Tri-Valley CAREs
Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
Holiday Party & Contest Awards
Updated: Saturday, December 3, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Join us for amazing food, adult and other beverages, merriment & camaraderie. And Sparkles the Clown will be there for the kids (and the young at heart).
We at Tri-Valley CAREs appreciate all you do for peace, justice and a healthy environment throughout the year, and request the honor of your presence to partake of these festivities. Our board members are cooking…
We will also celebrate the winners of our 2016 Youth Video Contest with cash prizes and a preview of the top entries.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016. Drop-in anytime from 5 - 8 PM
Location: Livermore Main Library 1188 South Livermore Ave., Community Rooms A & B, Livermore.
More Info: (925) 443-7148
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Today, Valley CAREs offered its first virtual tour of Livermore Lab’ Site 300 to an enthusiastic audience of two-dozen people, including some who had signed up for the community tour that Livermore Lab summarily cancelled (see post of 11-2-16). Joseph Rodgers, our group’s Nuclear Policy Intern, created the virtual tour.
Today’s debut also featured a new presentation detailing the toxic and radioactive pollution at Site 300, the EPA Superfund cleanup program to address the site’s contaminated soil, surface water and groundwater aquifers, and the public’s role in decision-making.
Environmental Scientist Peter Strauss and the group’s Executive Director, Marylia Kelley collaborated on the new presentation. Kelley conducted the showing today and facilitated the lively discussion that followed.
A second showing of the virtual tour and presentation slides is now being organized. Watch this space for the date/time/Tracy area location to be announced, or contact [email protected] to secure your invitation now.
You may view the virtual tour here. (Please note you will need a free downloadable app from Google Earth to take this tour.)
A contaminant map of Site 300 in PDF with virtual tour locations is here.
The new presentation slides are downloadable in PDF here.
Two weapons tests at Site 300 referenced in the PowerPoint are downloadable here.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Today is Giving Tuesday. We are grateful and excited to announce that our Board of Directors has offered to match your donation to Tri-Valley CAREs right now, dollar for dollar, up to $14,500!
Our Board is all-volunteer. They are reaching down deep to make this offer.
This is a “challenge match” and we must reach our $14,500 goal this holiday season. We say, hooray! We love a challenge!
May we count on your generous gift today, on Giving Tuesday?
We have a secure online donation portal through Network for Good. Tri-Valley CAREs is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization; contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
To Donate Using Network for Good:
Click Here
Click here to read more about our current fundraising campaign.
November 18, 2016
There were many wonderful entries in our 2016 Youth Video Contest. Our panel of judges had a very hard time picking thier favorites. Below are the four top videos as rated by our panel of judges. Thanks to all of those who entered and we hope to see you all at our awards ceremony at the Livermore Library on December 7th for a screening on the big screen.
- First Place Winner - Make Livermore Safe by Steven Hause
- Second Place Winner - Be the Change by Vanessa Manzon
- Third Place Winner - Don't Let The Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab Pollute Your Community Any Longer by Vivian and Patrick Conolly
- Honorable Mention - Clean Groundwater Aquifers: A Necessity to Society by Gautam Banuru
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs is interviewed by NBC News on the federal EPA proposal to allow more radioactivity in our drinking water after a nuclear accident or release. See why this plan will increase your risk - and why we are acting to stop it!
Click here to read the corresponding article.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Join us for the quarterly meeting of the Tracy Advisory Committee on the cleanup of the nearby "Site 300" High Explosives Testing Range.
Location: Safeway Community Room, 1801 W. 11th Street, Tracy.
More Info: (925) 443-7148
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Dear members of the public who had wanted to attend the Livermore Lab toxic cleanup tour:
I regret to inform you of bad news. Please read carefully…
Tri-Valley CAREs has been working with Livermore Lab staff to offer these special community tours of locations undergoing cleanup under the Superfund law every year for the past 10 years or more.
The tours have proven very informative and useful for members of the public, offering a rare glimpse inside the classified fence lines of the Lab’s Site 300 high explosives testing range near Tracy and its Main Site in Livermore.
The process has always been that Tri-Valley CAREs confirms a date for each tour each year with Livermore Lab based on what date and time will work best for their schedule.
We repeated that process earlier this year. The Lab’s Site 300 management and technical staff chose November 30, 2016 as their tour date. The Main Site chose the follow day, December 1, 2016 for their tour.
After these dates were fully confirmed by Livermore Lab, we publicized them as we have always done. We make the tours accessible to community members on a “first come, first served” basis until the seats allotted on the Lab’s bus are full.
That has always been the process, until now.
Click here to read more details.
As one remedy, Tri-Valley CAREs is now offering alternative cleanup tours, including an in-person “fence line” tour at the Lab’s Main Site and a “virtual” tour of Site 300 that will include innovative satellite mapping of the testing range.
Email [email protected] for details. Or, call us at (925) 443-7148.
To learn more about our Nov. 10, 2016 meeting in Tracy, click here.
For more about the “fence line” tour of the Main Site on Dec. 1, 2016, click here.
Additional fence line and virtual tour dates and times are available to groups on request.
Join us! Exercise your human right to clean air, clean water and a healthy environment.
Peace,
Marylia Kelley
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Posted by Scott Yundt
In a disappointing judgement, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) sided with several nuclear powers by claiming they lacked jurisdiction to hear the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ (RMI) nuclear disarmament cases against India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.
These lawsuits were submitted by the RMI to the ICJ in 2014 with the intention of enforcing the nuclear disarmament obligations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on the nine nuclear-armed states (U.S., Russia, UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea). Only the UK, India and Pakistan appeared before the ICJ. China, the U.S., Russia, France, Israel and North Korea chose to ignore the ICJ cases.
Click here for more...
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs is organizing community tours this fall inside the classified fence lines of the Livermore Lab Main Site in Livermore and its Site 300 high explosives testing range near Tracy. These tours will visit areas where toxic and radioactive contaminants have been released. The pollution is undergoing cleanup pursuant to the federal “Superfund” law.
Community members will receive briefings from Dept. of Energy, Livermore Lab and Tri-Valley CAREs staff on cleanup techniques, timelines and more. Tri-Valley CAREs is offering seats on a “first come-first served” basis.
Click here for more information...
“Almighty: Courage, Resistance and Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age”
Book Premiere & Author Event with Dan Zak - Moderated by Marylia Kelley
On a tranquil summer night in July 2012, a trio of peace activists infiltrated the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN. Nicknamed the “Fort Knox of Uranium,” Y-12 was supposedly one of the most secure sites in the world, a bastion of warhead parts and hundreds of tons of highly enriched uranium—enough to power thousands of nuclear bombs. The three activists—a house painter, a Vietnam War veteran, and an 82-year-old Catholic nun—penetrated the complex’s exterior with ease; their strongest tools were two pairs of bolt cutters and three hammers. Once inside, the pacifists hung banners, spray-painted biblical messages, and streaked the walls with human blood. Then they waited to be arrested.
In Almighty, Washington Post reporter Dan Zak analyzes the “Transform Now” ploughshares act in the context of America’s love-hate relationship to the bomb, from the race to achieve atomic power before the Nazis did to the solemn 70th anniversary of Hiroshima. At a time of concern about proliferation in such nations as Iran and North Korea, the U.S. arsenal is plagued by its own security problems. This life-or-death quandary is unraveled in Zak’s eye-opening account, with a cast that includes the biophysicist who first educated the public on atomic energy, the prophet who predicted the creation of Oak Ridge, the generations of activists propelled into resistance by their faith, and the numerous bureaucrats and diplomats who are trying to keep the world safe. Part historical adventure, part courtroom drama, part moral thriller, Almighty reshapes the accepted narratives surrounding nuclear weapons and shows that our greatest modern-day threat remains a power we discovered long ago. Almighty is now out in hardcover.
Discussion moderated by Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs
Location: BOOKS INC. OF BERKELEY, 1491 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, CA
More Info: (925) 443-7148
Consider this: What were you – or members of your family – doing in September 1980? Whatever you can recall, meanwhile, a chilling nightmare was unfolding at a Titan II missile complex in Arkansas. A worker had accidentally dropped a socket, puncturing the fuel tank of an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal, an incident that ignited a series of feverish efforts to avoid a deadly disaster.
Click here for more...
Tri-Valley CAREs will be at the San Francisco and Berkeley theaters with additional literature for select showings. Call us at (925) 443-7148 for details.
October 14, 2016 - October 20, 2016
Landmark Theatres Shattuck Cinemas at 2230 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704
October 14, 2016 - October 20, 2016
Landmark Theatres Opera Plaza Cinema at 601 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Posted by Vivian Connolly
Lawrence Livermore National Lab’s high explosives testing range, called Site 300, in Tracy, CA performs large-scale test explosions with Uranium-238 (U-238). U-238 is a radioactive metal that the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) links to kidney problems, inhibited fetal development, a higher risk of soft tissue cancers, and more. These test explosions put U-238 pollutants ranging from gaseous to particles the size of a softball into our surroundings.
U-238 particles don’t necessarily stay within the boundaries of Site 300, in fact we don’t know how far they have been dispersed and that is dangerous. In a draft work plan for clean-up, Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) planned to sample soil at the edge of Site 300 to establish a background concentration of U-238 to compare to uranium concentrations in soil samples around the rest of the site. This work plan is only a draft, however it fails to adequately study the full impact U-238 has on our community. There will be no sampling of the area surrounding Site 300 or sampling in the neighboring cities of Tracy and Livermore. It is also establishing a background concentration, which should be clean compared to other samples, at Site 300 where the U-238 tests originate.
Click here for more...
Updated, Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Posted by Scott Yundt
Approximately 200 anti-nuclear activists gathered outside the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab on August 9 to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki - and to stand with survivors of nuclear weapons from Hiroshima to the Marshall Islands.
Keynote speakers included famed whistleblower and nuclear weapons analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, atomic-bomb survivor, Nobuaki Hanaoka, and Executive Director of Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, John Burroughs. Tara Dorabji with Tri-Valley CAREs gave the group a sense of place with her description of current nuclear weapons work at Livermore Lab, while Chizu Hamada drew links between the nuclear bomb and nuclear power. Jackie Cabasso, from Western States Legal Foundation, updated the crowd on the "Growing Dangers of Wars Among Nuclear-Armed States."
The rally was followed by a march to the Livermore Lab main gate where peace advocates then staged a "die in" and had their bodies chalked on the roadway to symbolize the victims vaporized in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 45 peaceful protesters, including Ellsberg, chose to risk arrest for blocking the roadway at both the West and Main East Ave. Gates to the Lab.
Links to photos, news articles, video and radio broadcasts can be found below. We will continue to add links as additional materials become available.
Click here to read the text of John Burrough's speech from the rally.
Click here to read the text of Jackie Cabasso's speech from the rally.
Click here to read the text of Tara Dorabji's speech from the rally.
Click here to read the text of Chizu Hamada's speech from the rally.
Click here for the Pacifica Radio Evening News segment and article about the event.
Listen to Marylia Kelley's live interview on KPFA Radio's "The Talkies" with Kris Welch.(Her interview begins at minute 4)
Click here to read an article about the event in Akahata newspaper (in Japanese)...
Click here for an article and video from the Central Valley Business Times.
Click here for more pictures, videos and links...
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
The California Environmental Justice Coalition (CEJC) will gather in Sacramento Saturday, August 20 through Monday, August 22. Tri-Valley CAREs will be represented by its executive director, Marylia Kelley, and its youth outreach volunteer, Lisa Putkey, who has worked on peace and environmental justice issues in CA and NM as well as nationally in Washington, DC.
Click here to read more... Click here for a current list of CEJC member groups.
Click here for our media advisory for the Sacramento “Days of Action”
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Posted by Vivian Connolly
Explosives testing facilities across the country accumulate millions of tons of hazardous waste and fail to ensure clean disposal of it. Disposal is currently handled by a process called open burning and open detonation (OB/OD). OB/OD of hazardous waste is a direct threat to human and environmental health and these facilities are doing it in our backyards and on the banks of our waterways.
Although the process was banned in 1984 by amendments that Congress made to RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act), an exemption was made by the EPA for “waste explosives” which are generated by the Military. The EPA justified that “waste explosives…cannot safely be disposed of through other modes of treatment” (See Regulatory Loophole” here). Thirty-two years have passed, however, since the exemption and science has found a range of alternatives to OB/OD. Ironically, some of the work on these alternatives was done at Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL), however the facility has failed to adopt any of the practices that it itself developed. Lawmakers will continue being slow to ban OB/OD entirely unless communities begin to rally behind these alternatives.
Click here to read more...
Site 300's Open Burn Cage used for burning hazardous explosives waste.
Site 300's Open Burn Pans used for burning hazardous explosives waste.
Updated, Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
NOBUAKI HANAOKA, a Nagasaki A-bomb survivor, will share his experience and insights with us on Tuesday, August 9 at 8 am just outside the gates of Livermore Lab at the corner of Vasco & Patterson Pass Roads. International lawyer, John Burroughs, will discuss the U.S. nuclear bomb tests detonated in the Marshall Islands and the Pacific Island nation’s courageous “Nuclear Zero” lawsuits against the U.S. and 8 other nuclear weapons states for their failure to disarm. Tri-Valley CAREs' Tara Dorabji will speak about Livermore Lab's nuclear programs. Additional speakers, music and drummers will be followed by a short march to the West Gate for a Japanese Bon dance and nonviolent direct action.
We are sorry to announce that Amb. Tony de Brum is ill and will not be able to join us on August 9. His daughter, Doreen de Brum wrote to us today, "It is with sincere regrets that my dad cannot come... Please extend his most sincere apologies to all who had counted on him and those who had looked forward to seeing him. This is one of those things we have no control over." We who know Tony deBrum personally understand how ill he must be. He is not a man who cancels lightly. We are sending him our best wishes for a full recovery. We will have a get-well card for participants to sign at the Lab on August 9. See you there!
For more details regarding the August 9 rally and nonviolent direct action and the Peace Camp on August 8, click here.
Click here to check out (and like) the event's Facebook page.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
On Saturday, July 16 Tri-Valley CAREs members, Board of Directors and staff gathered for our annual all-day Strategic Planning Retreat. The day includes an accountability piece, where we look back at the past year to assess our achievements and whether we met our goals.
Our staff prepares a detailed report for this accountability piece entitled "Looking Back, Looking Forward."
Then as a group, we examine the expected opportunities and challeges we face in achieving our mission over the coming year. Then the staff presents the potential program priorities to the group and the group votes on what they believe the top priorities should be. This years votes resutled in the following rank order list of priorities.
We ecourage participation of a wide variety of Tri-Valley CAREs members in our strategic planning. Contact us to get involved in the future.
Thursday, June 28, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
The Summer 2016 edition of Tri-Valley CAREs' newsletter, Citizen's Watch, is now ready for you to enjoy. Inside you will find:
Citizen's Watch Newsletter Summer 2016
TVC in DC - A Report Back from the Capital Page 1
Nagasaki at LLNL - The Power of Your Presence on August 9thPage 1 & Insert
We Are Suing DOE- Freedom of Information Lawsuit Page 3
Join Us - Annual Strategic Planning Retreat Page 3
Alerts for You - Upcoming Events Page 2
Site 300 - 80 Pounds of Depleted Uranium Found Scattered Page 4
A Letter from our Staff Attorney -Insert
- Citizen's Watch Newsletter Winter 2016
Nuclear Warheads - In the Budget & the Labs Page 1
Our Director - On Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman Page 2
Lawsuit Progress - #NuclearZero case heard in International Court Page 2
Save the Date - August 9th in Livermore Page 2
New Report - Trillion $ Trainwreck Page 3
Alerts for You - Upcoming Events Page 3
Hazardous Waste - Public Hearing in Tracy - April 27th Page 4
DC Days - Speaking Truth to Power in Washington Insert
Updated, Tuesday, July 1, 2016
Posted by Scott Yundt
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has not issued a hazardous waste permit to Livermore Lab's Site 300 since 1997. After a failed permit process in 2007, in which public comment was taken, but then abandoned and never responded to, DTSC has recently issued a new Draft Hazardous Waste Permit for Site 300.
The High Explosives Testing done at Site 300 (in support of nuclear weapons development) produces significant quantities of hazardous waste, which contains or is contaminated with high explosives and a slurry of other toxins. Much of these wastes are burned in on-site incinerators. Site 300 is a Superfund site, with serious contamination from historical mismanagement of hazardous waste. The hazardous waste operations continue to threaten the environment and human health.
A public hearing was held in Tracy on April 27th in which the present community was given a short presentation and allowed to ask questions. The DTSC was unable to answer many of the questions. Comments were taken on the record.
The public had until Friday, July 1st to submit their written comment to the DTSC.
Click here to read Tri-Valley CAREs full comment.
Tri-Valley CAREs drafted a short “sign and send” comment that you can sign and send electronically.
Click here for an English version of the “sign and send” comment that you can download, print and mail in.
Click here for an Spanish version of the “sign and send” comment that you can download, print and mail in. We are in the process of drafting more detailed comments.
Click here for the Draft Permit's Environmental Review
Click here for the Summary Report of Ecological Risk Assessment for the Operation of the Explosives Waste Treatment Facility at Site 300 of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Click here for the Soil Sample Report In Support of the Site 300 Explosives Waste Treatment Facility Ecological Risk Assessment and Permit Renewal
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Today, the Rules Committee in the House of Representatives accepted an amendment offered by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) to the Defense Appropriations Bill. This means that every Representative will get the chance to vote on it, including yours. The vote could come as early as tomorrow (Thursday).
The amendment would cut the budget for the new nuclear-tipped cruise missile, known as the Long-Range Stand Off (LRSO) weapon by $75.8 million and moves the savings to “deficit reduction” instead of a new nuclear weapon.
The impact of this amendment would be to delay the development and production of the cruise missile. As you know, delay is often a necessary and crucial first step to cancellation of a new nuclear weapon system.
Click here for more.
To read about the LRSO (pages 3 and 4) in the 2016 report, “Trillion Dollar Trainwreck” by Tri-Valley CAREs and other organizations in the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, click here.
For a blog by Tri-Valley CAREs’ intern Joseph Rodgers summarizing key facts about the new LRSO and cruise missile, click here.
For an op-ed in the Washington Post by former Secretary of Defense William Perry and former Assistant Secretary Andy Weber, titled, “Mr. President, Kill the New Cruise Missile,” click here.
For additional information, check back issues of our Citizen’s Watch newsletter click here.
You can also call us at 925-443-7148 to find out how you can stay involved with Tri-Valley CAREs throughout the coming year to stop this new nuclear weapon and the $1 trillion new nuclear arms race of which it is a part.
Remember, your call now can make a huge difference! Call 202-224-3121.
Friday, June 10, 2016
Posted by Scott Yundt
Today, Tri-Valley CAREs filed a lawsuit in Federal Court for the Northern District of California against the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration for failures to comply with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with respect to four outstanding FOIA requests.
The information requested is time sensitive and crucial to our mission. In some cases we have been waiting up to four years for responses. The requested information includes:
- Plutonium use in Livermore Lab's National Ignition Facility;
- Management of Livermore Lab and Site 300's High-Risk Excess Facilities, which pose a risk to the public;
- Details of the Agencies' plans to meet their plutonium pit manufacturing requirements, which might include work at Livermore Lab;
- And, details of an improper Anthrax shipment to Livermore Lab's bio facilities.
We will update this blog with the progress in our lawsuit and any important information learned.
Click here to read our Complaint.
Click here to read our Press Release.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Posted by Scott Yundt
This week the White House formally announced that Barack Obama will become the first sitting U.S. President to visit Hiroshima, Japan on May 27, 2016.
Secretary of State John Kerry went to Hiroshima last month. His visit was widely seen as a “trial balloon,” presaging the just-announced Presidential journey. Marylia Kelley told Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, “Kerry went empty-handed. The United States needs to go with a concrete plan to roll back its own nuclear weapons program. You cannot preach abstinence, in terms of nuclear weapons, from the biggest bar stool in the room.”
The U.S. continues to rely heavily on nuclear weapons and is embarking on a $1 trillion program over 30 years to upgrade every aspect of its nuclear arsenal, including with new warheads, missiles, subs, bombers and nuclear weapons production facilities.
Herein coexist a fundamental policy contradiction, a huge challenge for peace activists and, quite possibly, an unparalleled opportunity to influence the future.
Tri-Valley CAREs and colleague organizations are urging President Obama not to go to Hiroshima empty-handed. We are not asking Obama for a big speech full of lofty rhetoric and fancy words. Our message is: “Actions speak louder than words, Mr. President.”
We are calling on President Obama to take concrete action to roll back aggressive U.S. nuclear weapons programs. Click here for more...
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Amy Goodman interviewed Tri-Valley CAREs Executive Director, Marylia Kelley on her show, Democracy Now! about the pollution in Livermore. She specifically referred to the new report titled "Trillion Dollar Trainwreck: Out-of-control U.S. nuclear weapons programs accelerate spending, proliferation, health and safety risks" which Kelley co-authored.
Click here to read the transcript of the interview.
Click here to read more about US nuclear waste and cleanup at US nuclear sites in the new report "Trillion Dollar Trainwreck: Out-of-control U.S. nuclear weapons programs accelerate spending, proliferation, health and safety risks."
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Posted by Scott Yundt
Tri-Valley CAREs 2016 DC Days Delegation with California Senator Dianne Feinstein (R to L - Vecky Elliot, Scott Yundt, Senator Feinstein, Marylia Kelley, Julie Kantor)
Tri-Valley CAREs Executive Director Marylia Kelley giving an award to California Sentator Dianne Feinstein for her work to stop the Long Range Stand-Off nuclear weapon at the 2016 Alliance for Nuclear Accountability DC Days.
"TRILLION DOLLAR TRAINWRECK" - This new report was co-authored by Tri-Valley CAREs Executive Director, Marylia Kelley, and several other experts from the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) in prepartion for "DC Days," ANA's annual lobbying week. We distributed the report widely to Members of Congress and administration officials.
Wednesday, April 19, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
The Winter 2016 edition of Tri-Valley CAREs' newsletter, Citizen's Watch, is now ready for you to enjoy. Inside you will find:
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Posted by Scott Yundt
Amy Goodman interviewed Tri-Valley CAREs Executive Director Marylia Kelley on her show, Democracy Now!, today. Marylia shared information about the $1 trillion dollars the U.S. is planning to spend on its nuclear weapons over the next 30 years. She specifically referred to the new report titled "Trillion Dollar Trainwreck: Out-of-control U.S. nuclear weapons programs accelerate spending, proliferation, health and safety risks" which Kelley co-authored.
Click here to read the transcript of the interview.
Click here to read the new report "Trillion Dollar Trainwreck: Out-of-control U.S. nuclear weapons programs accelerate spending, proliferation, health and safety risks."
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
The nuclear weapons "TRILLION DOLLAR TRAINWRECK" is here. This new report was co-authored by Tri-Valley CAREs Executive Director, Marylia Kelley, and several other experts from the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) in prepartion for "DC Days," ANA's annual lobbying week. We will be distributing the report widely to Members of Congress and administration officials.
Click here for the report; Click here to help your Tri-Valley CAREs team take the report's recommendations to Capitol Hill; work with us throughout the year to prevent these destabilizing new weapons programs and shift the money to cleaning up the mess from past nuclear weapons activities.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Posted by Robert Civiak
Click here to download the chart showing the massive increase in U.S. spending for nuclear warheads, despite a shrinking arsenal. We will be using it in meetings in Washington, DC next week...
Click here for additional commentary on this chart from the Ploughshares Fund.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Posted by Scott Yundt
The DOE NNSA released the Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Request to Congress. For Livermore Lab, Nuclear Weapons Activities still dominate the budget, increasing to over 86%. The Lab's overall budget request is up 6% to $1.239 billion, over a billion of which is for Nuclear Weapons Activities. Click on the pie chart to see more...
Click here to download the pie chart...
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
The Mixed-Oxide Fuel Facility (MOX), at the DOE's Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has been a boondoggle of epic proportions. Tri-Valley CAREs and other groups have long opposed it as a dangerous and wasteful approach to surplus plutonium disposition, for which cheaper and safer alternatives exist.
Click here for more...
Click here for the White House Office of Management and Budget FY2017 Dep't of Energy Budget Overview
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Here, too, we a piece of good news to report. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 budget request accelerates the schedule for dismantlement of retired U.S. nuclear weapons by 20%.
The Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration Congressional Budget Request (Volume 1, page 8) highlights the “goal” of dismantling warheads retired from the U.S. stockpile before 2009 by 2021. Given the snail’s pace by which retired nuclear weapons are being disassembled, this is a modest goal for certain. Plus, on page 75 of the same document, the target date for taking apart warheads retired before 2009 is listed as “the end of 2022,” a full year later (a DOE typo?).
Click here for more...
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
The DOE budget request for nuclear weapons activities reveals the policy direction that President Obama wants to hand over to his successor. And, that trajectory is not merely in conflict with Obama’s 2009 “Prague speech” pledging leadership toward a world free of nuclear weapons. It’s an outright repudiation. Instead, it increases spending to “improve” nuclear war-fighting capabilities.
Make no mistake. The FY 2017 budget request is a down payment on $1 trillion in upgrades to U.S. nuclear weapons over the next thirty years. While much of that spending will be in the Pentagon for new subs and planes its driving force is found in the DOE budget request, which contains the funding for the new U.S. nuclear bombs and bomb plants.
Click here for more...
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Posted by Marylia Kelley
The Obama Administration’s nuclear weapons policy is revealed much more by its spending plans than its rhetoric. On February 9, the Fiscal Year 2017 Department of Energy (DOE) budget request will illuminate the programs that President Obama wants to pass on to his successor.
Will it increase funding for additional nuclear weapons programs despite warnings that “modernization” is leading to a new arms race? Will the President keep faith with communities harmed by nuclear weapons activities and request the funds needed to stabilize nuclear materials and clean up contaminated land and waters at DOE sites across America?
The DOE Fiscal Year 2017 budget request will answer these and other questions of great importance to the American people and the world. The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), a 29-year-old network of groups from communities downwind and downstream of U.S. nuclear sites, will be looking at the following issues. For details, contact the ANA leaders listed at the end of this Advisory.
Click here for more.
Click here to download our Media Advisory
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Posted by Joseph Rodgers
The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to global catastrophe. Since 1947, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has changed the time displayed on the clock’s face to reflect annual modifications to the continuous dangers that humanity is faced with. The clock reflects the world’s two largest existential threats: climate change and nuclear weapons.
On the 22nd of January, 2016 the Bulletin decided to leave the clock at three minutes to midnight. While the Bulletin leaders applaud the Iran Deal and the Paris Agreements, they believe that these diplomatic achievements were not enough.
Click here for more.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Posted by Joseph Rodgers
North Korea conducted its third known nuclear weapons test on January 6, 2016. The North Korean Central News Agency claims that the test was a successful small hydrogen bomb explosion. In the past, North Korea is believed to have only successfully detonated one-stage atomic weapons.
Hydrogen weapons are hundreds or even thousands of times more powerful than atomic weapons. Hydrogen bombs are two stage weapons that rely on the energy released by atomic fission to create the conditions necessary for hydrogen fusion.
Based off of initial CTBTO seismic readings, North Korea likely did not produce a successful hydrogen explosion. The January 6 test produced a magnitude 5.1 seismic event. North Korea’s 2013 atomic bomb test created a magnitude 5 seismic event.
Click here for more.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Posted by Marylia Kelley
The Winter 2016 edition of Tri-Valley CAREs' newsletter, Citizen's Watch, is now ready for you to enjoy. Click into the PDF link, and you will find:
Thank You - To the Individuals and Foundations that Support Us Page 1
Poison Soil & Tainted Water - Site 300 Community Meeting & Acceptance Criteria Page 1 & Insert
Print Bites - All the News that Fits to Print Page 2
Youth Video Contest - Winners! Page 2
Irradiated - Sick Worker Problems Continue Page 2
We are Accomplished - Successes of 2015 Page 3
Alerts for You - Upcoming Events Page 3
Hell No LRSO - Stopping the Long-Range Stand Off Weapon Page 4
