Dr. Judith H. Johnsrud receives national Sierra Club Award

This quilt Judy is admiring was created by textile artist Margaret Gregg of Virginia, and was given to her on May 4th by the Sierra Club "No Nukes Activist Team" in honor of her 50 years of anti-nuclear leadership. It reads "JUDITH: PROTECTING LIFE FOREVER."Leon Glicenstein, a life-long friend and supporter of Dr. Judith H. Johnsrud, has written an article for the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter's Summer 2012 newsletter The Sylvanian about the national Sierra Club and the Sierra Club "No Nukes Activist Team" recognition ceremony, held May 4th in Takoma Park, Maryland, honoring Judy's half-century of anti-nuclear leadership not only locally, regionally, and nationally, but even globally. Judy is a founding board member of Beyond Nuclear. Included in Leon's article is a partial list of anti-nuclear victories Judy helped win in her home state of Pennsylvania alone. These have included:

The Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor in Meshoppen, PA defeated;

Energy Parks defeated (ten candidate sites: 20,000 megawatts, 10 coal plants an 10 nuclear power reactors);

Quehanna decommissioned: aircraft engine, Penn State reactor;

The Newbold Island Reactor defeated;

Fulton 1 & 2 reactors canceled;

Waltz Mill reactor accident clean-up, decommissioned;

Saxton Experimental reactor decommissioned.

In addition, Judy helped lead interventions against the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, both before and after its meltdown in 1979.

Beyond Nuclear posted a tribute to Judy shortly after the ceremony, which includes more photos of the presentation of her quilt (see photo, left), as well as links to writings by Judy, such as her brief history of the Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, which she founded and led for many decades.