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New Government Report Challenges Justification for New Warheads and Production Facilities
For Immediate Release:
November 19, 2009
Contact:
Nickolas Roth
914-673-6666
Susan Gordon
505-577-8438
A new government report released today refutes arguments that new nuclear warheads or weapons production facilities are needed.
Since 2005, both Air Force and Department of Energy officials have claimed that new design nuclear warheads were necessary because of diminishing confidence in the nuclear stockpile. At the centerpiece of plans for building new warheads are new weapons production facilities proposed for Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
In the report, the JASONs group, an independent panel of scientists contracted by the government to evaluate issues related to the nuclear stockpile, affirmed that current methods used by DOE were adequate for extending the lifetime of the nuclear stockpile.
It also found no evidence to support claims that changes to the stockpile as a result of refurbishments have increased risks to the reliability of the arsenal.
read more...November 17, 2009
GAO: Los Alamos Computer Security Has Weaknesses
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:03 p.m. ET
ALBUQUERQUE,
N.M. (AP) -- Security weaknesses uncovered in Los Alamos National
Laboratory's classified computer network could increase the risk of a
breach of classified information, the U.S. Government Accountability
Office said in a new report.
Among the GAO's findings:
-- The lab failed to mark the
classification level of documents stored on its classified computer
network or keep an inventory of the numbers and types of classified
documents stored there. The report said that increased the risk that
the lab may not be able to detect inappropriate uses.
-- The lab
also cannot effectively monitor the actions of computer users. While it
monitored the network regularly, certain events were not being logged,
which increased the risk that an unauthorized user would not be
detected.
-- Not all users were provided with the necessary specialized security training.
--
Each division at the lab was responsible for securing its own computer
systems that are connected to the classified network, which has
resulted in a patchwork of cyber security practices.
read more...Seventy Nine Truckloads from Huntington’s Nickel Plant Buried
Once Radioactivity Released, You Can’t Put This 'Genie' Back in Bottle; Former Worker Alleges Plutonium Contamination
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Editor’s
Note: Vina Colley, a former worker at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion
Plant, has been one of the most outspoken workers suffering cancer and
other illnesses from their years working at the facility near
Portsmouth, Ohio. Although the interview is in a Q and A format, it
should be noted that Ms. Colley often had to stop speaking to get her
breath. Occasionally, her thoughts were completed by a member of the
clean up panel.
HNN: You worked as an electrician at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant?
VINA COLLEY: As a Second Class Electrician I worked in every building on the plant site and many of the buildings off site.
HNN: Right now, like other employees , you suffer from multiple aliments attributed to your years at the plant.
VINA
COLLEY: I have 57% lung impairment due to the chronic bronchitis. A low
immune system where I had to take gamma glammas? Before. Memory lapses.
Home oxygen. Three tumors, a total hysterectomy and skin cancer.read more...Sandia Director Makes $1.7 million
By John Fleck
Thursday, 05 November 2009 19:16
Sandia National Laboratories Director Tom Hunter makes $1.7 million per
year, according to data made public this week.
Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio makes $800
thousand per year. The numbers became public this week when the labs reported them as one of
the conditions of accepting money under the federal stimulus program.
The compensation triggered outrage from critics of the nuclear weapons
research centers.
Originally Published in the Albuquerque Journal.
read more...The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance today released a "white
paper" that analyzes the missions at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and
proposes that the Oak Ridge plant refocus its efforts entirely on
dismantlement.
"Changes in U.S. policy, concern over nuclear proliferation, and global
realities have created an environment in which the power of arguments
for a new production facility has eroded significantly," the report,
titled The Future of Y-12, says.
Posted by Frank Munger on November 3, 2009 at 7:24 PM
The 9-page report is online at:
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/y12orepa.pdf
read more... |
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