2020 Nuclear-Free Future Award winners announced

Russians who risk freedom to oppose nuclear sector rewarded

Fedor Maryasov and Andrey Talevlin, four others, win 2020 Nuclear Free Future Award

Munich, Germany, September 8, 2020—Fedor Maryasov and Andrey Talevlin know how risky it is to oppose the Russian government. Now, with the apparent poisoning of Russian political opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, they have been reminded again. 

However, the pair remain resolute in calling out the dangers posed by the Russian nuclear state, no matter the personal risk. 

Their activities  — Maryasov as a journalist, Talevlin as a lawyer — have led to harassment and being labeled as “extremists” and a “foreign agent.”  

This week they were also finally rewarded for their courage. The pair received the Nuclear Free Future Award in the category of Resistance, chosen by an international jury of activists and scientists.

The Munich-based Nuclear Free Future Foundation holds the awards event each year to honor the largely unsung heroes of the worldwide anti-nuclear movement for the work they do to end both the military and civil use of nuclear energy.

An international jury of activists and scientists selects the winners in the categories of resistance, education and solution. Each of the three prizes comes with $5,000. 

In addition to Maryasov and Talevlin, the 2020 winners are Americans Felice and Jack Cohen-Joppa (pictured above headline) of The Nuclear Resister in Education; and Canadian peace activist and feminist, Ray Acheson, the director of Reaching Critical Will, in the Solution category. An honorary award for Special Recognition goes to Native American activist and New Mexico Democrat, U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland. 

Maryasov has published more than one hundred investigative articles on accidents, leaks, and waste scandals within the Russian nuclear sector.  He made public the secret plans of the state-owned nuclear company Rosatom to build an underground repository for nuclear waste in Zheleznogorsk, a closed nuclear city in Siberia. 

Talevlin has represented Russian NGOs in court on several occasions and, in 2002, on his initiative, the Russian Supreme Court revoked the import permit for 370 tons of nuclear waste from the Pak nuclear power plant in Hungary. Talvelin has organized and participated in non-violent actions against the import and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel at the Mayak reprocessing facility and was arrested several times for these actions.

Since 1980, Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa, under the mantel of their newsletter and charitable organization — The Nuclear Resister — have provided comprehensive reporting on thousands of anti-nuclear activists, and especially those subsequently jailed for their actions. In 1990, they expanded their work to include reporting on anti-war resisters, with the same emphasis on prisoner support. 

“The words of resisters and accounts of their actions do a great deal in encouraging others to strengthen their own commitment,” said Felice Cohen-Joppa. “We remember with gratitude all of the people who have received the NFFA in past years and are honored to join the list of recipients.”

Acheson has been working on the intergovernmental disarmament process since 2005 and was an instrumental voice for feminism in the campaign to secure the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, now nearing the 50 ratifications needed to see it become international law. 

“The Nuclear Free Future Award is meaningful not just in its recognition of the work of individuals around the world, but in honoring the collective and intergenerational spirit of antinuclear activism,” said Acheson on learning of her win. “It’s an honor to be included among those who have resisted the bomb and all of its various violences, and to hopefully pass some of that spirit along to those who will continue this work until nuclear weapons are abolished for all time.” 

A focus of Acheson’s activities and research is on the war economy and the patriarchal and racist structures of war and armed violence. As director of Reaching Critical Will, the disarmament program of the oldest women's peace organization in the world, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, she connects  and strengthens civil society organizations through extensive networking.

Haaland, a Native American from Laguna Pueblo, was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018. She is helping lead efforts in Congress to get the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) expanded to include uranium miners who were working after 1971, as well as the Trinity Downwinders, exposed during the world’s first nuclear test on July 16, 1945 in Haaland’s home state of New Mexico.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nuclear Free Future Award will be presented this year in the form of an online dossier. Detailed information about this year’s and past prizewinners can be found on the NFFA Website. Webinars with the prizewinners will also be offered in the coming months.  

Greenpeace Germany, IPPNW Germany and Beyond Nuclear USA are supporting partners of the 2020 Nuclear Free Future Award.