WILPF Geneva International Women's Day Seminar

The Womens International League for Peace and Freedom held a Seminar that
focused on Depleted Uranium and on the Fissile Materials Ban Treaty at the
United Nations in Geneva on March 8, 2006.

The Summit was attended by WILPF members from at least 15 countries as well as several diplomats from
various countries. We were welcomed by Alex Sundberg from the WILPF Geneva
Office. Alex served as facilitator and introduced the speakers.

The morning began with an excellent presentation by Susi Snyder, WILPF
International Director. Susi began by reminding us that a Fissile
Materials Ban is step III in the agreement from the 2000 NPT Review
Conference as a part of the 13 steps toward nuclear disarmament. She then
gave us the ABCs of Uranium.... the difference between naturally occuring
Uranium and that which is mined for both Commericial and Weapons grades.
This background is important to understand the distinctions as we listen
to Governments discuss nuclear developments internationally. She spoke of
Uranium 235 (bombs) and 239 (commerial). Next Susi explained the mining
processes and the dangers from the mining of Uranium. Given that the Bush
administration is now selling nuclear power as the "cure" for our oil
addiction, it was good to be reminded that uranium mining and production
is dangerous and in fact is not sustainable..... the waste from mining has
a half life of 4.5 BILLION years! In addition, most mining and processing
is being done on indigenous lands, another continuation of disreagard for
native peoples and the environment.

Following this was a description of the techniques for nuclear processing
to get highly enriched uranium. Susi explained gaseous diffusion,
electormagnietic isotope separation and Jet Nozzle processes. During each
description we were reminded that it is highly chemically toxic as well as
radioactive. All of the processes generate waste which is what Depleted
Uranium is..... the waste from processing.

After Susi educated us about how Depleted Uranium is created, Rae Street,
from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK) talked about their efforts
to ban depleted uranium. She spoke of efforts to develop good research on
the affects of Depleted Uranium in Iraq, in particular 2 studies being
done with Iraqi doctors and the assistance of the Japanese government. One
on epidemiology and the other, The Tooth Project. Like was done in the US
during the 60s, there is an effort to collect childrens teeth to measure
uranium levels and gather independent reliable research on the impact of
depleted uranium from both the first and second invasions into Iraq.

After Susi and Rae`s presentations, there were lively questions and discussion.
After lunch, Jennifer Nordstom from the Reaching Critical Will Project
spoke on efforts for the Fissile Materials Ban Treaty at the UN in New
York. She explained some of the difficulties, with Nuclear Weapons States
not wanting current stockpiles to be a part of the treaty and other states
arguing they should be, as this is a step to nuclear disarmament. The US
in particular has concerns over verification, as this would open the US up
to the same scrutiny of inspection that non-nuclear states already
experience. The US say this will jeapordize its national security. Thus
our challenge is on pushing our government to support the Fissile
Materials Ban and honor its obligations under the NPT.

The rest of the afternoon was spent discussing what we as NGOs can do.
There have been governmental efforts to ban Depleted Uranium.... the
European Union passed a resolution for a moratorium on Depleted Uranium
production with a view toward a total ban. In addition, there are member
states of the United Nations who are sympathetic and who share a genuine
desire for nuclear disarmament. Once again, this time from the Pakistani
Representative, I heard how valuable the Reaching Critical Will Project
and WILPF are crucial to gaining deep understanding and knoweledge of the
issues surrounding nuclear disarmament. All of the member states
representatives thanked WILPF for the event and shared their appreciation
of our efforts toward Peace.

I left the seminar appreciating our UN Staff, both in Geneva and New York
for all of their brilliant work, thinking, efforts and ability to
translate what can be techinical, difficult into understandable and
interesting. This motivates me to keep up our efforts, know that we are
not alone and indeed, much of the world shares our vision of Peace and
Human Security. I look forward to getting back to the US and to see
together what we can do.....

Jody Dodd, Leadership and Outreach Coordinator, US Section, WILPF