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| | | published Friday, February 17, 2012 | 1056 Views :: 2 Comments |
February 17, 2012
By Michael Coleman and John Fleck From the Albuquerque Journal
WASHINGTON — U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu offered scant hope for a stalled plutonium project at Los Alamos National Laboratory on Thursday, but he did offer some encouragement for those who want to store additional nuclear waste near Carlsbad.
Chu told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the Department of Energy decided to abandon — at least for now — a planned LANL plutonium lab because of budget constraints. However, he said design work at the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility will continue until it is 90 percent complete.
“That’s very prudent because for a number of reasons, before you start construction it is best to have most of it designed,” Chu said at the hearing to examine President Barack Obama’s 2013 DOE budget.
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| | | published Wednesday, February 15, 2012 | 1417 Views :: 3 Comments |
In the following op-ed, ANA member Marylia Kelley argues that the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons programs are eating up more than their fair share of the federal budget in austere times.
February 15, 2012
By Marylia Kelley
From the San Francisco Chronicle
While most federal agencies are being placed on an austerity diet, the Obama administration's 2013 budget for nuclear weapons activities is more than last year's appropriation and 20 percent higher than President Reagan's largest nuclear weapons budget at the height of the Cold War, adjusted for inflation. If fully funded, Obama's budget will be the biggest nuclear weapons budget in our nation's history.
President Obama firmly declared "America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons" in his 2009 Prague address. The world, including me, cheered. But, Mr. President, this is not a budget that implements our solemn commitment.
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| | | published Tuesday, February 14, 2012 | 923 Views :: 1 Comments |
The following analysis of how President Obama's FY 13 budget request will impact Kentucky includes quotes from ANA member Don Hancock regarding Cold War nuclear waste cleanup in Paducah and around the country.
Feb. 13, 2012
By James R. Carroll From the Louisville Courier-Journal
At the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, continued operations to clean up decades of chemical and radiological contamination from nuclear weapons work would be funded at $132.2 million, about the same amount as in the current year.
Most environmental cleanup projects overseen by the Department of Energy at nuclear facilities are being funded at roughly the same levels as the current budget, said Don Hancock, nuclear waste program director with the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, N.M., one of the organizations that belongs to the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability.
The Paducah plant’s facility to convert depleted uranium into a more stable state was behind schedule in 2011, but is now operating.
Hancock said the Energy Department is not asking enough for cleanup at Paducah and other sites.
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| | | published Monday, February 13, 2012 | 1571 Views :: 0 Comments |
for further information, contact: Susan Gordon (505) 473-1670 Katherine Fuchs (202) 544-0217 Tom Clements (803) 834-3084 for immediate release, Monday, February 13,2012
Full Press Release
The Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons spending proposal released today maintains “budget-busting nuclear weapons overkill,” according to an analysis by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA). At the same time, ANA says it under funds some programs to clean up the radioactive and toxic legacy from the Cold War. Despite ending spending for a controversial plutonium production plant, the budget request seeks nearly a third of a billion dollars in additional funding for nuclear weapons programs. Yet, it may not allow DOE to meet all its environmental obligations. ANA praised the decision to defer construction of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility (CMRR) at Los Alamos National Lab for at least five years. “The runaway costs for an unneeded plutonium bomb plant combined with plans to build it on an earthquake fault line finally forced DOE to stop this facility,” said Susan Gordon, director of ANA. At the same time, she noted, the budget accelerates construction of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to manufacture other nuclear weapons components. “Instead, the UPF should be downsized and refocused on dismantling warheads and down-blending uranium,” Ms. Gordon explained.
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| | | published Friday, February 10, 2012 | 1873 Views :: 0 Comments |
for release February 10, 2012
For further information: Katherine Fuchs (202) 544-0217
The overriding issue for the Monday, Feb. 13 budget release is: Will the Obama Administration continue to increase funding for unnecessary nuclear programs in light of current fiscal constraints? The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), a national network of communities downwind and downstream from U.S. nuclear facilities, is concerned that out of control spending on nuclear weapons and nuclear facilities will divert resources from legally required environmental cleanup, sustainable energy programs, and critical nonproliferation efforts. Here are some key questions that the Department of Energy (DOE) budget should address:
- In light of economic reality, will the Administration rein in funding for oversized, unnecessary nuclear facilities to produce plutonium and highly enriched uranium components for weapons? At a time when nuclear stockpiles are being cut, why does the US need expanded production capacity for plutonium pits (the fissile cores or “triggers” of nuclear weapons) and highly enriched uranium (secondaries)? The Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility would directly support production of plutonium pits, yet the JASONs determined that plutonium pits have a shelf life of 85+ years. The Uranium Processing Facility as planned is oversized and should be redesigned to dismantle warheads and down-blend uranium.
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| | | published Friday, February 03, 2012 | 908 Views :: 0 Comments |
Tell the Department of Energy not to put nuclear bombs in power plants!
Feb. 3, 2012
The Department of Energy (DOE) is currently accepting public comments on the scope of their upcoming Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) regarding disposing of surplus plutonium. The DOE has already held it's only public hearing for this SPEIS, but you can still make a comment until March 12th, 2012. Read the comment that ANA submitted at this hearing here.
Submit your own comment!
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| | | published Friday, February 03, 2012 | 940 Views :: 0 Comments |
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, in collaboration with our allies at the Ploughshares Fund, the Arms Control Association, and the Union of Concerned Scientists present two new fact sheets on nuclear weapons funding.
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| | | published Thursday, February 02, 2012 | 1257 Views :: 0 Comments |
for immediate release: Thursday, January 26, 2012
for further information, contact: Bob Schaeffer: 239-395-6773 Katherine Fuchs: 202-544-0217, ext. 2503 local contacts listed at end of advisory
The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future report released today received mixed reviews from groups that monitor sites where large quantities of radioactive waste are stored. The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) said major flaws in the report include the Commission’s “failure to advocate prompt removal of commercial spent fuel from reactor cooling pools with placement in hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS) to safeguard commercial spent fuel at nuclear power plants.” ANA and hundreds of community groups had told the Commission that HOSS could protect the heavily reactive material for the decades needed to develop a scientifically sound and publicly acceptable waste disposal program.
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| | | published Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | 984 Views :: 1 Comments |
For immediate release: January 27, 2012
For further information, contact: Dr. Arjun Makhijani (301) 270-5500, cell (301) 509-6843
Commission Recognizes French Style Reprocessing Will Increase Proliferation Risks Without Solving Waste Problem
Progress on Consent-Based Approach to Geologic Repository Siting
Takoma Park, Maryland -- Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D., President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, today commented on some of the recommendations of the final report of the Presidential Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) on America’s Nuclear Future, released yesterday. The commission was created to address U.S. nuclear waste issues after the Obama administration cancelled the Yucca Mountain program.
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| | | published Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | 221 Views :: 0 Comments |
Jan 31, 2012 By John Fleck Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer
It seems to have been sometime during 2007 that the wheels started coming off of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s proposed new plutonium lab.
National Nuclear Security Administration officials were publicly telling congressional auditors they thought the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement project was under control. They said the $800 million price was based on “reliable cost estimates,” and the project was not in danger of heading down the agency’s well-worn path of cost overruns and schedule delays.
Internally, though, there were signs of trouble. The lab’s draft safety plan for the project was “substandard,” NNSA said. By February 2008, the cost estimate had more than doubled to $2 billion, and has continued to climb.
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