For Immediate Release: May 16th, 2012
Contact: Katherine Fuchs , Alliance for Nuclear Accountability - kfuchs@ananuclear.org, 414-324-4228
Aaron Albright, Rep. George Miller’s office – aaron.albright@mail.house.gov, (202) 226-0853
This week, the full House will debate two important amendments to last week’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) related to nuclear safety: one offered by Representatives Miller (CA), Visclosky (IN), and Sanchez (CA) to strike NDAA provisions that would erode safety standards and weaken oversight, and another offered by Rep. Smith (WA) that would strike provisions removing nuclear weapons from the Secretary of Energy’s jurisdiction.
The Miller et al. amendment would protect the “adequate protection standard” that has guided nuclear safety oversight for more than a quarter century, ensure that nuclear oversight agencies retain a “transactional” oversight model, and prevent new layers of bureaucracy from undermining technical experts. TheSmith amendment would preserve the authority of the Secretary of Energy over the National Nuclear Security Administration.
read more...In the following op-ed, ANA Director Susan Gordon argues that Rep. Martin Heinrich is not acting in New Mexico's best interest when advocating for funding a new plutonium facility at Los Alamos. Gordon states that what New Mexico really needs is funding to clean up Los Alamos' legacy of radioactive and toxic waste.
May 16, 2012
By Susan Gordon
From the Albuquerque Journal
More than a decade late and 10 times more expensive than originally forecast, the new Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement mega-building at the Los Alamos National Laboratory is a textbook example of how Congress misspends the taxpayers’ dollars.
The main mission for the facility originally would have been to support expanded production of plutonium pits – the fissile cores of nuclear weapons. Today, however, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nuclear weapons complex, has determined that it does not need the new CMRR.
read more...The following article about a new uranium enrichment facility in North Carolina quotes ANA Nonproliferation Policy Director Tom Clements as he explains why commercializing the facility's laser-based enrichment technology could pose security threats.
May 11, 2012
By Jim Brumm
From the Wilmington, NC StarNews
A public meeting on a proposal to build a laser-based uranium enrichment facility in Castle Hayne drew about two dozen residents to the University of North Carolina Wilmington on Thursday night.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission held the meeting to discuss its 2½-year review of Global Laser Enrichment's application for a license to build and operate an enrichment plant next to Global Nuclear Fuel-America's fuel fabrication plant on the sprawling campus shared by GE Aviation and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.
Specifically, the meeting was to discuss the federal agency's Safety Evaluation Report (SER) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that will be the basis for the commission's future consideration of an operating license for the facility.
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