10 February 2012 Register   Login
Library

ANA in the News
ANA Press Release
published Friday, October 24, 2008  5406 Views :: 1 Comments
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
A national network of organizations working to address issues of
nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup

For further information, contact: Susan Gordon: 505-577-8438
Nickolas Roth: 202-544-0217

For immediate release: , October 23, 2006

Nearly 120,000 comments call for meeting Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty goals. Energy Department plans new weapons facilities.

On Friday, October 24, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability admonished the Department of Energy (DOE) for recommendations in a newly released report mapping out the future of nuclear weapons production in the United States.

The report titled, Final Complex Transformation Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, drew unprecedented attention last year as part of a legally required public comment period in which more than 100,000 letters were sent to DOE opposing their plan to revamp the industrial infrastructure responsible for building and maintaining nuclear weapons. The plan referred to as “the Bombplex,” would ensure an indefinite reliance on nuclear weapons.

“The two presidential candidates support working towards a nuclear weapons free world. This is a fiscally irresponsible, unnecessary, and dangerous plan that takes our country in the wrong direction,” said Susan Gordon, director for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability.

Although the program is being promoted as a “consolidation” because the plan would reduce the square footage of the nuclear weapons complex, this $150 billion plan would provide new capabilities and new facilities and maintain all eight of the existing nuclear weapons production sites. At a time when the U.S. is trying to convince other countries not to develop nuclear weapons, the Bombplex plan sends the wrong message to the international community by leaving the door open for expanded nuclear weapons production capacity.

DOE should adopt a “curatorship” approach that, consistent with U.S. obligation under Article VI of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, would increase dismantlement while ramping down the complex. This approach would accomplish the major stated goals of Complex Transformation that includes ensured safety/reliability of the stockpile (consisting of previously tested designs), no return to testing, increased dismantlement, removal of dangerous/vulnerable nuclear materials from many sites, and economic/programmatic efficiency.

“The DOE is attempting to force the new administration to continue the failed polices of the Bush Administration with the Complex Transformation plan,” said Nick Roth program director for ANA. “The United States must repair its international credibility by leading the world with nonproliferation policies that increase security for all nations.”

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability is a national network of more than 30 groups, most of whom live downwind and downstream from the U.S. nuclear weapons complex sites. These groups have been working collaboratively for more than two decades to clean up the environmental legacy of nuclear weapons production and stop new nuclear weapons programs.


 



© 2012 Alliance for Nuclear Accountability   |  Citadel Hosting  |  Terms Of Use  |  Privacy Statement