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| | | published Monday, October 15, 2007 | 2778 Views | |  |
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: (206) 853-6399
or local contacts listed at end of advisory.
for immediate release, Monday, October 15, 2007
On Friday, October 19, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a network of national and grassroots organizations whose members live downwind and downstream from the major U.S. nuclear weapons facilities, will host a public forum detailing the central role of the Kansas City Plant in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex.
The Department of Energy (DOE) is pushing a reluctant Congress to completely overhaul nuclear weapons design and production facilities at eight major facilities. A new $500 million new facility is planned for the Kansas City Plant (KCP) as part of DOE’s provocative “Complex Transformation” plan (formerly Complex 2030).
Every other DOE nuclear weapons site involved in the Complex Transformation plan will be evaluated through a legally required “Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement” process. But at KCP, the Energy Department is preparing a far less rigorous “Environmental Assessment.” The Assessment will not consider the new plant within the national context of DOE’s planned future nuclear weapons complex.
“The people of Kansas City are being denied a basic legal right that DOE knows it has to observe at all of its other nuclear weapons sites,” says Jay Coghlan, Executive Director of Nuclear Watch of New Mexico. “While the Bush Administration talks about a smaller arsenal, it specifically plans to increase nuclear weapons components production at KCP and woefully underfund environmental restoration. We’re here to tell DOE to cleanup, not build up nuclear weapons!”
Marylia Kelley, Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs, adds, “The weapons components currently coming out of the Kansas City Plant and the new generation of nukes that DOE wants so badly are undermining our security. We can’t dictate to other nations that they must not have these weapons when we are actively upgrading our own and planning on a new production complex for nukes.”
Donna Constantineau, Project Coordinator at PeaceWorks Kansas City and the local host of Friday’s public forum welcomes her colleagues from around the country. “PeaceWorks is a proud new member of ANA and we are using this opportunity to raise the profile of KCP within the weapons complex. The stakes are high and it’s time for everyone to be aware of what’s going on here.”
At the same time that ANA is focusing on the Kansas City Plant, a report is being released by the Director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation that details the role of KCP in the Energy Department’s plans to resume industrial scale production of nuclear weapons. William Hartung’s “To Build or Not to Build” describes DOE’s plans for new facilities and capabilities and highlights the central role of the Kansas City Plant in Complex Transformation. “It’s time that the Kansas City Plant is recognized by the public and the nuclear policy community for what it truly is: the lynchpin of the weapons complex.”
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Additional Contacts :
Donna Constantineau, PeaceWorks Kansas City
Kansas City, MO – (913) 281-5499
Jay Coghlan, Executive Director, Nuclear Watch of New Mexico
Santa Fe, NM – (505) 989-7342, cell (505) 920-7118
Marylia Kelley, Executive Director, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
Livermore, CA – (925) 443-7148, cell (925) 255-3589
William D. Hartung – Director, Arms and Security Initiative; New America Foundation
New York, NY – (212) 431-5808 ex. 201
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