Nuclear Information & Resource Service

If it hadn't been for the work of Diane D'Arrigo and Mary Olson of NIRS, whose wrote an excellent report on low-level radioactive waste, we would never have known what an extensive problem we have here in Tennessee with nuclear waste.

I have served on the Board of NIRS. I can attest that this organization provides a high-quality robust service to all those concerned about nuclear power. The staff is hard-working, committed and extraordinarily intelligent. Their expertise over the years has provided guidance to activists, regulators, the media and policy-makers. At the time of its inception until now, the organization has seen the fortunes of the nuclear industry rise than ebb and now rise yet again. Through it all, these progressive social activists have steadily marched steadily forward toward a new day when many believe and hope that nuclear energy ceases to play a major part in that mix. 1. NIRS is an effective adviser to other groups and works effectively with other groups, which I know personally being heavily involved with the Government Accountability Project and Hanford Challenge. 2. I have read with interest its reports, monitor, Congressional testimony, and agency public comments. 3. NIRS is frequently quoted in this country and abroad.

I came to NIRS as a community and union organizer. I had spent years working on racial and economic justice issues, but had no previous contact with the activist in the anti nuclear power movement. I heard the phrase NO NUKES and knew about earlier incarnations of Ban the BOMB etc, but in the world of organizing I came from it was a distance echo. I join the board, invited by Mary Olson whom I met through another friend. My first board meetings were difficult because I was in a whole new sector, with its own language, tiers of organizations,

As the ED of a Canadian NGO working on nuclear issues, I found NIRS an invaluable resource. The international link was maintained through WISE in Amsterdam and through the engagement of NGOs anywhere around the world working on nulear issues. The link to Chernobyl has been powerful. When I left Sierra Club of Canada to run for leadership of the Green Party of Canada, I cut ties to every NGO with which I worked -- except NIRS. In domestic terms, it is awkward for NGOs to be associated with a political party. Internationally, working with an NGO makes no sense for a federal political leader in Canada (at least in terms of party strategy.) I continue to work with NIRS as leader of the Green Party of Canada because I believe in the group's work. No other group is doing the steady, solid, credible work of NIRS. In global terms, we are indebted to NIRS.

NIRS is one of those organizations you can't imagine NOT being around, simply because we have come to rely on them taking on the nuclear industry for so long. However, we can't take their work for granted; they deserve our renewed support. Without NIRS' campaigners' historical memory, trusted roots in the anti-nuclear community, and savvy campaigns, people claiming to be solving the climate crisis will bring this bloated, life-annihilating industry back from the dead while robbing clean, safe, renewables of their chance to flourish.

My first major experience with NIRS was back circa 1990 when Diane D'Arrigo lit a fire under me re the implications of the radioactive waste dump then-planned for California. We had already been working with NIRS to stop the BRC (below regulatory concern) program that would have allowed radwaste to be mixed into the scrap metal destined for consumer use. Through Diane, Michael, Mary et al's help and NIRS in general, we were able to mount a sucessful campaign to defeat the nuclear industry plans. NIRS continues to provide in depth information, catalyze action and promote solutions to the daunting and longest lasting environmental hazard, ionizing radiation. They've been consistently professional, thorough and persistent in the face of this extreme challenge. Their work is vital in the U.S. as well as in concert with others globally. We'd have a more radioactive world if it weren't for NIRS.

This nonprofit provides an invaluable service to members of the general public interested in learning more about nuclear energy. Their site is easy to navigate and their science is well-documented. They're the group that I refer people to when I get questions about nuclear power. Keep up the good work.

NIRS plays a key role in providing the public with the information we need to know in the face of tough questions about how to face climate change.

Nuclear Information Resource Service does some of the most vital advocacy and public information work in the country in my opinion. I know of no other organization that keeps top notch information flowing to the public and the media about the complex and confounding issues of nuclear power. The staff members are all absolutely brilliant and have dedicated their lives to the mission of this organization. And the organization accomplishes it's incredibly effective work with a relatively small budget, which is astounding. NIRS has played a large role in stopping several environmentally unjust nuclear projects. Hats off to all who work at NIRS!!!

NIRS provides consistently high quality information and advocacy on complex nuclear power issues. The NIRS staff is tireless in its efforts and assists activists from around the country to address a broad spectrum of uranium fuel cycle issues. NIRS tracks issues in Washington D.C. and alerts activists when necessary to emphasize issues in legislative and regulatory proceedings. NIRS does great work with modest resources.

I continue to be impressed and, indeed, amazed at the caliber and volume of information that NIRS puts out, on a shoestring budget and a skeleton staff. Their education and outreach on the pitfalls of nuclear power is especially critical now -- as nuclear power is gaining ground in unexpected circles. NIRS' Nuclear Monitor, should be required reading for everyone contemplating a nuclear resurgence. Their constant surveillance of the NRC and the industry is a service to everyone concerned about making the industry stand or fall on its own two feet. NIRS deserves far more support than it now receives. I recommend it unhesitatingly.