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| | | published Friday, October 30, 2009 | 2130 Views :: 6 Comments |
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has again urged the
Department of Energy (DOE) to take immediate action to reduce the risk
of a release of plutonium from a fire at Technical Area 55 at Los
Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) following a seismic event.
http://www.dnfsb.gov/pub_docs/recommendations/lanl/rec_2009_02_la.pdf
This is the latest in a series of letters, reports and recommendations
to DOE about the potential consequences of a release of plutonium from
the Technical Area 55 Plutonium Facility following a seismic event
resulting in a fire. The Board stated that the consequences to people
living downwind and downstream of LANL have been underestimated by 100
times.
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| | | published Wednesday, October 28, 2009 | 1599 Views :: 4 Comments |
Immediate release
October 27, 2009
DOE ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR NEW BOMB PLANT IN OAK RIDGE, TN
LONG AWAITED DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT
INCLUDES PLAN FOR $3.5 BILLION “URANIUM PROCESSING FACILITY”
TO BUILD THERMONUCLEAR WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
AT Y12 NATIONAL SECURITY COMPLEX
The National Nuclear Security Administration is slated to release the
long-awaited draft of the Y12 Site Wide Environmental Impact Statement
with a Notice of Availability in the Federal Register by October 30,
2009. Copies of the Y12SWEIS were sent to the NNSA’s distribution list
earlier this week and posted on the web at www.y12sweis.com
. Among the alternatives considered in the draft EIS is the siting and
construction of the Uranium Processing Facility, a new facility which
would produce thermonuclear “secondaries” out of highly enriched
uranium, lithium deuteride, beryllium and other materials.*
The New Bomb Plant
The Draft Y12SWEIS embraces a full-scale nuclear weapons production
facility capable of producing 50-80 secondaries a year, or enough
capacity to double the size of the US arsenal every 20 years, and to
maintain an enduring nuclear stockpile. The preferred alternative,
called the “Capability-sized UPF” would lead to an initial increase in
construction employment but the eventual downsizing of nearly half the
Y12 workforce and fails to address increased mission requirements for
dismantlement and disposition of retired nuclear weapons.
for more information: Ralph Hutchison 865 776 5050 | orep@earthlink.net
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| | | published Monday, October 19, 2009 | 806 Views :: 1 Comments |
Comment of the Western States Legal Foundation on the scope of the proposed
Environmental
Impact Statement for the Continued Operation of the Department of
Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Test Site
and Off-Site Locations in the State of Nevada
Submitted by Jacqueline Cabasso, executive director
and Andrew Lichterman, senior research analyst
October 16, 2009
Introduction
Western
States Legal Foundation (WSLF) is a non-profit, public interest peace
and environmental organization which, since 1982, has participated in
administrative proceedings, litigation and grassroots advocacy to
promote the end of the nuclear race and global abolition of nuclear
weapons and cleanup of federal facilities engaged in nuclear weapons
research, development and production.
Since 1994, WSLF has
participated as an accredited Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)
observer in every Preparatory Committee meeting and Review Conference
of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in Geneva, New York and
Vienna. In 1994, WSLF participated as an accredited NGO observer in
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) negotiations in Geneva, and in
2001 was an accredited NGO observer at the CTBT Entry-Into-Force
Conference at United Nations headquarters in New York.
Summary
The
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Continued Operation of the
Nevada Test Site (NTS) should include an alternative based on closure
of the NTS as a matter of good faith, in connection with the
anticipated Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
(CTBT), and in consultation with the Western Shoshone National Council.
This analysis should separately examine alternatives for all nonnuclear
activities currently conducted at the NTS and off-site locations in
Nevada.
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| | | published Monday, October 05, 2009 | 1210 Views :: 4 Comments |
It takes courage and skill to lead, even more to lead the world. As
chair of the U.N. Security Council, President Obama won unanimous
approval from all 15 nations —including Russia and China—for his bold
roadmap toward a nuclear weapons-free world (“Obama nuclear goals
backed,” Sept 25). It was a stunning victory on the world stage. And
one of those rare times when a politician chooses the tough but
effective road instead of easier, half-hearted approaches more likely
to pay off before the next election.
Originally appeared in the The Spokesman Review, October 2, 2009, http://www.spokesman.com/.
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| | | published Monday, September 14, 2009 | 941 Views :: 1 Comments |
Originally published at
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090910_a_hundred_holocausts_an_insiders_window_into_us_nuclear_policy/
Posted on Sep 10, 2009
By Daniel Ellsberg
Editor’s note: This is the first installment of Daniel Ellsberg’s
personal memoir of the nuclear era, “The American Doomsday Machine.”
The online book will recount highlights of his six years of research
and consulting for
the Departments of Defense and State and the White House on issues of
nuclear command and control, nuclear war planning and nuclear crises.
It further draws on 34 subsequent years of research and activism largely on nuclear policy , which followed the intervening 11 years of his preoccupation with the Vietnam War . Subsequent installments also will appear on Truthdig. The author is a senior fellow of theNuclear Age Peace Foundation .
American Planning for a Hundred Holocausts
One
day in the spring of 1961, soon after my 30th birthday, I was shown how
our world would end. Not the Earth, not—so far as I knew then—all
humanity or life, but the destruction of most cities and people in the
Northern Hemisphere.
What I was handed, in a White House office,
was a single sheet of paper with some numbers and lines on it. It was
headed “Top Secret—Sensitive”; under that, “For the President’s Eyes
Only.”
The “Eyes Only” designation meant that, in principle,
it was to be seen and read only by the person to whom it was explicitly
addressed, in this case the president. In practice this usually meant
that it would be seen by one or more secretaries and assistants as
well: a handful of people, sometimes somewhat more, instead of the
scores to hundreds who would normally see copies of a “Top
Secret—Sensitive” document.
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| | | published Friday, September 04, 2009 | 1289 Views :: 0 Comments |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 4, 2009
Contact: Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch NM, 505.989.7342, c. 505.920.7118, jay@nukewatch.org
Santa Fe, NM – Nuclear Watch New Mexico (NWNM) has discovered Los Alamos National Laboratory viewgraphs showing that the U.S. nuclear weapons labs want to leverage “stockpile modernization” through formal Safeguards attached to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty during Senate ratification. This modernization would include “large changes” made to existing nuclear weapons refurbished during existing Life Extension Programs, and/or complete “replacement designs” as early as 2015. Congress has rejected funding a new-design “Reliable Replacement Warhead” (RRW) for the last two years, but the labs have clearly not given up. Moreover, there is a danger that the Obama Administration might concede to some form of RRW in order to win the Congressional supermajority of 67 needed to ratify the CTBT. Further, Obama has just reappointed a formerly strong proponent of RRW to again head up the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
A decade ago, under President Clinton, the Senate rejected CTBT ratification. This last April, while declaring that a world free of nuclear weapons is a long term U.S. national security goal, President Obama pledged, “my Administration will immediately and aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.” The Treaty’s declared purpose has always been to cut off the advancement of nuclear weapons. But the American labs, now endowed with supercomputer simulated testing, obviously believe that a ban to physical tests no longer blocks the deployment of new nuclear weapons designs. In contrast, they now even seek to enshrine the capability for major modifications and possible new-designs in CTBT Safeguards.
Ratification of the CTBT by the U.S. will be viewed internationally as a concrete sign of America’s commitment to fulfilling the 1970 NonProliferation Treaty’s mandate for nuclear disarmament. CTBT ratification before the May 2010 NPT Review Conference at the United Nations would be a diplomatic victory, if the Obama Administration can win the necessary Senate votes. Ironically, possible CTBT Safeguards enshrining new or heavily modified U.S. weapons designs could derail the strengthening of the global nonproliferation regime by demonstrating to other countries that the U.S. is not really serious about nuclear disarmament.
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| | | published Monday, August 10, 2009 | 1789 Views :: 0 Comments |
LIVERMORE — About 75 protesters gathered at Lawrence Livermore
Laboratory early Thursday to commemorate the Aug. 6, 1945 bombing of
Hiroshima as well as to protest the development and use of nuclear
weapons.
The protest was peaceful but 22 people were arrested by Lawrence
Livermore Lab security for blocking the lab's entrance said Bob
Hirschfeld, a lab spokesman. Those arrested were handcuffed, cited and
released.
Originally published in the Contra Costa Times: http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_13009155
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| | | published Monday, August 10, 2009 | 1837 Views :: 0 Comments |
It was a relatively solemn ceremony this morning on the front lawn of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge.
Peace
activists gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945,
atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Y-12 produced the highly
enriched uranium that was used in the Little Boy bomb.
Erik Johnson of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance said
removing the peace cranes was of no great concern. "Our prayers have
already been released," Johnson said.
Originally published on Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground: http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/2009/08/hiroshima_aug_6_1945.html#more
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| | | published Thursday, August 06, 2009 | 2081 Views :: 12 Comments |
By Nickolas Roth, Program Director, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
August 6th, 2009
The
anniversary of the United States atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki serve as a reminder of the danger posed by nuclear weapons and
the need for this country to work in good faith toward their
elimination. The bombings killed more than 200,000 people and set in
motion an arms race that has resulted in several near brushes with
nuclear war.
There are more than 20,000 nuclear weapons in
existence today. The vast majority of these weapons are held by the
United States and Russia, with 9,400 and 13,000 respectively.
Originally published in the Los Alamos Monitor:
http://www.lcni5.com/cgi-bin/c2.cgi?075+article+Opinion+20090806145909075075001
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| | | published Wednesday, April 08, 2009 | 4799 Views :: 1 Comments |
FOR RELEASE, April 8, 2009 Contact: Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch NM, 505-989-7342 cell 505.920.7118 jay@nukewatch.org
Transforming the U.S. Strategic Posture and Weapons Complex
For Transition to a Nuclear Weapons-Free World
“…as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act... So today, I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” President Barack Obama, April 5, 2009, Prague, Czech Republic.
Washington, DC - - Today, April 8th, in the nation’s capital, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and the Nuclear Weapons Complex Consolidation Policy Network released a major report outlining how the President’s vision of a nuclear weapons-free world can begin to be concretely realized in the near-term. First, the United States must declare that its strategic stockpile exists for only one purpose — to deter the use of nuclear weapons by others until the world is free of nuclear weapons. For that interim deterrence, a total stockpile of 500 warheads is more than sufficient, and the nuclear weapons complex can be downsized from eight sites to three.
Maintaining a Potent Deterrence
The U.S. stockpile has been extensively tested. Further, recent lifetime studies have shown it to be even more reliable than previously thought. The stockpile can be maintained through a nuts-and-bolts “curatorship” program, instead of the expensive and speculative “Stockpile Stewardship” Program that erodes confidence by intentionally introducing changes to existing nuclear weapons. Under a minimalist (but still extremely potent) nuclear deterrent, U.S. strategic forces can be progressively reduced step-by-step and the weapons complex downsized accordingly, in alignment with the President’s stated national goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.
Re-focusing Research Critical for the 21st Century
Our plan is the plan that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under the Bush Administration should have proposed for its misnamed “Complex Transformation” – but did not. NNSA’s archaic plan is dead on arrival in the Obama Administration, while our plan sets a reasonable path for 21st Century security on which the U.S. can and should embark. Our plan takes the Lawrence Livermore Lab out of nuclear weapons programs and directs it toward the energy, environmental and global climate change research that our country so desperately needs. It also ends NNSA control of the Sandia Lab in California and the Nevada Test Site by 2012, and ends weapons work at the Kansas City Plant by 2015. As the arsenal is reduced toward 500 warheads, the Savannah River Site near Aiken, SC, and then the Y-12 Site near Oak Ridge, TN, would also cease to be part of the nuclear weapons complex.
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