Ranua Rescue Action Day

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As the tapped uranium reserves are limited and today's uranium mines can't provide at least half of the fuel requirements nuclear companies like Areva are undertaking a global offense to search for new uranium mines. In Finland the French nuclear company Areva enforces their mining plans in the sparsely populated North after being driven away from southern Finland's countryside (Area 32!).

Local people of the threated region of Ranua in Finnish Lapland joined the international Nuclear Climate Camp in Tervola in summer 2009 and asked for support for their struggle against Areva. After the camp Finnish anti-nuclear activists decided to focus on uranium mining and construction plans of a new NPP in the North. An international action day was announced at short notice only one week before the expected municipality decision about Areva's application to drill in Ranua to examine the uranium ore in the region.

It was the Ranua Rescue Action Day" on August 13th, 2009 to bring the struggle of the uranium mining in Lapland first to international public attention. In two Finnish (Tampere, Helsinki) and two German cities (Magdeburg, Berlin) actions took place to rise the citizens' awareness on this topic:

  • Finland:
    • Helsinki (rally started at 3 pm from Kolmen Sepän patsas - the statue of 3 blacksmiths near Stockmann's)
    • Tampere (rally started at 12 pm from the Central Square)
  • Germany:
    • Berlin
    • Magdeburg (action started at 4 pm in front of the main railway station) Press Release


Appeal: Stop Uranium Prospecting at Ranua - International Action Day 13th of August

In Ranua - a municipality located in Lapland, Finland - the soil and groundwater are in danger of being contaminated by uranium prospecting.

Let Areva and the municipality's pro-uranium mining politicians know that they are being observed all around the world!

An uranium mine in Lapland would lead to all the people who now get their livelihood from berry or mushroom picking, collecting wild plants, reindeer herding, fishing or agriculture to lose their source of income. Mining and radioactive waste in the vulnerable northern nature would also destroy Europe's largest remaining wilderness areas for forever. In many countries people and companies are watching Finnish policy on nuclear energy and uranium mining to see if it starts a new trend on nuclear energy. So this is not only a local issue but important to all the people in Finland and other parts of Europe/world!

One action possibility:

Send an email, call or fax the council members (see contact data of council members). Write or call to one or more (or all!) municipality board members. You can do it in English or your own language (if not in Finnish or Swedish). Tell them that you are worried about the situation. Urge them to say NO to uranium prospecting.

Add at least one reason why you think they should not allow uranium prospecting in the area (for help with your letter/mail/call see the text "more info" below). You are welcome to also BCC your emails to ranuarescue AT gmail.com[1].

Emailing them is just one small thing: but there is MORE you can do to stop the uranium pollution in Lapland. Stay tuned for more info...



  1. For protection against automatical email address robots searching for addresses to send spam to them this email address has been made unreadable for them. To get a correct mail address you have to displace "AT" by the @-symbol.