Plutonium Free Future and
The Plutonium Free Future Women’s Network
(Rainbow Serpent)

Who we are:

Plutonium Free Future (PFF) is a grassroots organization founded and staffed by US. and Japanese citizens concerned about the international security and environmental impacts of the growing plutonium energy economy in Japan and Asia. The Plutonium Free Future Women’s Network (aka Rainbow Serpent) is the sibling organization to PFF and is an international network formed to support women in Japan fighting locally against the construction of new plutonium-related facilities in the rural community of Rokkasho, women fighting the Monju Fast Breeder Reactor and Plutonium Shipments. Rainbow Serpent also works locally on campaigns to support women fighting against new uranium mines connected to the Japanese nuclear expansion and internationally on an anti-proliferation and safe energy agenda for the Fourth World Women’s Congress to be held in Beijing in 1995. PFF and Rainbow Serpent work jointly to achieve an end to the production, use and transportation of plutonium, and to achieve a global shift to clean and renewable energy production as a means to end the threat of nuclear proliferation. We also support campaigns for abolition of the use of nuclear weapons through comprehensive nuclear disarmament proposals and the CTBT.

Project Summary
“Non-Proliferation Action Network / Rokkasho/Monju Media Campaign”

In late February or early March 1995, the second “Plutonium Boat” will leave France for Japan. This shipment, headed for the small Northern Honshu villages of Rokkasho, will be carrying glassified high level nuclear waste that was created as a by-product of the reprocessing of Japan’s spent reactor fuel into Plutonium. This shipment, one of 100 that are planned, will travel around the globe, most likely passing through the Panama Canal, before arriving in Japan in mid-late April 1995. Once it arrives in Japan, it is to be stored at a High Level Nuclear Waste Facility that is one of four nuclear facilities under development near the six-village area known as “Rokkasho.”

In spite of major initial resistance on the part of the Rokkasho community (100,000 demonstrated against the project and a lawsuit has been filed against each of the four nuclear facilities) and in spite of increasing international opposition to Japan’s plutonium energy program, plans for completing the plutonium reprocessing plant are continuing unchecked.

We intend to use global concern about the proliferation and environmental risks posed by this second nuclear shipment to raise opposition to Japan’s continuing plutonium program.

The two objectives of our campaign will be to:

1) support the local opposition in Japan by creating an international “Non-Proliferation Action Network.”
The Network will campaign to stop Rokkasho with an international letter writing and media campaign targeted at policy makers who are responsible for the continuation of Japan’s plutonium program. The network will support the local anti-nuclear movement from Rokkasho composed of farmers, fishermen and women, labor unions and others to create awareness of this issue which is largely unknown outside of Northern Japan by organizing speaking tours across the US and Europe of women from the Women’s Peace Camp in Rokkasho, including visits to policy makers and media representatives

2) create a media kit on Japan’s plutonium for distribution to US, European and Japanese Press to include background information, policy alternatives to plutonium production, discussion of proliferation risks through the connection between plutonium power and proliferation, profiles of key organizations and individuals in Japan and around the world opposed to the plutonium energy program, history of the local fight against the nuclear facilities in Rokkasho and the women’s peace camp community that has been leading the opposition, op eds, etc.

Plutonium Free Future and the Plutonium Free Future Women’s Network are uniquely able to carry out this campaign. We are the only bilingual, bicultural Japanese/US peace and environmental organization based in the US working on this issue. We have taken two delegations of US-based Japanese and American activists to Rokkasho, and have brought key citizen activists from Rokkasho to the US to meet with representatives of peace and environmental organizations based in the US and in the Pacific Islands that can support their work. Thus, we have a strong working relationship with the local community upon which to build the international campaign. We have an international network of over 200 NGO’s that supported the Petition of Objection to the Japanese Government that we filed against the plutonium shipment in 1993 and we have extensive contacts in the European environmental and peace movements, uniquely abling us to organize a speaking and lobbying tour of Europe for the Rokkasho activists. We work closely with the Citizens Nuclear Information Center, the Citizens Campaign Against the Fast Breeder Reactor (Monju) and Greenpeace International to coordinate our international efforts on this issue.

Some Background on
The Rokkasho Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facility

The Rokkasho Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facility (NFCF) is “one-stop shopping” for a new round of plutonium production in Japan. It consists of four projects:

1. Plutonium Reprocessing Facility (under construction)
This facility, when complete, will enable Japan to reprocess its own spent fuel into plutonium fuel for its fast breeder reactor program, adding even more plutonium to the stockpiles Japan has already created by means of reprocessing in Europe.

2. High Level Nuclear Waste Facility (opening April 1995.)
This facility is to receive the high level nuclear waste that was created as a by-product of the European re-processing of Japan’s spent fuel into plutonium. One hundred shipments of this waste are eventually due here for “temporary” storage, no permanent storage site has been found.

3. Uranium Enrichment Facility (1 completed, 2nd under construction)

These facilities allow for Japan to enrich its own uranium into reactor fuel to be used in its non-plutonium reactors. This fuel would then return to Rokkasho for reprocessing into plutonium after its first life span is finished.

4. Low Level Waste Facility (completed)
This facility is currently receiving low-level nuclear waste from Japan’s domestic reactors. The site itself is surrounded by low elevation coastal marshes, wetlands and dairy farming
communities, causing great concern about potential contamination from seepage into the water tables.

Plutonium Free Future and
The Plutonium Free Future Women’s Network
(Rainbow Serpent)

BACKGROUND

Plutonium Free Future (PFF) was originally formed to oppose the Japanese government’s plutonium energy development program. Emphasizing the threat plutonium posed to the global environment, and the fear of illegal diversion of plutonium “energy” stockpiles to nuclear weapons fabrication, we became active organizers of and key participants in the International Campaign Against the Plutonium Shipment [from France to Japan] in 1992. This campaign, raised strong criticism against Japan’s plutonium program worldwide, which led 43 nations to ban the plutonium carrier boat from their territorial waters. Japan has been forced to put the further shipments on hold and radically curve down its future plutonium course. (Please see “Achievements” section.)

We were able to provide a unique and effective contribution to the international campaign due to the participation of well-known artists, writers, international attorneys and energy experts who joined the core group of our organization.

As a result of our first effort, we recognized that plutonium shipments will not stop unless Japan and indeed, the world community radically rethink their energy policies and shift to a safe, renewable energy path as proposed in the Stockholm Environment Institute Report “Towards a Fossil Free Energy Future” (April 1993). It is also imperative that European countries stop reprocessing Japan’s nuclear waste into plutonium fuel and that US. and other countries stop mining, enriching and selling uranium to Japan and other countries, thus continuing the cycle of a costly and dangerous energy source in other regions after it has all but failed in the West.

Recognizing the importance of women’s role in global change and their documented opposition to nuclear power and weapons (as reported in polling data), Rainbow Serpent-The Plutonium Free Future Women’s Network was founded by artist and then Plutonium Free Future Director Mayumi Oda and environmental educator and activist Claire Greensfelder in the summer of 1993. Many of the front-line battles against nuclear development in Japan and around the world are being fought by women, sometimes under extremely difficult conditions, including lack of financial and technical resources, lack of support , and often, isolation and marginalization within their own communities. Rainbow Serpent was formed to connect these women together with environmental activists, resource people and policy makers to galvanize a global lobbying and political force for renewable energy implementation and an end to nuclear power production.

1994 has been a critical year for opponents to plutonium proliferation. The difficulty managing the excess plutonium from dismantled warheads in US. and Russia, the plutonium smuggling from Russia to Europe or the suspected nuclear armament of North Korea has made frightening headline articles in the international media. But not much information appeared about Japan’s full speed plutonium program. In Rokkasho village of Aomori prefecture in Japan, one of the world’s biggest nuclear fuel complexes is proceeding rapidly towards completion. The facility includes what will be the world’s biggest plutonium reprocessing plant. In April, 1994, Monju, a new prototype fast breeder reactor went into operation on Japan’s Tsuruga coastline. Moreover, on September 8, Greenpeace issued a report that stated that the US. Department of Energy has been transferring nuclear energy technology with weapons-production capabilities to Japan.

It now appears that Japan and the Asian region, in collaboration with Western corporations, may be indirectly celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by launching a whole new era of costly and dangerous nuclear production.

We deeply regret that our warning about the link between Japan’s plutonium program for energy production and weapons proliferation risk has become a reality. We are strongly convinced that the next two years offers the only chance to stop the spread of plutonium all over the world.
It is doubly regrettable since we believe that the use of plutonium for energy production is absolutely unnecessary given the options for renewable energy development that are, at this time, being overlooked.

And, with Japan’s regional and global leadership to continue nuclear energy use, we are now seeing other countries join the nuclear club – Taiwan is proceeding with construction of a new reactor, in spite of massive public demonstrations against it. Armenia is considering restarting a reactor previously shut down by national vote. Indonesia just decided to order its first nuclear reactor, and South Africa’s new energy minister (from the National Party) is considering two reactors, in spite of the African National Congress Party policy of opposition to further construction.

In early 1995, Cogema of France is planning to ship high level radioactive waste to Japan. The route most likely will be through Panama Canal. This is the first case of shipment of such high level waste. Twenty-eight vitrified glass rods placed in a 27” thick stainless steel cask containing radiation equivalent to a one million K/W nuclear power plant will travel over the high seas for about two months. This poses serious dangers to the world citizens and environment.

And, the uranium mining industry, at one point considered all but gone, is gearing back up again in Canada, the US and Australia. New mines are proposed on indigenous lands in all three countries, including some sacred sites.

As a bilingual and bicultural organization and a diverse, multi-cultural and multi-talented international women’s net work, we believe are specially suited to the task of raising international awareness on these issues. Knowing that Japanese and indeed, other countries’ policy makers are far more sensitive to outside criticism compared to their own citizens’ voices, we can make an enormous contribution by organizing an international network to halt Japan’s dangerous plutonium program and to prevent the nuclear power race in Asia.

ACTION PLAN – 1994 / 1995
Campaign Goal: Stopping the Spread of Plutonium

I. Stop Rokkasho/Monju

Work closely with Japanese organizations and local activists in Japan and organize international coalition to demand a moratorium on Japan’s plutonium program. Japan’s dangerous program includes the operation of Monju, a new fast breeder reactor, Rokkasho Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facility (NFCF), including the world’s biggest scale reprocessing plant in construction, the construction plan of RETF (Recycle Equipment Test Facility) which produces weapons grade plutonium. According to Greenpeace report, this facility is related to the US. DOE’s providing nuclear weapon technology to Japan.

• Organize a “Non-Proliferation Action Network” to work in the media and with
international NGO’s to protest the continuation of Japan’s plutonium program.
We will use the shipment of high level nuclear waste from France to Japan during
as an organizing focus during the first half of 1995.

• Produce and distribute a media background kit on Japan’s Plutonium Program
and proliferation risks.

• Produce and distribute a slide-tape package, “Rokkasho” by Kei Shimada to inform
the public and opinion makers about Japan’s plutonium program. Kei Shimada is a Japanese documentary photographer who has been living in Rokkasho for 5 years. The slides feature the development of the NFCF and the local community’s struggle to stop
it with a special focus on farmers, fisher people and a women’s peace camp.

• “One Million Who Say No to Monju” – Join with Japan’s Citizen’s Coalition Against the Plutonium Program to collect one million signatures internationally calling for the Monju Fast Breeder Plutonium Reactor to be shut down. 70 thousand signatures have been collected to date.

• Initiate a letter writing campaign to Japanese and US. policy makers calling for an
end to any transfer of technology that furthers plutonium energy or weapons
development anywhere in the world, but especially new markets in Asia and Eastern Europe.

II. Cancel all Oceanic Shipments of Plutonium and Plutonium Waste

Work with Japanese organizations and local activists in Japan and the international coalition to cancel planned oceanic shipments of high level nuclear waste from Europe to Rokkasho in 1995.

• As part of the effort to stop the shipment a Japan – France – Panama campaign tour will be organized. Local activists from Rokkasho and PFF and Rainbow Serpent staff will travel to France, UK, Germany, Panama and the en-route countries of HLW shipment to organize the citizen’s network to oppose the shipment.

• A campaign to contact the embassies and media of the nations along the potential shipment routes will start in November 1994 and will be intensified in late February / early March 1995, when the first shipment of the high-level wastes—a product of plutonium separation—is scheduled to be transported from France to Japan.
• We will pressure for cancellation of reprocessing contracts between the Japanese electric companies, COGEMA of France and Nuclear Fuels, LTD of the UnitedKingdom. Concurrently, we will work in international fora to negotiate an international ban on nuclear fuel reprocessing and all transportation of spent fuel, plutonium and radioactive waste.

III. Develop support for our campaigns from women policy leaders and grassroots activists by means of an international women’s network

• Develop a policy agenda among women leaders in government and the non-governmental community that calls for development and funding of renewable energy resources. In particular, lobby government delegates at the preparatory committees
for the 4th World Conference on Women sponsored by the United Nations.
Educate governments and NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) on
the environmental and proliferation risks posed by nuclear (especially plutonium) energy production, and the potential of renewable energy sources to rend those risks unnecessary

IV. United States / Japan Information Exchange

• Provide information to Japanese policy makers and citizens concerning plutonium
production in Japan and renewable energy alternatives. Japan’s citizens and
leaders have access to shockingly little information on these issues although living in the midst of a high information technology society.

• Continue working with the Tokyo-based magazine Ningen Kazoku (Human Family) to produce the “Plutonium Free Future” series. (Please see “Achievements” section.)

• Issue fact sheets, to be used for press materials and action alerts in Japanese, English, French and Spanish for use in Japan, the US, the UK, the Pacific Islands (along the high level waste shipping routes) France and Panama. This will prepare us to communicate more effectively with media and mobilize timely public actions to oppose the continued shipments of plutonium and plutonium waste.

V. Continue to spread the “Resolution for a Plutonium Free World,”
and the “Women’s Call and Seven Commitments for A Plutonium Free Future.”
The resolution initiated by PFF and the Berkeley City Council, and now being distributed worldwide is being offered as a tool for nations, cities, and non-governmental organizations to establish policies and objectives for banning plutonium production, use, and overseas transport. The “Women’s Call” is a comprehensive call for a plutonium-free world and invites women to endorse its visionary statement and to take “Seven Commitments” to bring a renewable energy future with global peace to reality.

VI. The “Rainbow Serpent Uranium Report”
• Working with uranium activists from Australia, Canada, the US and numerous indigenous nations, publish the “Rainbow Serpent Uranium Report” on the current state of uranium mining and its connection to increased nuclear power production in Asia and Eastern Europe.

The report will trace the dangerous life cycle of plutonium, from uranium ore to yellowcake to reactor fuel to reprocessing to plutonium fuel and plutonium waste.

VII. Campaign for safe, clean renewable energy production.

• Publish and distribute our —”Handbook for A Plutonium Free Future”, written by Nora Akino, editorial staff of PFF and RS and beautifully illustrated by PFF & RS founder Mayumi Oda with planned January 1995 publication. Articles are being contributed by Tyrone Cashman, Bill Keepin, Amory Lovins and other energy experts.
• Translate into Japanese the latest popular materials on renewable energy development (e.g. Amory Lovin’s speech at the Plutonium Free World Town Hall Meeting) and distribute materials in Japan, to educate policy makers and citizens
• Participate in the California coalition (together with Greenpeace and the Campaign for Energy Efficient and Renewable Technologies (CEERT)) to prevent California’s energy policy change to a “retail wheeling” system that is threatening the end of its pioneering renewable energy and conservation and efficiency programs.

VIII. 1995: Plutonium Free Future and Rainbow Serpent Speak
out on the 50th anniversary of the nuclear age in the Media

• We will use op-ed’s, paid advertising, syndicated radio shows
(both live interviews and our own productions e.g.: Women for a Plutonium Free Future, – a series of interviews with five women of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds who participated in the Rainbow Serpent Inaugural Retreat in February, 1994) recorded at KPFA Radio in September 1994, and rebroadcast a number of times in California) ), film and video showings, slide-tape productions, press events, demonstrations, expert report releases, etc. to draw attention to the 50th anniversary
of the nuclear age and our agenda to end all plutonium production and to implement a safe, clean and renewable global energy policy.

IX. Fundraising

• We reach our financial goals through a variety of means:grassroots events, sales of fine art (donated by our founder,
Mayumi Oda, and others), foundation proposals, major donor circles, and newsletter subscriptions. In 1995, we
plan to begin a membership program to increase grassroots revenue and action participation and coordination.

CONCLUSION

We have and will work effectively to present imaginative programs for bringing about changes in the public mind and government policies on plutonium-related peace and environmental issues in 1995. We believe that changing Japan’s energy policy will affect all of Asia, which is vital for achieving a sustainable society in the world. We believe that organizing women on these issues will dramatically and rapidly move our agenda forward. We will continue to collaborate with peace and environmental organizations throughout the world. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Plutonium Free Future and Rainbow Serpent
The Plutonium Free Future Women’s Network

Accomplishments to Date – February 1992 to October 1994

Japanese Policy Reform

• The Japanese government has put on hold its planned second and future shipments of plutonium from Europe, after its first shipment in 1992 received severe international criticism. PFF organized the campaign to oppose the shipment in collaboration with Greenpeace International, Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center (Tokyo), Nuclear Control Institute (Washington, DC.) and other organizations throughout the world.
• The Japanese government has virtually canceled (by postponing for 30 years) the next phase of multi-billion-dollar civilian plutonium projects, including the development of its second fast breeder reactor and the construction of the second reprocessing plant. The New York Times of February 22, 1994. describes the cancellation as “bowing to the international pressure.” The international campaign against the shipment was instrumental in bringing about this dramatic change in Japan’s national policy. Responding to information disseminated by the coalition of non-governmental organizations, 43 nations banned the plutonium carrier Akatsuki Maru from their territorial waters.

International Municipal Initiatives

• The City Council of Berkeley, the birthplace of plutonium, passed a Resolution for a Plutonium-Free World (proposed by PFF) on February 23, 1993. Three European cities have passed similar resolutions, and the resolution has been endorsed by organizations from 15 countries, including Nuclear Free Local Authorities International Secretariat Committee in UK. and Nuclear Free America in the US.
• The first Plutonium-Free Day was designated by the City Council of Berkeley at the Global Town Meeting for Sustainable Energy and a Plutonium-Free World on February 23, 1994. The Town Meeting—sponsored by the City Council, PFF and RS, and attended by over 500 people—presented testimony by experts and activists from around the world.

Legal Action

• The petition of objection against the shipment of plutonium from France to Japan, filed in September 1992 by PFF and Rainbow Serpent Japan, was an unprecedented legal action taken against the Japanese government. 2,267 individuals and organizations from 52 countries participated in this action. The signatories include major global environmental groups as well as President Bernard Dowiyogo of the Republic of Nauru and Takeo Ohashi, Japan’s former Minister of Environment. Julian Gresser, co-author of The Environmental Law of Japan, was our general counsel, and eight Japanese lawyers performed the filing. As a result of the petition, the government held a hearing on this matter on December 14, 1992.

Lobbying Policy Makers

• In September, 1994, working in coalition, PFF translated into Japanese a Greenpeace Release on US. DOE’s transferring nuclear weapon technology to Japan, and sent it to 35 Cabinet and Diet members of Japan along with personally- addressed letters .

• Throughout 1993 and 1994, PFF and RS worked regularly with Greenpeace International, the Nuclear Control Institute, the Citizens Campaign Against the Fast Breeder Reactor, and others to initiate letter writing campaigns to the Japanese and US Governments calling for specific policy changes on plutonium-related issues. We informed our network of 3000 individuals in the US and nearly one-hundred organizations and governments in countries other than the US and Japan of changing conditions and provided them with action alerts through our newsletter and regular mailings.

• Representatives of PFF and RS met in November, 1993 with two cabinet
members: Japan’s Environment Minister Waka Hironaka and Science and Technology Minister Satsuki Eda to present our positions opposing the civilian plutonium projects and continued uranium mining to provide fuel for Japan’s 47 nuclear reactors.
• RS Director on behalf of RS and PFF met with US Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary in July, 1993 and presented our proposal for sustainable energy development .
• Participated in NGO Caucus and “Expert Advisory Group on Environment and Development” at the First Preparatory Committee Meeting (Prep Comm) of the UN Fourth World Women’s Congress in New York City (March 7-1, 1994). Drafted and lobbied resolution on “Sustainable Development and the Global Ecological Crisis” calling for radioactive and toxic pollution prevention endorsed by over 100 NGO’s from 67 countries and introduced to the plenary by Papua New Guinea and co-sponsored by six other nations including the Federated States of Micronesia, The Ukraine, Belarus and the Solomon Islands.

• Working with Greenpeace and the Campaign for Energy Efficient and Renewable Technologies, one dozen PFF and RS staff and volunteers gave testimony at three hearings of the California Public Utility Commission in California in September, 1994. Policy Advisor Tyrone Cashman wrote a “white paper” on the dangers in the proposed changes to “retail wheeling” of utilities and PFF/RS distributed this to 2000 of our supporters in California and around the country. PFF and RS organized an “Activist Briefing” with experts speaking to background on the issues attended by 50 individuals in San Francisco in the late afternoon prior to the public hearing that evening.

Coalition Building and Collaboration

• Plutonium Free Future and Rainbow Serpent sent representatives to:
– Earth Summit: Global Forum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 1992
– The World Uranium Hearing, Salzburg, Austria, September 1992
– International Conference on the Final Disposal of High Level Nuclear Waste, Lower Saxony, Germany, November 1993
– Rainbow Serpent International Gathering, Tokyo, Japan November 1993
– No Nuke Asia Forum, Hiroshima, Japan, June 1994
– Aomori Symposium, Rokkasho, Japan, June 1994
– 4th World Conference on Women First Preparatory Committee
United Nations, New York, March, 1994
– Indigenous Environmental Network Annual Gathering
Mole Lake, Wisconsin, June 1994
– Economic Commission for Europe Regional Preparatory
Committee for the 4th World Conference on Women
Vienna, Austria, October 1994

• PFF co-sponsored “New Contexts, New Dangers: Preventing Nuclear War in the Post-Cold War Age,” a national conference, organized in October 1993 by the American Friends Service Committee in Cambridge, MA.
•The Global Town Meeting of February 1994—sponsored by Berkeley City Council, Plutonium Free Future and Rainbow Serpent —was co-sponsored by 46 local organizations and supported by 26 Bay Area businesses.
• PFF and Rainbow Serpent are on the Steering Committee for preparation of the International Citizens’ Assembly for a Weapon Free World which will be held in New York in April 1995. Rainbow Serpent is on the Executive Committee.
• PFF is taking part in the preparation of “Latent August,” a touring art exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombings.
• The Director of Rainbow Serpent is a member of the East Bay Reinvestment and Conversion Commission, appointed to represent the “Peace Constituency” in the Bay Area as Military Base conversion proceeds.
• The Director of Rainbow Serpent is also serving as an “Expert Advisor on Environment and Development” for the 4th World Conference on Women of the UN (appointed by the Women’s Environment and Development Organization)
• Organized a 3-day strategy meeting in Northern California, which was attended by two-dozen women from Japan, Pacific Island Nations, Indigenous Nations, Asian-American and African-American environmental activists, and energy and disarmament organizers from national and international organizations to build bonds of friendship and communication, strategize our campaigns, and launch our network.(February 19-21,1994)

Media/Outreach

• In August 1994, we published the 25th issue of “Plutonium Free Future,” a monthly series of feature articles in a Japanese environmental magazine, Ningen Kazoku (Human Family), based in Tokyo. To date it is the longest-lasting forum in the Japanese media dedicated to questioning Japan’s plutonium policy. Ningen Kazoku and PFF are committed to airing these issues through 1995.
• PFF translated “The Nuclear Arming of Japan,” an article by the physicist Atsushi Tsuchida which warns of the military potential of Japan’s civilian plutonium programs. This highly acclaimed article was published in 1994 by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, CA.
• We provided funding for the completion of the English version of the videos “Rokkasho” (1993) and “Pluto’s Fire” (1994), directed by Kiyoshi Miyata and produced by Masanori Oba.
• Rainbow Serpent organized a demonstration at the US Department of Energy in support of Secretary Hazel O’Leary’s decision to extend the nuclear testing moratorium which resulted in wide media attention and RS being invited to meet with O’Leary at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (July 1993)

• Rainbow Serpent conducted a research and speaking tour of the Southwest, meeting with indigenous activists and health experts to seek advice and input (Sept 1993)

• Rainbow Serpent conducted a 10-day speaking, fact finding and organizing tour of Japan’s nuclear facilities with Mayumi Oda, Claire Greensfelder and indigenous uranium mining activist Esther Yazzie (Din?) in honor of the International Year of Indigenous People. Met with grassroots activists and environmental lawyers in Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, Monju, and Rokkasho as well as with two Japanese cabinet members (Environment, Science and Technology) and members of the Diet in Tokyo. Numerous press conferences were held, interviews given and articles published (November 1993)

• Held press briefings in Aomori Prefecture government offices, at a blockade action at the first shipment of enriched Uranium from Rokkasho and at Niji-no-Hebi (Rainbow Serpent Japan)’s first anniversary meeting in Tokyo. (November 1993)

• Collaborated in the creation of a 4 part radio series entitled “Women for A Plutonium Free Future” (produced by RS volunteers Penny Rosenwasser and Margaret Pavel) that ran on KPFA (Pacifica) Radio in September, 1994.

• Organized a “Sayonara Pluto Boy” demonstration at the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco in protest of a children’s cartoon being used in Japan to promote plutonium energy development (February 22,1993)

Key Personnel

Fusako Kawai de Angelis / Director, Plutonium Free Future
Political Activist in Japan and US since sixties when she was an art student in Tokyo. Lived in US since 1972. Co-founder of PFF and of KAI, a peace study/discussion/action group of Japanese residents of the San Francisco Bay Area; Editor of “Chikyu Sen”, a Japanese language magazine on peace and environmental issues. Editor of “Earth Ship”, PFF/RS newsletter. Former small business owner, writer, artist, well-known Bay-Area Japanese Community organizer. Fluent, Japanese and English.

Claire B. Greensfelder / Director, The Plutonium Free Future Women’s Network (Rainbow Serpent)
Co-founder Rainbow Serpent (with Mayumi Oda), 25 years peace and
environmental activist, served as campaigner/consultant to 40+ organizations and political campaigns, member, Expert Advisory Group on Environment and Development to the UN 4th World Women’s Conference to be held in Beijing, China in 1995, Appointed to East Bay Reinvestment and Conversion Commission in 1994, former Consultant to & Director, Greenpeace USA Nuclear Campaigns (1990-93) former radio and print journalist, former Outreach Director, Californians for a Bilateral Nuclear Weapons Freeze, conversant in French and Spanish (learning Russian & Japanese).

Kazuaki Tanahashi / International Campaign Liaison
Japanese/US Information Exchange Coordinator
Writer, artist, educator, peace and environmental worker, born and trained in Japan. Author of “Brush Mind” and “Penetrating Laughter.” Translator into English of “Aikido” (by Morihei Ueshiba, “Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen”, and into Japanese: “Being Peace” and “Heart of Understanding” by Thich Nhat Hahn. Founder and faculty member of The American School of Japanese Arts. Co-founder, “Washington Peace Message Project,” 1990-91; “Prophets Without Names,” 1990; Nuclear Study Group, 1980. Fellow of World Academy of Art and Science.

Angela Gennino / Researcher/Writer
Bay Area-based freelance investigative journalist and writer focusing on issues relating to the environment and Asia. Former associate editor, “Not Man Apart” Friends of the Earth Newsletter, clients have included International Rivers Network, Rainforest Action Network and Earth Island Institute.

Yoruba Richen / Campaign Assistant
Recent graduate (June ‘94) of Brown University, active in local organizing in New York City and at Brown. Currently focusing on environmental justice and health campaigns affecting women and people of color.

Frank W. Harris / Organizational and Development Consultant (volunteer)
Former Executive Director (24 years) of community planning councils in New Haven, CT, Detroit, MI and Southeast Pennsylvania. Has served as consultant to the Ford Foundation, Stern Family Fund, and United Way of America. Former Board Member, Northern California Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign.

Wendy Oser / Data Base Manager
Editor of Nuclear Guardianship Forum, Wendy shares office space with
PFF/RS and handles our data base management as a volunteer in 1994, will come on
staff part-time 1995.

INOCHI Board of Directors

Mayumi Oda / Founder, and Former Director Plutonium Free Future
Internationally recognized artist with works in major museum collections; activist; board member, Rainbow Art Foundation, Vermont; Fellow, Lindis Fern Institute.

Masayo Baillet
Community peace activist, from Japan, resides in Berkeley, Member of “Kai” study group

Lizbeth Hasse, Esq.
International media attorney working on intellectual property rights with offices in US, Russia and France, media producer and activist on peace and environmental issues.

Taigen Dan Leighton
Zen Buddhist teacher and scholar, former journalist with Bill Moyers Journal, longtime peace activist, resides at Green Gulch Zen Center.

Melinda Micco, PhD, Professor of Ethnic Studies
Native American activist, teaches at Mills College, Oakland, CA

Kenji Muro
Filmmaker and journalist, based in Tokyo and Berkeley. Former editor of “Shiso no Kagaku” (Science of Thought).

Penny Opal Plant
Native American activist, owner Gathering Tribes and Tribes Gallery stores selling Native American arts and crafts, former coordinator San Jose Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign

Enid Schreibman
Owner, Schreibman Properties, former Board Member, the Center for Citizen Initiatives, active in US-former USSR nuclear issues, former Peace Corps trainer for business development, Uzbekistan.

Plutonium Free Future Advisory Board:

Tyrone Cashman, Director
Solar Economy Institute, USA
Bill Keepin
Nuclear physicist, consultant, USA
Paul Leventhal, President
Nuclear Control Institute, USA
Fran Macy
Center for Citizens Initiatives, USA
Joanna Macy
Nuclear Guardianship Project, USA
Charles Schwartz, Professor Emeritus
Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, USA
Aileen Mioko Smith, Director
Citizens’ Coalition Against the
Plutonium Fast-Breeder Program, Japan
Kiyoshi Miyata / Film & Video Director
Award-winning film director of “Hopi Prophecy” and
“Rokkasho: 1991 Uranium Forum;” longtime anti-nuclear activist.
Lee Swenson, Director
Institute for the Study of Natural and Cultural Resources, USA
Jinzaburo Takagi, Executive Director
Citizens Nuclear Information Center, Japan

Plutonium Free Future Women’s Network
Key Colleagues (partial list – November 1994)
Bella Abzug, Co-Chair
Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) – New York, NY

Agnès Bertrand,
Ecoropa – Paris, France

Nilak Butler, Coordinator
Indigenous Lands Nuclear Campaign – Greenpeace USA – San Francisco, CA

Patricia Ellsberg, Peace Activist
Washington, D.C.

Sebia Hawkins, Director
Pacific Campaign, Greenpeace International – Washington, DC, New Zealand & Fiji

Rebecca Johnson, Coordinator
Acronym Coalition on NPT, Geneva, Switzerland

Keiko Kikukawa, Coordinator
“Barn Project” center to support local activists, Rokkasho, Japan

Yumi Kikuchi
Founder, Rainbow Serpent Japan, Tokyo, Japan & Hong Kong

Ruth Lechte, Director
Energy & Environment Program World YWCA, Fiji

Mildred Mc Clain, Director
Citizens for Environmental Justice, Savannah, Georgia

Satomi Oba, Coordinator
Plutonium Action Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan

Wako Ono, Grassroots Activist
Women’s Peace Camp – Rokkasho & Hokkaido, Japan

Penny Rosenwasser, Radio Producer
Pacifica Radio, Berkeley, CA

Kei Shimada, Photojournalist
Active member of Campaign to Stop Rokkasho, Rokkasho, Japan

Caroline Sinavaiana, Director
Ecological Society of American Samoa, Pago Pago, Samoa

Aileen Mioko Smith, Director
Citizens Campaign Against the Fast Breeder Reactor, Kyoto, Japan

Setsuko Sumino, Coordinator
Global Forum 2000, Coalition of Japanese NGO’s, Tokyo, Japan

Sue Tibbels, Coordinator
Beijing Forum ‘95, Former Campaigner,
Women’s Environmental Network, London, UK

Christina Von Weisacker, Author
Biologist, technology critic, longtime anti-plutonium campaigner, Bonn, Germany

Esther Yazzie, Navajo Federal Court Interpreter
Activist with Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum, Women’s and Youth Issues, Window Rock, AZ and Albuquerque, NM