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Last revised: August 1996
Nuke Notes
Nuclear Industry's Big Plans
by Tori Woodard
Nuclear Weapons Industry Has Big Plans
DESPITE THE END OF THE COLD WAR and public sentiment against production
of nuclear weapons, the Department of Energy [DOE] is proceeding with plans
to modernize the nuclear weapons complex. In brief, they want to build expensive
and dangerous new facilities at the weapons labs and the Nevada Test Site,
while turning most of the rest of the weapons complex into de facto waste
repositories.
DOE already closed down Hanford, Washington, Rocky Flats, Colorado, and the facilities at Fernald and Mound in Ohio. DOE slashed the budget for cleaning up those facilities, but increased the budget for nuclear weapons. Now DOE is considering closing down production at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Pantex, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri. But that doesn't mean DOE would stop making nuclear weapons.
If these facilities close, DOE wants to move the assembly and disassembly of nuclear weapons from Pantex to the Nevada Test Site (60 miles northwest of Las Vegas). They would move the fabrication of high explosives from Pantex, and the fabrication of secondaries and cases from Oak Ridge to Livermore Lab in California or Los Alamos Lab, New Mexico.
DOE wants to start up two aspects of nuclear weapons production that were
shut down a few years ago. They want to start manufacturing plutonium pits
at Los Alamos Lab or the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. They want
to build a new facility to produce tritium at Savannah River.
Weapons Labs Thrive While Other Facilities Close
Even worse than these plans to continue business as usual are DOE's plans
for "science-based stockpile stewardship and management." This concept translates
into building new, extremely expensive, "state-of-the-art surrogate" testing
facilities to design new weapons and make sure existing weapons work.
Any rational person would expect the weapons design labs and the Nevada Test Site to shut down with the Cold War over. But no - DOE hopes to beef up all of them. DOE's funding priorities include:
Other nations can hardly be expected to sit idly by while DOE uses this new
level of technology to design and build new weapons.
New Tests Planned at Nevada Test Site
DOE planned a series of four "subcritical" nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site, starting June 18, 1996. The purpose of the tests was to assess the effects of new manufacturing techniques on weapons materials, to enhance computer modeling of nuclear weapon performance, and to maintain the capabilities of the Test site.
Opposition to the "subcritical" nuclear tests by the American public and
foreign diplomats forced the Clinton Administration to postpone them at the
last minute on June 17. Such tests would undermine the Nuclear Non-proliferation
Treaty and efforts to conclude a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty this year.
What You Can Do
Call President Clinton and urge him to cancel, not just postpone, the
"subcritical"nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site (202-456-1111).
Congress will vote on funding for NIF in July 1996. NIF will undermine the Nuclear Non-proliferation and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaties. Residents of Livermore and surrounding communities ask you to urge your representative to vote against it. Also call Congressman Vic Favio (Democrat, California); he is on the House Energy and Water Subcommittee that is considering NIF.
Finally, ask Congressman Ron Dellums to (Democrat, California) take the lead in opposing NIF. All members of Congress are at 202-224-3121. For more information, contact Tri-Valley CAREs at 510-443-7148 or Western States Legal Foundation at 510-839-5877.
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