANA's website.

Visit ANA's website to learn more about its critical work on nuclear weapons and nuclear power issues.

Much needed donations to ANA can be made online, or checks can be sent to:

ANA, 

903 W Alameda Street, #505, 
Santa Fe, NM 87501. 
All contributions are tax-deductible.

Article originally appeared on Beyond Nuclear (https://archive.beyondnuclear.org/).
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