There are many things you can do to help improve the situation regarding nuclear policy in eastern Europe (and worldwide), without even leaving the area you live in. The Chernobyl 10th Anniversary Campaign has a collection of national coordinators working on actions in your region, if you want to know what is going on in more detail you can start by contacting them. If you want to do something more or different, or you are in significantly different area than they are, contact us.
But you do not need to have a national coordinator or us to tell you what is happening, if you want to make something happen yourself it would be great!
Lots of action ideas have been discussed and some which will happen in some areas are as follows:
Death Toll Actions: The media often talks about the number of people dying in the Chernobyl Catastraphy as between 27 and 32. This is the number of people who were killed immediately after the meltdown and fighting the fire. But this is a tiny fraction of the number of lives this disaster has taken. The death toll action visually illustrates the size in terms of human deaths of the accident. The first proposal was to have thousands of dominos lined up and then knock them down - another proposal was to light one candle for each person killed and then somehow extinguish them all. Both of these would be highly visually dramatic and thus make good actions for television. The problem with the death toll action is the precise number of deaths is not know. At least 7,000 liquidators have died since the accident. The Ukraine officially reported, on the ninth anniversary of the disaster, 125,000 people had died in the region since the accident - but this includes many people who might well have died anyway. The number is cerainly greater than 10,000 and probably closer to 100,000. If you do decide to do this kind of action, let us know and we will work with you to coordinate international media.
Actions at Reactors: Many groups will be organizing actions at nuclear power plants in their area (if they are unlucky enough to have them). There is a whole specturm of possible actions at this setting, from completely silent vigils in front of the entrance, to chaining yourself to the front gates. If you are of the more visually dramatic orientation, you can mimic the Greenpeace Switzerland action and land your hang glider inside the power plant. Be aware that most nuclear power plants have serious security systems, but it is pretty rare that protestors, even those who enter the plants are much more than arrested (except in France, of course, which occassionally kills anti-nuclear activists).
Actions in Capital Cities: No one can build a nuclear power plant without a completely cooperative government. Because the decision makers, many people and the media are there, many groups are planning to have actions in national capitals. Some action groups will target parliament buildings, others will go to the pro-nuclear banks (there is an EBRD office in 60 capital cities). Again both symbolic and direct actions are possible.
Bike Tours and Walks: Other people feel that the message about nuclear power and its dangers needs to get out of the capital cities and out into other areas. There will be several bike tours and walks, including an international walk from Chernobyl to Kiev.
A note on actions: The authors of this page strongly believe that the most effective actions against nuclear power are non-violent ones. Our message often gets lost if the nuclear lobby can claim we are hurting people or fighting with the police/security guards. Within the limitation of non-violence there is still tremendous flexibility to perform dramatic and effective actions.
A note on media: You probably want as many people to see action as possible, since you can't bring them all to where you are you will probably want to work with the media. One of your best chances to capture the attention of the media is to do something visually dramatic, the picture will help your story to appear. But equally as important is to have some kind of direct communication with the reports. Do not get your fax program to send 50 faxes to the local papers, TV and radio - they will simply be thrown out. You need to talk with a real person, tell them what is happening, see if they have an interest send them a press release with their name on it.
A note on organizing: There are lots of people who would do an action with you - the trick is to find them. The easiest place is to start with your friends and people who you know. Make sure you have a common goal in your action and as specific as possible (e.g. "We want this reactor near us closed in the next two years, because it is unsafe" or "We want our country not to invest in more nuclear power plants in eastern Europe through the EBRD"). Then work backward from the goal to see what kind of action everyone wants to get involved in - spend an evening brainstorming what is possible and then choose from your long list which one (or maybe two) actions you want to actually do.