By Trevor Sandgathe and Anne Bahde
Title: Nuclear Free America Records, 1945-2003
Predominant Dates: 1983-1995
ID: MSS NFA
Primary Creator: Nuclear Free America (Organization)
Extent: 19.0 cubic feet. More info below.
Arrangement:
The Nuclear Free America Records are divided into 9 series: Series 1: Administrative Records, 1981-2000; Series 2: Nuclear Free Zones Project, 1981-1995; Series 3: Weapons Maker Database, 1986-2001; Series 4: Other Initiatives and Projects, 1979-1995; Series 5: Related Organizations, 1983-2000; Series 6: Subject Files, 1988-2000; Series 7: Artifacts and Memorabilia, 1945-1996; Series 8: Video Recordings, 1979-2003; Series 9: Electronic Records, circa 1985-1995.
Series 1 is further divided into 4 subseries: Subseries 1: General; Subseries 2: Grant Funding; Subseries 3: Fundraising Initiatives; Subseries 4: Conferences.
Series 2 is further divided into 4 subseries: Subseries 1: Project Records; Subseries 2: United States Zones; Subseries 3: Native Lands (United States) Zones; and Subseries 4: International Zones. These records are arranged geographically, alphabetically by state, and localities within each state.
Date Acquired: 00/00/2016
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The Nuclear Free America Records document the activities of this nonprofit resource center throughout the lifetime of the organization. Nuclear Free America facilitated a worldwide antinuclear movement to create "nuclear free zones" (NFZs) or communities where nuclear production, testing, waste, and transportation activities were banned. During its 15 years of operation, more than 200 NFZ declarations were passed by 4,500 local governments in 26 nations worldwide. The collection includes administrative records, records of nuclear free zone declarations by localities around the world, and extensive files related to affiliated antinuclear organizations.
Items from Series 2: Nuclear Free Zones Project, including box-folders 4.16 - 4.18, 6.2, 6.9, 8.5 - 8.6, 9.10 - 9.12, 10.11 - 10.13 have been digitized and are available upon request. The electronic items in Series 8 and Series 9, including VHS tapes and floppy disks, require migration to a digital format and are not immediately available for patron use. Please see SCARC's "Accessing Audio-Visual Content" for more information.
The Nuclear Free America Records document the activities of this nonprofit antinuclear organization during its most active years.
Series 1: Administrative Records covers all general operational functions of Nuclear Free America (NFA) including staffing, administration, finance, outreach and promotion, and organizational contacts. Series 1 is further divided into 4 subseries. Subseries 1: General includes financial records, meeting minutes, and staffing records. Subseries 2: Grant Funding and Subseries 3: Fundraising demonstrate the funding efforts by this small organization through different means, including local initiatives and private donations. Subseries 4: Conferences contains several folders of meeting minutes from the Nuclear Free Local Authorities international conferences, which shed further light on NFA's work.
Series 2: Nuclear Free Zones contains the majority of materials in the collection and documents the efforts by NFA to create "nuclear free zones" (NFZs), or communities where nuclear production, testing, waste, and transportation activities were banned. The series is arranged geographically and contains documentation of NFA's work with each locality or community organizing toward an NFZ declaration. While some efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, most declarations happened successfully due to the liaising and guidance provided by Nuclear Free America. Some communities, including those in New York, Ohio, and California used the NFZ effort to successfully protest nearby nuclear waste disposal plans. Within this series, Subseries 3: Native Lands contains important documentation of efforts by tribal leaders to eradicate nuclear presence from various native reservations. Of particular note are materials including correspondence, meeting minutes, and legal documents related to NFA's partnership with the National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans to help fight the U. S. Department of Energy's plan to site 'temporary' high-level radioactive waste dumps on native lands. The international zones represented in Subseries 4 include documentation of efforts by NFA to include nuclear issues in international discussions related to protecting the Arctic and other remote regions.
Series 3: Weapons-Maker Database shows how NFA became the sole source of information on U.S. companies that make or support nuclear weapons, in order to support socially conscious investing, boycott efforts, and divestment campaigns. The Weapons Maker Database and its various datasets were provided to buyers from 1990 to 1995 and the series contains client information sheets, compiled lists, and correspondence. Series 4: Other Initiatives and Projects demonstrates fundraising and other outreach efforts undertaken by the organization, including significant boycotting activity and documentaries. The collected materials in Series 5: Related Organizations offer a window into both national and international antinuclear and peace activism during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and show grassroots activist efforts addressing a number of nuclear concerns through publications, activities, events, and outreach. The similar materials in Series 6 were grouped by NFA according to topic rather than organization. Series 7: Artifacts and Memorabilia contains ephemera such as stickers, buttons, and placards from a wide body of antinuclear events and organizations. Series 8: Video Recordings contains over 20 VHS tapes about a variety of topics, including the Trojan Nuclear Plant in Oregon and environmental impacts on the Columbia River. Series 9: Electronic Records contains various electronic formats that are not currently processed.
Items from Series 2: Nuclear Free Zones Project, including box-folders 4.16 - 4.18, 6.2, 6.9, 8.5 - 8.6, 9.10 - 9.12, 10.11 - 10.13 have been digitized and are available upon request. The electronic items in Series 8 and Series 9, including VHS tapes and floppy disks, require migration to a digital format and are not immediately available for patron use. Please see SCARC's "Accessing Audio-Visual Content" for more information.
Nuclear Free America (NFA) was an international clearinghouse and resource center founded in 1982, primarily to serve communities in the United States wishing to declare themselves nuclear free zones (NFZs) as part of a worldwide movement. NFA closed its doors in 1997. During its fifteen years of operation, more than 200 NFZ declarations passed within the territory of the United States, as part of over 4,500 declarations passed by local governments in 26 nations worldwide.
Local NFZs were established in solidarity with international treaties covering the Antarctic, Outer Space, the Sea-Bed, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Central Asia.
NFA, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, and, from 1993-1997, with a second office in Salem, Oregon, served as the US affiliate and United Nations representative of the International Secretariat of the Nuclear Free Zone Local Authorities. Primary organizers were Chuck Johnson and Albert Donnay.
The early focus of NFA was assisting mostly symbolic declarations against nuclear weapons - part of national and international efforts to protest Cold War nuclear weapons policies of the US and its allies.
After the Cold War, fears about nuclear weapons waned, but concerns about storage of nuclear waste from more than 100 commercial nuclear power plants grew as proposed nuclear waste sites proliferated throughout the country. NFA assisted communities in developing NFZ declarations that served as symbolic buffers - or real barriers in the case of laws passed by sovereign Native American Nations.
To assist several communities that wished to end investment or purchase from nuclear weapons manufacturers, NFA researchers, working with Eagle Eye Publishers, developed an annual database of US nuclear weapons contractors that eventually expanded to include several specific definitions of weapons production and was used as the definitive measure by socially responsible investment companies and others to boycott weapons makers. This service continued in an attenuated form until 2003.
More Extent Information: 20 boxes, including 1 oversize box; 50 photographs and 26 VHS tapes
Statement on Access: The collection is open for research.
Physical Access Note: Some materials in this collection were exposed to water damage and dusty conditions; all materials in the collection have been cleaned and some materials were photocopied and discarded.
Acquisition Note: Chuck Johnson and Albert Donnay donated these materials to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center in 2016.
Related Materials: The Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Series 12: Peace, documents the Paulings' decades of antinuclear activism in detail. The History of Atomic Energy rare book collection has strengths in activist movements, as well as materials on radioactive waste disposal, nuclear energy, and nuclear weapons production. The David Marcus Letters show the effects of a smaller activist effort. The Paul J. Persiani Papers, Series 3 is comprised of a small group of materials related to Persiani's work on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which sought to place limits on the development and stockpiling of nuclear arms by the United States and the USSR. The Chih H. Wang Papers include materials on anti-nuclear campaigns in Series 6.
Preferred Citation: Nuclear Free America Records (MSS NFA), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Processing Information: The collection was processed in 2018-2020.
Nuclear Free America (Organization)
Donnay, Albert (1958-)
Johnson, Charles K.
Antinuclear movement.
History of Science
Nuclear-weapon-free zones
Nuclear disarmament.
Nuclear energy--Environmental aspects--United States.
Nuclear industry.
Nuclear nonproliferation.
Nuclear weapons--Moral and ethical aspects--United States.
Nuclear weapons--Social aspects.
Nuclear weapons plants--Environmental aspects--United States.
Radioactive waste disposal.
Born digital.
Photographic prints.
Video recordings (physical artifacts)