A Proclamation Honoring Janine Allis-Smith and Martin Forwood

This proclamation was delivered on the steps of City Hall by the Mayor of Asheville, NC on September 22, 1998.  It was drafted by us for BREDL's Southern Anti-plutonium Campaign.  Although Martin Forwood and Janine Allis-Smith have returned to Great Britain, our campaign continues.  It serves as a model for others and we encourage activists to bring similar resolutions.

A Proclamation Honoring Janine Allis-Smith and Martin Forwood of Cumbrians Opposing a Radioactive Environment

Whereas, throughout the administrations of Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush, the policy of the Federal Government banned the use of plutonium in commercial nuclear power plants due to the risk that the plutonium could be diverted to terrorists and to nations that have not renounced the use of nuclear weapons, and

Whereas, the federal government has announced that it will reprocess plutonium from weapons with uranium to produce mixed oxide fuel for commercial nuclear power plants, and

Whereas, the production of mixed oxide fuel will result in enormous new quantities of radioactive wastes that will present significant additional disposal problems and unknown costs, and

Whereas, Savannah River Site is the primary candidate for a production site to reprocess mixed oxide fuel, and

Whereas, the people of the City of Asheville and western North Carolina would suffer additional radiation exposure from the transport of plutonium on Interstate 40 from western states to South Carolina’s Savannah River Site, and

Whereas, a radiation release caused by a plutonium transportation accident or sabotage could have devastating consequences for the City of Asheville and western North Carolina, and

Whereas, Janine Allis-Smith and Martin Forwood have demonstrated an unswerving dedication to the education of the people of the world about the terrible consequences of plutonium reprocessing on their town, home and family, and

Whereas, today Janine Allis-Smith and Martin Forwood are here in the City of Asheville on their worldwide educational campaign,

Therefore, I officially welcome Janine Allis-Smith and Martin Forwood to Asheville and the Land-Of-Sky, and

I Proclaim, that the City of Asheville supports the goals of nuclear non-proliferation and opposes the reprocessing of plutonium into nuclear fuel at Savannah River, and

Furthermore be it known, that we request that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Energy continue their previous policy of banning the use of plutonium to fuel commercial nuclear power plants.