Tatiana Mironova
The Movement for Nuclear Safety
Chelyabinsk, Russia

My name is Tatiana Mironova.  I'fm 14 years old.  I'fm happy to introduce my view on the problem of nuclear weapons to you.  I live in the middle of Russia, in the Ural Mountains, in Chelyabinsk region.  We have very beautiful nature.  Among this nature we have three big nuclear complexes, which produce nuclear weapons.  At the same time they produce a lot of nuclear waste that they dump into our rivers, lakes and that pollute our air.  Several years ago it was a total secret.  Only 10 years ago in our region the environmental movement started: The Movement for Nuclear Safety.  With my mother I was involved in this movement from my early childhood.  The first discussion of nuclear problems I heard was the one I overheard while sitting under the table around which the environmental activists were making their first strategy.  When I was three years old, I heard many discussions of nuclear issues under the table.

I�fve grown up in this atmosphere.  And when I was 10 years old I began my own ecological activity.  I participated in actions against the new nuclear programs of using military plutonium in the commercial sector.  Several environmental groups organized these actions including students' groups.  The students from universities became more and more interested in nuclear issues.  But we have no such interest in schools.  Through Chelyabinsk region is such nuclear military, but we have no educational programs in our school systems with the help of which the students could learn about nuclear war and bombs.  Several times a year I organize  lessons with my class where we speak about  environmental problems and I retell my friends the news that I learn from Chelyabinsk ecological movements.

It is not a secret that in the whole world the teenagers are fond of music.  I like rock.  I spend my free time with my friends who listen and make rock too.  Sometimes I try to remind them of nuclear and environmental problems.  We begin our discussion about nuclear danger.  But this discussion doesn't last long, because my friends cannot find interest in nuclear issues.  I try understanding why it is so.  Maybe it is so, because the nature of young people is that they are not ready to take on the responsibility of nuclear problems.  They try to run away from the knowledge in the nuclear field.  It's bad.  In our schools there are no educational programs that cover environmental, health, economical and legal problems associated with  producing and using nuclear weapons.  The teenagers have no own opinion about nuclear danger.  Moreover the local government of Chelyabinsk region publicly supports the nuclear industry and at the same time it is also publicly against the green groups.  So the development of environmental educational programs in schools became a political question.

From my opinion, my generation at any rate will be involved in the decision-making process for the abolition of nuclear industry, weapons and waste.   And I appeal to your generation from my generation to organize and develop international and national educational programs: to prepare us for our mission to save the world from nuclear war and nuclear weapons.