Monday, December 10, 2007
People must oppose scary new bio-lab
By: Beverly King, Tri-Valley CAREs board member
Published In: Contra Costa Times
As your newspaper recently reported, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory caused an anthrax release when shipping more than 4,000 vials of the pathogen to Florida and Virginia. Two anthrax vials had missing lids and a third was not properly secured. The accident occurred in 2005, but the information was not made public. Fortunately, this carefully held secret was exposed in 2007. Lab management was fined $450,000 as these shipments violated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regulations and exposed workers to danger. The Department of Energy plans a Biosafety Level 3 (BSL...
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Thursday, November 01, 2007
More Nuclear Weapons
By: Martha Priebat, Letter to the Editor
Published In: Indepenent, Livermore
I recently attended a meeting that discussed the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to build new nuclear weapons. This plan stands in defiance of the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which the United States is signatory.
I ask: Do we need new nuclear weapons? Our scientists tell us the current arsenal will remain reliable for a minimum of 100 years � or longer. So, we must conclude that new nuclear weapons are not needed.
In addition, the development and production of these new weapons will contaminate the environment, adding to the already known con...
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Thursday, October 11, 2007
Lab Fined $450,000 for Anthrax Incident
By: Independent Staff
Published In: The Livermore Independent
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has reached a $450,000 settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The agreement concerns violations of the Centers for Disease Control�s (CDC) select agent regulations and involves errors in two shipments of bacillus anthracis dating back to September 2005.
It was the largest fine levied in recent history by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Tri-Valley CAREs has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to federal agencies seeking ...
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Sunday, October 07, 2007
Lab fined $450,000 for mishandling anthrax
By: Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Published In: San Franciso Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/07/BA6RSLIUB.DTL
A former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist who lacked proper credentials sent off an uninspected package containing two open vials of deadly pathogen anthrax across the country in 2005, triggering a $450,000 federal fine against the lab, authorities say.
The scientist, who resigned her post at the Livermore lab after the incident, left the twist caps off two containers and a loose cap on a third vial in a 1,025-vial shipment to Palm Beach, Fla., in September 2005, according to the findings of a federal agency's review that led to the fine.
The lab in Florida then o...
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Saturday, October 06, 2007
Livermore Lab Fined for Mailing Anthrax Vials
By: Jason Kobely, Internet News Producer
Published In: News 10 ABC
LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been fined $450,000 after a federal agency found that a former scientist sent two open vials of anthrax across the country two years ago.
The Department of Transportation found that the employee lacked proper credentials when she sent a shipment with more than 1,000 vials of the deadly pathogen to a laboratory in Palm Beach, Florida.
The scientist resigned from her job after the incident.
Two workers at the Florida lab may have been exposed when the anthrax shipment was opened without proper precautions. ...
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Saturday, October 06, 2007
Livermore Lab fined for shipping open vials of anthrax to Florida
By: Staff
Published In: Associated Press
LIVERMORE � Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been fined $450,000 after a federal agency found that a former scientist sent two open vials of anthrax across the country two years ago.
The employee lacked proper credentials when she sent a shipment with 1,025 vials of the deadly pathogen to a laboratory in Palm Beach, Fla. in September 2005, according to the Department of Transportation's review.
The scientist, who resigned from her job after the incident, had left the twist caps off two containers and a loose cap on a third vial, the agency found. Two workers at the Flor...
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Saturday, October 06, 2007
Livermore Lab Fined $450K For Anthrax Indiscretion
Officials Say Worker Sent 2 Open Vials Across Country In 2005
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was fined $450,000 after a federal agency found that a former scientist sent two open vials of anthrax across the country two years ago.
The employee lacked proper credentials when she sent a shipment with 1,025 vials of the deadly pathogen to a laboratory in Palm Beach, Fla. in September 2005, according to the Department of Transportation's review.
The scientist, who resigned from her job after the incident, had left the twist caps off two containers a...
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Friday, October 05, 2007
Improper Shipment of Anthrax in 2005 earned the Lawrence Livermore Nat
By: Jennifer Wadsworth
Published In: Tracy Press
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories was fined $450,000 for failure to properly prepare a package of anthrax shipped across the country in 2005.
The Department of Health and Human Services levied the fine against the laboratories on Sept. 24 for failure to comply with packaging laws, and for erroneous paperwork when they mailed vials of anthrax to bio labs in Virginia and Florida two years ago. Federal investigators publicly announced the fine Thursday at a Congressional hearing.
The fine was the biggest of the 11 issued since 2003 by the inspector general.
Vials of an...
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Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Livermore Lab's Future Sparks Anxiety
By: Cornell Barnard
Published In: News 10
Next month the U.S. Department of Energy will release its anticipated plan called Complex 2030. The plan will detail how Livermore Lab and other federal sites across the U.S. will store plutonium and develop new nuclear weapons over the next 30 years.
The lab reportedly wants to build a new plutonium pit production facility for producing bomb cores.
"The government doesn't need a new pit facility to manufacture nukes," said Marylia Kelly with Tri Valley CARES, a lab watchdog group.
The lab says the restructuring does not pose a danger or a threat to neighbors in the valley...
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Saturday, September 22, 2007
Warhead replacement policy a threat
By: Beverly King, Tri-Valley CAREs board member
Published In: Tri-Valley Herald
Complex 2030 is the Department of Energy's policy to replace every nuclear warhead in our nuclear stockpile. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is designing the first of these weapons in a program called Reliable Replacement Warhead, a benign name for a dangerous venture. The policy is against the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty our country has signed. More nuclear materials are a threat to the environment at a staggering cost of $150 billion. When we create more nukes, we give excuses for other nations to do likewise, an international danger. Deterioration of the environment and people's...
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Thursday, September 06, 2007
Livermore lab to ship 'non pit' plutonium
By: Jonathan Curiel
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
In a move it says will lead to cost savings and improved security, the Department of Energy announced plans on Wednesday to take hundreds of containers of "non-pit" plutonium from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and two other nuclear facilities, and transport them for storage to South Carolina.
An anti-nuclear group in Livermore said the plan belies the fact that more dangerous plutonium will be sent to Lawrence Livermore Lab in the coming years - shipments that will make the Bay Area facility even more vulnerable to accidents and security breaches.
Using convoys of trucks guarde...
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Thursday, September 06, 2007
Lab will get rid of excess plutonium
By: Betsy Mason
Published In: Contra Costa Times
LIVERMORE: DOE officials plan to send 3,000 containers of element to South Carolina facility by 2010
Livermore Lab's surplus plutonium is set to be moved to South Carolina by 2010. The Department of Energy announced plans Wednesday to consolidate 3,000 coffee-can sized canisters of surplus plutonium at its Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.
"It's in our best interests, certainly from a security standpoint, to consolidate as much plutonium as possible," said DOE spokesman John Belluardo.
The radioactive element is used to make fission cores for nuclear bombs.
Nearly...
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Thursday, July 19, 2007
HER VOICE: Public Health Intern Sheyda Sabetan
By: Sheyda Sabetan
Published In: The Independent
Lab Clean-Up
Sheyda Sabetan
Pleasanton
The Livermore Lab has been conducting experiments since 1955 that contaminate the soil, air, and groundwater, and put our community�s health at risk. Concerned members of our community must seize this opportunity to improve health prospects for future generations.
The Lab�s bomb component testing ground, Site 300, is located southwest of downtown Tracy. Many contaminants are cancer-causing substances left from radioactive explosions. Livermore Lab is continuing to expand these polluting experiments.
Tri-Valley CAREs is the watch...
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Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Public Meeting will further explain lab's plan
By: Jake Armstrong, Record Staff Writer
Published In: Stockton Record
TRACY - Air pollution regulators Wednesday will explain Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's request to more than triple the amount of explosives used in test blasts in the hills southwest of Tracy and outline how the public can get involved.
The lab is asking permission to detonate as much as 350 pounds of high explosives a day and up to 8,000 pounds per year - with the potential to release up to 453 pounds of depleted uranium into the air yearly at its test range, known as Site 300.
This is the second round for the request, which San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control Dis...
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Friday, July 13, 2007
HIS VOICE: Tri-Valley CAREs' legal intern, Michael Stanker
By: Michael Stanker
Published In: Tracy Press
>http://tracypress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10177&Itemid=22
Guest editorial
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday rejected Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory�s bid to house a bio-warfare agent research facility at Site 300, 6 miles from Tracy. The facility, which will be the size of five Wal-Marts, would have housed some of the world�s most lethal pathogens.
The main reason why Site 300 was not selected, despite the lab�s intense lobbying, was because the community vehemently opposed the facility. Residents spoke loudly and clearly opposing the dangerous facility. They wrote letters, made phone calls, signed petitions and s...
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Thursday, July 12, 2007
UC Out of the running for controversial biodefense lab
By: David Perlman, Science Editor
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/12/BAG61QV3GK1.DTL
LIVERMORE--
The University of California lost its bid Wednesday to build a huge new biodefense lab where scientists would study highly dangerous microbes at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's property near Tracy, federal officials announced Wednesday.
Scientists at the new defense facility would research some of the world's deadliest disease-causing pathogens that terrorists or enemy forces might employ as biological warfare agents, according to plans disclosed a year ago by the Department of Homeland Security.
At that time, nearly 30 sites across the nation we...
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Thursday, July 12, 2007
Tracy site doesn't make cut
By: Mike Martinez
Published In: Tri-Valley Herald
SUBTITLE: Facility for studying contagions to be built outside California
TRACY � Federal officials have whittled down their list of potential locations for a proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, and Site 300, located in the hills south of Tracy, is not on it.
The Department of Homeland Security selected sites in Mississippi, Kansas, Texas, North Carolina and Georgia as finalists for the proposed lab, much to the delight of local activists.
Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, called it "a major victor...
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Thursday, June 21, 2007
Toxic Legacy: Cleanup at Livermore Lab
By: Cornell Barnard
Published In: News 10, Sacramento
VIDEO link above, text link after this story.
A large group gathered near Tracy City Hall Wednesday to give their input on the federal goverment's plan to clean up Site 300 near the Lawrence Livermore Lab.
The weapons testing range, about eight miles west of Tracy contains radioactive pollution, enough to make the Superfund list for some of the nation's worst contamination.
"There is no health threat to the public in Tracy," said John Belluardo from the Department of Energy.
Some neighbors have concerns about living near the test range, and watchdog groups say the D...
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Thursday, June 21, 2007
Explosives test range Site 300 questioned over cleanup plan
By: Bob Browne
Published In: San Joaquin News Service
Reresentatives of the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory say they've made substantial progress in 25 years of cleanup efforts at Site 300, but lab critics said the overall cleanup plan does not go far enough.
"I'm surprised you would consider a cleanup plan without considering the pollution from further activities at the site," said local businessman Bob Sarvey, one of about a dozen speakers Wednesday as the DOE and the lab collected public comments for its cleanup plan.
"As part of your cleanup, you must stop polluting the site," Sarvey said.
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Thursday, June 21, 2007
Site 300 Cleanup
By: Bob Browne
Published In: Tracy Press
SUBTITLE: The Lawrence Livermore National Lab says they've made progress in cleaning Site 300 in the last 25 years.
IMAGE: Leslie Ferry (center), of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory�s environmental restoration division, answers questions from the audience Wednesday at the Tracy Community Center. Also pictured are Claire Holtzapple (left) and Mike Brown from the U.S. Department of Energy�s environmental stewardship division.
ARTICLE: The people from the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory say they�ve made substantial progress in 25 years o...
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007
A Toxic Topic
By: Bob Browne
Published In: Tracy Press
SUBTITLE: Cleanup of underground pollution at Lawrence Livermore�s explosives test site will be discussed at a 6 p.m. meeting tonight at the Community Center.
The public will get one more chance to discuss cleanup efforts at Site 300 before the U.S. Department of Energy settles on a plan to deal with groundwater contamination from radioactive materials and other toxic chemicals.
The 7,000-acre explosives test range just west of the proposed Tracy Hills development includes pits filled with radioactive waste from non-nuclear test explosions. Some of the site�s groundwater is also...
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Saturday, June 16, 2007
Energy Dept. acknowledges lab's e-mail security lapse
By: Keay Davidson
Published In: SF Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/16/BAGG3QGHF01.DTL
Officials at Los Alamos National Laboratory sent top-secret information about nuclear weapons through open e-mail networks, fueling concerns that security lapses, long an issue at the New Mexico lab, have not been solved by the recent installation of a UC-Bechtel management team....
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Friday, June 15, 2007
Use your voice to make Tracy safer
By: Marylia Kelley
Published In: Tracy Press
http://tracypress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9774&Itemid=2
The community has an important opportunity Wednesday to make Tracy a safer place to live and work. The public�s voice is needed to make sure that deadly toxic and radioactive wastes, which have seeped into the soil and water at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory�s Site 300 on Corral Hollow Road, are cleaned up.
Site 300, which is used by the Livermore lab to test high explosives and nuclear weapon components, is a federal Superfund cleanup location. The pollution at Site 300, 8 miles southwest of Tracy, is among the worst in the country. This will be the public�s last chance to comm...
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Thursday, May 10, 2007
Hunger strikers protest UC nuke work
By: Matt Krupnick
Published In: Contra Costa Times
About 40 University of California students and alumni are refusing to eat until the institution stops designing nuclear weapons.
The group began its hunger strike this week after the U.S. Department of Energy announced it had awarded management of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to a group that includes the university. UC had managed the lab on its own since 1952.
At least eight protesters are fasting at UC Berkeley, one of four campuses involved. The others are at UC campuses in San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, said Jedidjah de Vries, a spokesman for the nuclear watchd...
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Thursday, May 10, 2007
UC/Bechtel Team Selected to Manage the Lab
By: Independent Staff
Published In: Independent, Livermore
http://www.independentnews.com
use the URL, see the May 10th, 2007 issue and just a little bit down on the front page you will find the article....
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Thursday, May 10, 2007
University Wins Bid for Livermore Lab
By: Katlyn Carter, Staff Writer
Published In: Daily Cal
UC will continue to manage the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for at least the next seven years after partnering with a number of other groups to win the first-ever bid for the U.S. Department of Energy management contract.
The department and the National Nuclear Security Administration announced Tuesday that starting Oct. 1, the lab will be managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, a group formed by the university last year to bid for the contract.
The lab is one of the country's premier nuclear research and development labs and has been managed solely by the...
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Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Consortium wins contract to run Livermore lab
By: Ralph Vartabedian
Published In: Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-livermore9may09,1,1452581.story?coll=la-news-a_section
The partnership, which is given a seven-year deal, includes the UC
system, which has long run the facility.
The Energy Department on Tuesday awarded a seven-year contract to
operate Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to an industry consortium
that includes the University of California, which has run the lab since
it opened in 1952.
This year the lab was selected by the Energy Department to design and
develop a new generation of nuclear bombs, known as the reliable
replacement warhead. A report by an independent group of scientists
warned that the project ...
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Tuesday, May 08, 2007
UC System To Continue Running CA Nuclear Labs
By: Bay City News
Published In: Channel 5 CBS/KPIX TV
(CBS 5 / BCN) LIVERMORE The University of California system will continue to manage the labs that design and test the nation�s nuclear weapons, something they have done since the Manhattan Project, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced that a UC-led consortium, that also includes Bechtel National, Inc., Texas A&M University and a number of other private companies, has been awarded the seven-year contract to manage the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The United States has two other major nuclear weapons laboratories.
The ...
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Friday, April 20, 2007
Radiating Distrust of Bomb Tests
By: Michael Fitzgerald
Published In: Stockton Record
Stockton is an unlikely target for terrorists. Yet some people are worried that Uncle Sam himself poses a danger by exploding radioactive material in the county.
It's been happening for years at a place called Site 300, a 7,000-acre weapons test site for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the hills south of Tracy.
The government says it's safe.
Activists say it's time to take a good, hard look at what's going on down there. Especially since the top-secret lab recently applied to do a lot more of it.
Lawrence lab's job is to develop and to "ensure the safety a...
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Not in my backyard: Tracy community mounts opposition to proposed bio-
By: Caitilin McAdoo
Published In: Bay City News Service
LIVERMORE (BCN) - Although some activists, community members and the Tracy City Council have voiced their opposition to a proposed plan to build a national bio and agro defense facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, site 300, lab spokesman Steve Wampler said Tuesday that there is also a great deal of support for the project.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture, the California Cattleman's Association, the California Veterinary Association, the California Farm Bureau, the California Poultry Federation, the California Wool Growers Association and the San Joaq...
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Monday, April 16, 2007
Lawrence Livermore Lab Potential Site for Bio-Warfare Research Facilit
By: Bay City News wire, TV5 evening news
Published In: CBS 5 Television
LIVERMORE (BCN)
In spite of widespread opposition to a proposed plan to construct a massive bio-warfare agent research facility at Lawrence Livermore Lab's Site 300 near Tracy, the Department of Homeland Security is sending a "site selection" team to the area today to evaluate the location, according a Livermore-based environmental group working to abolish nuclear weapons.
Tri-Valley CAREs, which has been monitoring activity at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 1983, reported today that the proposed new bio-warfare facility would cover 500,000 square feet, the size...
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Saturday, April 14, 2007
Homeland Security starts visits at Site 300
By: Mike Martinez, staff writer
Published In: Tri-Valley Herald
SUBTITLE: Agency looking at places for bio-ag defense research facility
TRACY � Federal officials said Friday they were beginning site visits on Monday of potential homes for a national bio- and agro-defense research facility, and the first place being visited is Lawrence Livermore Laboratorys Site 300.
The bio-ag facility, being built by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, would research and develop cures for life-threatening diseases � affecting both humans and animals � for which there is no known cure.
It would be one of a handful of biosafety level 4 labs � the...
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Friday, April 13, 2007
Report doubts lab terror threat
By: Ian Hoffman
Published In: Oakland Tribune
SUBTITLE: Nuclear watchdog says analysis of attack risk insufficient as facility takes step toward opening
Federal authorities say the odds of a successful terrorist plot against a new biodefense lab in Livermore are too uncertain and remote to calculate, and that in any event the consequences of an attack or theft at the lab would be manageable.
The National Nuclear Security Administration, ordered by a federal appeals court last year to weigh the risks of terrorist acts at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's new biodefense research lab, reiterated Wednesday many of the sam...
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Thursday, April 12, 2007
'Unlikely' attack at lab could release microbes, study says
By: Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/12/BAGDDP78DN1.DTL
"A suicidal plane crash" by terrorists could unleash into the environment some of the world's scariest diseases from a proposed killer-microbe lab at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. And a saboteur inside the lab could conceivably set off a bomb that might cause a "catastrophic" breach of all microbe containment systems, says a federal study released Wednesday.
However, the U.S. Energy Department draft environmental assessment study concludes that a direct terrorist assault on the facility is "highly unlikely" to succeed.
But because it acknowledges local activists' conc...
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Thursday, March 15, 2007
In the Belly of the Beast
By: Zev Vernon-Lapow and Jono Kinkade
Published In: City on the Hill Press
SUBTITLE: The UC's (Universities of California) contribution to nUClear proliferation
11:55
It�s five minutes to midnight and when the clock strikes twelve, we all will die; our shadows will be imprinted on the seemingly photo sensitive sidewalk, blast winds will tear through the streets, buildings will crumble and radiation will fill the air.
This isn�t your ordinary timepiece; it�s the Doomsday Clock, a marker of our proximity to international nuclear exchange that has been set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since the second World War.
In January 2007, the gro...
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Thursday, March 08, 2007
David stuns Goliath
By: Niko Kyriakou
Published In: Tracy Press
Shoe store owner Bob Sarvey won an appeal when regulators revoked a permit for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to test bigger bombs in Site 300. By Niko Kyriakou
Press file photo - VICTORIOUS:Local activist and shoe store owner Bob Sarvey shows a map of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory�s Site 300 to the Tracy Tomorrow and Beyond committee in October during discussions about a proposed bio-lab. Sarvey�s work against increased outdoor bomb testing at Site 300 has resulted in the lab�s air pollution permit to be rescinded.
Local activist Robert Sarvey has convince...
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Thursday, March 08, 2007
San Joaquin air officials rescind permit for testing nukes
By: AP
Published In: San Jose Mercury news
TRACY, Calif.- San Joaquin Valley air officials rescinded their decision to allow the federal government to test its nuclear weapons arsenal in the Altamont Hills after they learned the bombs would have radioactive material.
The San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District initially granted a permit to the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to test the 350-pound bombs on Site 300, a 7,000-acre open field owned by the lab off Interstate 580 near Tracy. But air officials changed course when they learned the tests would involve depleted uranium.
"They did not tell us they had radioactive...
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Thursday, March 08, 2007
Officials Block Radioactive Weapons Test in Altamont Hills
By: John Fowler
Published In: KTVU Television
TRACY -- San Joaquin Valley air officials have rescinded their decision to allow the federal government to test its nuclear weapons arsenal in the Altamont Hills after they learned the bombs would have radioactive material.
The San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District initially granted a permit to the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to test the 350-pound bombs on Site 300, a 7,000-acre open field owned by the lab off Interstate 580 near Tracy.
But air officials changed course when they learned the tests would involve depleted uranium.
"They did not tell us they had radioac...
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Thursday, March 08, 2007
Mock nuke blast permit revoked
By: Keay Davidson, Science Writer
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/08/BAG4POHHK71.DTL
SUBTITLE: Bombs would contain radioactive material
The San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District landed a blow to the federal government's efforts to test its nuclear weapons arsenal by rescinding its decision to allow the lab to blow up radioactive 350-pound bombs in an open field near Tracy.
The tests, planned for an open field off Interstate 580 in the Altamont Hills, were to be part of a multibillion-dollar U.S. effort to simulate full-scale nuclear weapons blasts to determine the reliability of the nation's nuclear arsenal.
Three tests were to be conducted over th...
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Saturday, March 03, 2007
Activists Worried About Repercussions of Lawrence Livermore's Nuclear
By: Channel 5 evening news
Published In: KCBS
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS/AP) -- Local anti-nuclear activists are riled by yesterday�s announcement that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory won a competition for its design for a new generation of atomic warheads.
A year ago the Bush Administration ordered the competition between Lawrence Livermore and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Many of the warheads in the nation's stockpile were designed and built 40 years ago. Because their plutonium and other components are deteriorating in ways that researchers do not fully understand, the government spends billions of dollars...
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Friday, March 02, 2007
Livermore wins A-bomb, Los Alamos loses out
By: Scott Lindlaw
Published In: Associated Press (AP)
SUBTITLE: Choice draws criticism from nuclear weapons opponents.
SAN FRANCISCO - The Bush administration selected Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's design Friday for a new generation of atomic warheads, advancing a plan to update the nation's arsenal amid criticism from nuclear weapons opponents.
The Lawrence Livermore design beat one submitted by Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico because it can be built with more certainty in the absence of underground testing, the National Nuclear Security Administration said.
"Both teams developed brilliant designs," sa...
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Thursday, March 01, 2007
Make It Or Break It
By: Charles D. Ferguson and Lisa Obrentz
Published In: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Subtitle:
The weapons labs built the
Bomb. Now they�re tasked
with finding ways to get rid
of it. Trouble is, old habits
die hard.
In August 1945, nuclear weapon scientists became heroes. The U.S.
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki signaled the end to a long
and bloody world war.
The scientific expertise that gave birth to the Bomb has also helped secure
nuclear weapons and weapons-usable materials. During the Manhattan
Project, the United States sent scientists throughout Europe to stop
Nazi Germany from building the Bomb. This du...
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Experts decline to endorse new nuclear arsenal
By: Ian Hoffman
Published In: Inside Bay Area
SUBTITLE: Uncertain cost benefits and ban on testing raise problems, scientists say
SAN FRANCISCO � Experts assembled by the world's largest scientific organization declined in a report Sunday to endorse a Bush administration plan for redesigning all U.S. nuclear weapons, citing a lack of reliable cost estimates and of proven methods for verifying whether the new hydrogen bombs will work without test explosions.
The new weapons could lead to hardier bombs that are easier to make and harder for terrorists to detonate, but the cost benefits "are less certain and would on...
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Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Livermore Lab may see cut in federal funding
By: Betsy Mason
Published In: Inside Bay Area
SUBTITLE: Department of Energy asks for 8 percent less for next year, but most programs to remain intact
ARTICLE: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory would see a small cut in funding under President Bush's budget request for the Department of Energy for 2008, but most major lab programs would remain largely intact.
The DOE has requested $1.15 billion for the lab in fiscal year 2008 � 8 percent less than the $1.25 billion request for 2007.
If approved by Congress, the total DOE budget would expand by $700 million, or 3 percent, to $24.3 billion in 2008.
"We have had to take s...
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Thursday, January 18, 2007
Feds 'Biased' Against 'Green' Plan for Nuke Weapons Lab
By: Catherine Komp
Published In: New Standard
A coalition opposed to nuclear weapons is fighting the federal government over rejection of its bid to turn a national laboratory that engages in nuclear-arms research into an environmental science center.
The US Department of Energy is considering bids to manage and operate the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California. This is the first time the federal government has initiated a competitive bid to run the $1.6 billion dollar "national interest" research facility since its creation in 1952. The current contract with the University of California, which has ...
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Wednesday, January 17, 2007
'Green' groups contend lab bid treated unfairly
By: Sam Richards
Published In: Contra Costa Times
SUBTITLE: LIVERMORE: Complaint describes 'improper and biased handling' of proposal
ARTICLE: A team of organizations that includes a Livermore-based watchdog group filed a formal protest Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Energy claiming "improper and biased handling" of their bid to manage Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
The proposal was submitted by GREEN LLC and led by the weapons-lab watchdog groups Livermore-based Tri-Valley Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment and Nuclear Watch of New Mexico. They claim their bid was rejected without proper consideration by DOE's Nat...
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Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Order for terror study at Diablo stands
By: Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/17/BAGP8NJVF61.DTL
Subtitle: Supreme Court refuses to hear case brought by PG&E, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
SAN LUIS OBISPO--The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and PG&E were issued a major legal setback Tuesday when the Supreme Court declined to consider a lower court decision requiring that a nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo be analyzed for terrorist risk.
The high court's refusal to take up the case means the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which monitors the nation's operational commercial nuclear power reactors, must now formally study the environmental impacts of potential at...
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Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Green Company bids to Manage Lawrence Livermore Labs
By: Christina Aanestad
Published In: SF Bay Area Independent Media
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/01/17/18348084.php
Livermore Labs GREEN, a consortium of environmental and social justice groups filed a formal complaint with the National Nuclear Security Administration today, alleging the agency wrongfully rejected it�s bid to manage the Livermore National Laboratory. Livermore Labs GREEN claims its bid to manage the nuclear weapons research facility was rejected because of misinformation and its environmentally friendly vision for the labs.
Imagine the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories as a hub for alternative energy and global warming research-a lab that plans to phase out plutonium and nucl...
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Wednesday, January 17, 2007
'Green' groups contend lab bid treated unfairly
By: Sam Richards
Published In: Contra Costa Times
LIVERMORE: Complaint describes 'improper and biased handling' of proposal
A team of organizations that includes a Livermore-based watchdog group filed a formal protest Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Energy claiming "improper and biased handling" of their bid to manage Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
The proposal was submitted by GREEN LLC and led by the weapons-lab watchdog groups Livermore-based Tri-Valley Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment and Nuclear Watch their bid was rejected without proper consideration by DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration on groun...
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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Protesters honor King, decry conflict in Iraq
By: Eric Kurhi
Published In: Inside Bay Area
Small demonstration in Livermore mirrors those in larger cities
AS A GROUP of about 35 peace demonstrators quietly marched past her house on a sleepy downtown side street, Dorothy Wein stepped out onto her porch to cheer them on.
We need to show that we can stand up as Americans, one small town at a time, Wein said. Its wonderful.
For the third year, the group has taken to the streets for two reasons � to honor slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and to call for an end to the war in Iraq.
Around the Bay Area, several communities commemorated Kings birth...
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Monday, January 15, 2007
Busywork for Nuclear Scientists
By: Editorial Board NYT
Published In: New York Times
The Bush administration is eager to start work on a new nuclear warhead with all sorts of admirable qualities: sturdy, reliable and secure from terrorists. To sweeten the deal, officials say that if they can replace the current arsenal with Reliable Replacement Warheads (what could sound more comforting?), they probably won t have to keep so many extra warheads to hedge against technical failure. If you're still not sold, the warhead comes with something of a guarantee -- that scientists can build the new bombs without ever testing them.
Let the buyer beware. While the program has got...
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Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Watchdog groups' Livermore Lab bid is rejected
By: Ian Hoffman
Published In: San Jose Mercury News
Federal nuclear weapons officials have rejected a bid by disarmament and renewable energy activists to manage the Lawrence Livermore weapons design lab, saying the "green team'' didn't fit federal plans.
The team, calling itself GREEN LLC, was led by two weapons-lab watchdog groups, Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs and Nuclear Watch of New Mexico.
The groups never really expected to run the sprawling bomb lab, but they were offended that the National Nuclear Security Administration said the team's proposal ran afoul of federal law and "did not demonstrate an understanding of the ...
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Monday, January 08, 2007
Lab foes lose bid for "green" takeover
By: Staff
Published In: The Record
LIVERMORE - A "green" bid to take over operations at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been rejected by the federal government, which called the proposal "grossly and obviously deficient."
Longtime lab foe Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment filed its long-shot bid in October to wrest the lab away from the University of California, which has managed Lawrence Livermore for 50 years.
Tri-Valley CARES proposed phasing out the lab's nuclear weapons program. The National Nuclear Security Administration responded by saying that was inconsistent with th...
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Saturday, January 06, 2007
Anti-nuke GREEN lab bidders see red
By: John Upton
Published In: Tracy Press
A combined proposal by two anti-nuclear groups, an alternative energy company and a progressive college to run Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been rejected by the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The nuclear administration rejected the bid by the Livermore Lab Green Renewable Energy and Environmental Nexus in part because it planned to phase out nuclear weapons research and testing at the lab.
Daniel Saiz, a government worker who is helping choose a new lab operator, told Marylia Kelley that her group didn�t grasp the nuclear administration�s needs, since it plan...
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Saturday, January 06, 2007
Fed reject activists' Livermore Lab bid
By: Staff Writer
Published In: Inside Bay Area
'Green team' wanted move toward nonproliferation
Federal nuclear weapons officials have rejected a bid by disarmament and renewable energy activists to manage Lawrence Livermore weapons design lab, saying the "green team" didn't fit federal plans.
The team, calling itself GREEN LLC, was led by two weapons-lab watchdog groups, Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs and Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, who never really expected to run the sprawling bomb lab.
But they were offended that the National Nuclear Security Administration said the team's proposal ran afoul of federal law an...
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Friday, January 05, 2007
Nation's nuclear lab chief loses job
By: Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/05/MNGSKND93U1.DTL
SUBTITLE: Linton Brooks asked to resign over security and management issues
The head of the nation's nuclear weapons agency, who tried last year to implement several dramatic reforms in security and safety at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, has been fired following security breakdowns at different federal facilities, including a nuclear weapons lab in New Mexico.
Linton Brooks, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the nation's nuclear weapons labs for the U.S. Energy Department, said in a statement Thursday he would l...
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Friday, January 05, 2007
Nuclear weapons administrator ousted
By: Ralph Vartabedian, Times Staff Writer
Published In: Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-nuke5jan05,1,867242.story?coll=la-news-a_section
Subtitle:
Energy Secretary Bodman asks for the resignation of Linton F. Brooks, under fire for his handling of security lapses at U.S. labs and weapons sites.
The nation's nuclear weapons chief was fired Thursday, after a long series of security breaches at Los Alamos National Laboratory and other weapons sites had prompted strong criticism of his performance.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman issued an unusual public statement Thursday saying he had asked for the resignation of Linton F. Brooks, chief of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which operates eight major b...
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Thursday, January 04, 2007
Explosive Radiation: Radioactive element could be in test bombs
By: John Upton
Published In: Tracy Press
Radioactive tritium might accompany depleted uranium in a series of large outdoor test explosions planned this year as little as a mile upwind from Tracy, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has conceded for the first time ...
Tritium in the blasts would be dispersed as fine particles into the air during the experiments, according to Larry Sedlacek, Deputy Associate Director of Operations in the lab�s Defense and Nuclear Technologies Group.
Sedlacek said tritium could be used in tests and that it would be "aerosolized" after test blasts as he answered intense questions from C...