Leuren Moret is an independent scientist who works on
radiation and public health issues with communities
around the world. After working 5 years at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and two years at the
Livermore nuclear weapons lab, she left Livermore and
became a whistleblower. She has worked extensively on
the impact of radiation on public health from nuclear
power plants and atmospheric testing and how radiation
moves through the environment.
Ms. Moret works with the Radiation and Public Health
Project [http://www.radiation.org], a group of
independent scientists who have written ten books on
low level radiation and public health. Dr. Ernest
Sternglass, an RPHP member, helped to end atmospheric
testing with his testimony for President Kennedy on
the link between radiation from atmospheric testing
and childrens‰ cancer. His testimony helped to
convince the Senate to sign the Partial Test Ban
Treaty in 1963.
Ms. Moret has written a scientific report on deleted
uranium for the United Nations subcommission
investigating the illegality of depleted uranium
munitions. She has been trained on radiation issues
by a former Manhattan Project Scientist and retired
insider at the Livermore Lab. Together with Dr. Hari
Sharma, they have studied high levels of depleted
uranium measured in the tissue samples of 70 residents
of Basra, Iraq, who died after the Gulf War from
internal exposure to depleted uranium.
Ms. Moret has detailed her research on the important
issue of depleted uranium particle size formed under
high temperature conditions on the battlefield. The
production of these particles in very high
concentrations and numbers results in the permanent
suspension of depleted uranium particulate matter in
the atmosphere. Chronic low level exposure to
internal and external radiation will continue to kill,
mutate, and harm all forms of life, including humans.
Depleted uranium is being deliberately used by the US
as a radiological weapon to permanently contaminate
populations and regions with radiation. These regions
contain oil deposits the United States wants to
control or are neighbors to oil pipelines from major
oil deposits. Although depleted uranium munitions
were used by the US military as early as the Korean
War, the Gulf War was the first major use on the
battlefield. Large regions of the Gulf area, areas of
Kosovo and Bosnia, and Afghanistan have been
contaminated with depleted uranium during the past ten
years as the United States makes a grab for control of
the world's dwindling major oil deposits.
Ms. Moret wrote the Forword to "Discounted Casualties:
The Human Cost of Depleted Uranium"by Hiroshima
journalist Akira Tashiro. The book can be read online
at:
[http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/index_e.html].
In February 2002, she introduced Martin Meissonier's
film "The Invisible War: Depleted Uranium and the
Politics of Radiation"at the Arab Film Festival in
Berkeley. Most recently, she helped to introduce
Takashi Morizumi and his photo exhibit "A Different
Nuclear War: Children of the Gulf War"to the United
States in October 2002, where the first US exhibit was
in the city of Berkeley.
Ms. Moret has worked extensively with Indigenous
People contaminated by radiation from the nuclear
weapons program, communities in the US and other
countries exposed to radiation from related
activities, and communities impacted by radiation from
nuclear power plants. She is the Official Bay Area
Representative for a coalition of members of the
Japanese Parliament opposed to the US war against
Iraq, and is working closely with Congresswoman
Barbara Lee. Her Berkeley Resolution which was passed
September 10, 2002, by the first city in the world,
calls for a permanent ban on the weaponization of
space. She proposed the resolution after learning
that lower orbital space is contaminated with uranium
and its decay products from man-made sources.
Leuren Moret
President, Scientists for Indigenous People
Past President, Association for Women Geoscientists
City of Berkeley Environmental Commissioner
Official Bay Area Representative for Japanese
Parliament Members opposed to the US War against Iraq
