Mothers for Nuclear — where I serve as Operations Associate — is an environmental nonprofit with the mission of building a global community of support for clean energy.
We were founded on Earth Day in 2016 by two moms who want to protect their children’s future on this planet. They were initially skeptical of nuclear, but through many years of questioning and working at California’s last remaining nuclear plant, they gradually changed their minds. Now we support nuclear as our largest and most hopeful source of clean energy, vital to addressing some of our world’s biggest challenges: climate change, air pollution and energy poverty.
Everyone deserves to be knowledgeable about their energy options, about the electricity they pay for and how it is affecting their health. Nuclear is one of those options. I encourage you to join the conversation and learn more with Mothers for Nuclear.
Over the past two years, we have had the privilege of opening a branch in Salt Lake City. I moved here, hosting three Collaboration Based Siting Workshops across the state and participating at more local events.
Our Collaboration Based Siting group with Native Nuclear and North Carolina State University was one of 12 consortium groups tasked with starting conversations. The project at large intends to find a storage solution for the nation’s used nuclear fuel that works best for our country and individual communities. Our group’s project was to host workshops across the country, communicating about used nuclear fuel in a new way to see how we can best build trust and understanding. We were not trying to site any particular facility, rather figuring out what communities need.
Our first Utah workshop was hosted right here in Salt Lake City in 2023. We had an in-depth conversation about the nuclear fuel cycle, from three very different perspectives, an Indigenous perspective, a woman and a mother’s perspective, and an engineering and health physics perspective. This workshop was such a unique and exciting opportunity that the Director of Economic Development of San Juan County, Talia Hansen, asked us to come do our workshop for her community, as well.
San Juan County has a unique relationship to the nuclear fuel cycle, from mining booms during the nuclear weapons race, to Indigenous peoples with a variety of experiences with uranium, to their 11th largest employer, Energy Fuels’ White Mesa Mill, the only operational conventional uranium mill in the United States. We knew our typical one day workshop engagement would not be enough to thoughtfully engage with and listen to this plethora of experience. Talia helped us host a tribal listening session in Bluff first, then a workshop for local government in Bluff, and finally a community workshop in Blanding. You can read more about how impactful this experience was on our website.
The tribal listening session was an emotional afternoon where the group sat in a circle, introduced themselves and shared. We listened and cried. This was a unique experience where we got to step into a community and hear people’s pain, fear, curiosities and hopes for the future. In the end, at least one of our guests told us that she really felt safe to share with us.
That is exactly what we had hoped for.
Part of our consortium’s project was to see how building community, trust and relationships affects how people receive more technical information. We at Mothers for Nuclear believe that conversations around nuclear energy are deeply emotional, that our fears and feelings need to be — and deserve to be — acknowledged and respected.
In our first workshop in San Juan County, one of our guests bravely shared that she realized in listening to North Carolina State University Health Physicist Dr. Robert Hayes’ presentation she found it hard to absorb his information about radiation exposure and risk. It was not because of a lack of ability to understand — she is a doctor — but due to an emotional wall. She is Navajo. Her community has such a long and complex history with uranium mining, unmitigated contaminated sites and health-adverse exposures that makes any conversation around uranium much more emotionally difficult. Their emotions are valid, but they can make it very hard to hear new things. Her people deserve to heal.
These are the conversations that we think are so important to have.
I have had several more interactions with my fellow Utahns since moving and the Collaboration Based Siting program has been winding down. In October 2024, I made the drive back down to Blanding and hosted a booth at the Energy Fuels Open House. There I had more conversations with the locals, saw a few of the people I had met at our workshops and learned more from our current uranium miners.
We continue to engage with people across the globe, and I will keep talking to my neighbors in Salt Lake. Mothers for Nuclear is here to listen.
(Fereshteh Bunk) Fereshteh Bunk is the Operations Associate for Mothers for Nuclear, an environmental nonprofit.
Fereshteh Bunk is the Operations Associate for Mothers for Nuclear, an environmental nonprofit. She has a BA in physics with a minor in Indigenous studies of natural resources and the environment, and enjoys living in a walkable neighborhood in Salt Lake City.
The Salt Lake Tribune is committed to creating a space where Utahns can share ideas, perspectives and solutions that move our state forward. We rely on your insight to do this. Find out how to share your opinion here, and email us at voices@sltrib.com.
Donate to the newsroom now. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax deductible