Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. News, and Other Relevant Links
3. Related Organizations and Resources
4. Featured Resolutions

Spokane’s nuclear activism is rooted in the experiences of both local Indigenous and immigrant communities.

Spokane, Washington, a city in eastern Washington state with a population of about 230,000, has a notable history in the nuclear disarmament movement, marked by its commitment to global peace and a nuclear-free future. Spokane played a significant role in the U.S. nuclear weapons program of the mid-20th century. Fairchild Air Force Base, located just outside the city, stored nuclear weapons for nearly 50 years beginning in 1950. By the early 1990s, Washington state housed more nuclear warheads than four of the six known nuclear-armed nations, with the primary stockpiles located at Fairchild and the Kitsap submarine base in Bangor, Washington on the Hood Canal, across the Puget Sound from Seattle. Fairchild stored 85 nuclear gravity bombs, while the eight Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines at Naval Base Kitsap carried up to 1,536 warheads collectively. Additionally, the “white trains”—trains that transported over 6,000 nuclear weapons across the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s—frequently traveled from Texas to Bangor, Washington. Activists often attempted to stop these trains; for example, in 1985, 146 people were arrested during a single train’s journey from Amarillo to Bangor. Jim and Shelley Douglass, founders of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Washington, along with many of their closest collaborators, were charged with trespassing and conspiracy.

Spokane is also linked to the consequences of nuclear weapons due to its proximity to the Hanford Nuclear Site, about 2.5 hours away, which has long been a site of environmental and public health concern. The Spokane River, a tributary to the Columbia River, has faced contamination from Hanford’s plutonium reactors, and in 2025, as part of the Department of Energy’s Test Bed Initiative, 2,000 gallons of low-activity nuclear waste from Hanford will be transported through Spokane. Through water networks and highways alike, Spokane is connected to Hanford and its enduring nuclear contamination.

Spokane’s nuclear activism is rooted in the experiences of both local Indigenous and immigrant communities. The Spokane Tribe, for example, has been profoundly affected by uranium mining at the Midnite Mine, which operated from 1955-1965 and again from 1968-1981. Now a Superfund site—a designation given by the Environmental Protection Agency to the country’s most contaminated land in need of cleanup—the mine has caused significant health and environmental challenges for the tribe, perpetuating environmental injustice. The mine has contaminated nearby ground and surface water, fish stocks, wildlife, soil, and plants, prompting federal warnings to avoid these areas. Exposure to this contaminated environment and the mining has caused significant health consequences for the Spokane Tribe, including early deaths and cancers. These harms are not confined to Washington state. Radioactive waste from the mine, including heavy metals in the solid waste by-product known as “filtercake sludge,” was shipped to the White Mesa Mill in Utah, located near the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. Disposal fees were paid to the mill’s owner. However, on December 2, 2021, the EPA banned the mill from accepting waste from Superfund sites like the Midnite Mine due to the mill’s unsafe disposal practices. The Spokane Tribe’s reservation has been irreparably harmed by the mine, and now the Utes of White Mesa must contend with the same radioactive waste, highlighting the ongoing struggle Indigenous communities face with nuclear waste. Spokane is also home to a growing Marshallese Islander community—one of the three largest in the U.S.—with at least 15 Marshallese churches. Many in this community have experienced long-term health and economic consequences from U.S. nuclear testing in the Pacific during the Cold War, adding personal stakes to the people of Spokane’s anti-nuclear advocacy. 

The city joined the Mayors for Peace initiative in 2011, and continuously demonstrates its dedication to addressing Washington state’s nuclear legacy through symbolic gestures and legal measures. On July 30, 2018, city councilwoman Kate Burke introduced a resolution to declare August 6th “Hiroshima and Nagasaki Remembrance Day” and to encourage Congress to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The resolution, which passed with a 3-1 vote, aimed to make Spokane a nuclear weapons-free community. Building upon this momentum, Spokane passed an anti-nuclear ordinance on November 7, 2022, led by local activists from Branch 35 of Veterans for Peace. This ordinance establishes divestment from nuclear weapons and Spokane’s enduring commitment to nuclear disarmament and global peace advocacy.