 |
|
|
| | | published Thursday, November 19, 2009 | 2220 Views :: 0 Comments | |  |
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.
In 2008, the JASONs also released a report acknowledging that the cores of the nuclear warheads, the plutonium pit, were reliable for at least 80 years.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has proposed construction of the Chemical and Metallurgical Research Replacement Nuclear Facility at Los Alamos for increased plutonium pit manufacturing. At Oak Ridge, public hearings are taking place right now to evaluate a proposal for the Uranium Processing Facility, which would produce new uranium components for new warheads.
“This latest report puts another nail in the coffin for outdated Bush Administration policies that support new warhead production. This plan, which we now know is completely unnecessary, will cost billions, contaminate local communities, and undermine the Obama Administration’s commitments to nonproliferation, ,” said Nickolas Roth, Program Director for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability.
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability is a national network of organizations mostly located down-wind and down-stream from the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons production and dump sites. These groups have been watch-dogging the DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration for decades working to hold them accountable to U.S. nuclear policy and environmental
|
| Comments |
Currently, there are no comments. Be the first to post one!
You must be logged in to post a comment. You can login here |
|
 |
|