Communities Against a Radioactive Environment

Tri-Valley CAREs stops nuclear weapons where they start.

We watchdog the nuclear weapons complex and its Livermore Lab, one of two locations that develops all US nuclear bombs and warheads. Nuclear weapons pose one of the great social, economic, and ecological challenges of our time. We work toward their global abolition.

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Draft PEIS Released! May 7 Comment Training for Livermore Public Hearing

by Scott Yundt | May 6, 2026 | Blog, Environmental Justice, Nuclear Weapons | 0 Comments

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is coming to Livermore on May 12 to hear public comments about its nationwide plutonium pit production plan, in which Livermore Lab will be doing plutonium pit support work.

Tri-Valley CAREs Joins Fellow Plaintiffs to Tour Savannah River Site’s Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Plant

by Tanvi Kardile | May 6, 2026 | Blog, Nuclear Weapons | 0 Comments

On April 21, Tri-Valley CAREs’ Nuclear Policy Program Director, Tanvi Kardile, accompanied by other plaintiffs Savannah River Site Watch and Nuclear Watch New Mexico, toured the plutonium “pit” bomb core production plant at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina.

Trumping the Budget: New Warheads and Plutonium Pits

by Scott Yundt | April 21, 2026 | Blog, Nuclear Weapons | 0 Comments

Tri-Valley CAREs’ Analysis of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Request – Part Three, Livermore Lab’s New Warheads

Tri-Valley CAREs Joins Forces to Challenge “Permitting Reform” Legislation that Opens the Door for More Plutonium at Livermore Lab Without Public Input

by Scott Yundt | April 16, 2026 | Blog, Environmental Justice, Nuclear Weapons | 0 Comments

Tri-Valley CAREs has been reaching out to partner organizations working to challenge this “permitting reform” push. We recently joined an organizational advocacy letter, alongside various other environmental organizations, urging Congress to reject permitting reform legislation that weakens environmental protections and limits public participation.

Our story

Tri-Valley CAREs was founded in 1983 in Livermore, California by concerned neighbors living around the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of two locations where all US nuclear weapons are designed. Tri-Valley CAREs monitors nuclear weapons and environmental clean-up activities throughout the US nuclear weapons complex, with a special focus on Livermore Lab and the surrounding communities.

Tri-Valley CAREs’ overarching mission is to promote peace, justice and a healthy environment by pursuing the following five interrelated goals:

Convert Livermore Lab from nuclear weapons development and testing to socially beneficial, environmentally sound research.
End all nuclear weapons development and testing in the United States.
Abolish nuclear weapons worldwide, and achieve an equitable, successful non-proliferation regime.
Promote forthright communication and democratic decision-making in public policy on nuclear weapons and related environmental issues, locally, nationally and globally.
Clean up the radioactive and toxic pollution emanating from the Livermore Lab and reduce the Lab’s environmental and health hazards.

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TVC In the News

SRS Plutonium Pit Production opponents tour facility, say it would restart nuclear arms race

Aiken Standard– Carl Dawson

April 23, 2026

AIKEN — Opponents of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility under construction at Savannah River Site said April 22 that the facility is unneeded and will be the most expensive building ever constructed in the United States.

“I’m alleging a cover up here with respect to keeping the true costs of this unneeded program from the American public,” said Jay Coghlin, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration that resulted in he and other plaintiffs being allowed to tour the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility on April 21.

The facility is being built to produce plutonium pits, which are a core component of nuclear weapons. Proponents say the pits are needed to replace those that are degrading in the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons.

The plaintiffs alleged in an April 22 press conference in the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia that the facility is being built not to produce plutonium pits to replace those aging in the current stockpile, but for use in newly designed but untested nuclear weapons.

The plutonium pit production facility is being repurposed from the unfinished Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, which was intended to convert weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear fuel. The MOX plant was canceled in 2018 after construction delays and cost overruns.

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Original article….

“I felt burning in my throat”: Preparing for nuclear war in Livermore

East Bay Yesterday– Liam O’Donoghue

March 4, 2026

In February, America’s nuclear arms treaty with Russia expired, ushering in “a global rush for new weapons,” according to New York Times. Much of the next generation of the US nuclear arsenal will be developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which has been designing nuclear weapons since the early 1950s. The Lab’s history of downplaying hazardous health impacts, security failures, and other troubling behavior should raise concerns not only in eastern Alameda County, but across the entire region.

This episode features interviews with Marylia Kelley and Scott Yundt of Tri-Valley CARES, a watchdog group that’s been monitoring the Livermore Lab and advocating for community safety since 1983. Additionally, Sherry Pratt, a retired Lab employee and cancer survivor, joins the podcast to share her story.

Listen now to hear about the stunning history of Lawrence Livermore National Lab, the origins of the nuclear weapons complex, and why transparency around the Lab’s operations is shrinking while its budget is booming. Find the episode via Apple, Soun dCloud, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.

Tri-Valley CARES executive director Scott Yundt and former director Marylia Kelley. [Photo: Liam O’Donoghue]

“Ignorance is not going to protect us. It’s important for all of us to root ourselves where we are, look at the hazards, and to act to create positive change.” -Marylia Kelley. To hear more about how Tri-Valley CARES has been working since 1983 to monitor Lawrence Livermore National Lab, listen to the full episode.

Original article….

Our Executive Director Talks on the Peace and Justice Program on all Things Nuclear!

On February 13, Tri-Valley CAREs’ Executive Director, Scott Yundt, talked with Chris Nelson on the Peace and Justice Program on KZFR 90.1 FM on a variety of nuclear weapons topics!

Some of the topics discussed include: nuclear testing, the Sentinel ICBM program, the Doomsday Clock, New START’s expiration, and how to join the work of Tri-Valley CAREs and become involved in the movement!

Listen to the radio interview here

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Save New START- Nuclear Arms Treaties Must Not Expire

CounterPunch– Leah Yananton January 29, 2026

Image Wikipedia.

On 5 February 2026, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) — the last remaining arms-control pact between the United States and Russia — is set to expire. Moscow offered to Washington to voluntarily extend it for a year, but Trump recently shrugged it off and told the NYT, “If it expires, it expires.” POTUS has also recently been in the headlines for saying that he doesn’t believe he is required to follow any laws except his own morality, accountable to no one.

I often think about the pre-election livestreamed conversation between Trump and Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX is now in charge of orbital dominance for the U.S. Space Force over planet Earth. When Trump expressed fear of nuclear disasters like Fukushima, Musk responded by defending nuclear energy, despite the fact that a country that has the ability to create and maintain nuclear-power facilities is technically capable of creating nuclear weapons, and despite the fact that we still do not have the technology to remediate (detoxify) nuclear waste.

Musk went even further, minimizing the danger of nuclear weapons themselves. During the conversation which took place August 11th, 2025 (just three days after the 80th anniversary of the nuclear attack on Nagasaki), at an hour and 17 minutes Musk said, “It’s like, you know, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, but now they’re like full cities again. So it’s really not something that, you know, it’s not as scary as people think, basically. But let’s see.”

No. We do not ever want to see nuclear weapons used again. The basis of any valid moral system means doing everything you can to minimize the harm you cause to others, and making amends for the harm you do cause. Nuclear weapons are designed to destroy entire cities.

Those who survive the initial blast endure slow, excruciating deaths from radiation sickness, burns, cancers, and generational genetic damage— as did so many in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There is nothing “not as scary as people think” about this.

Recently, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth at SpaceX announced that Elon Musk’s Artificial Intelligence software GROK, from Musk’s private corporation xAI, will be integrated into Pentagon networks. Hegseth said:

“I demand and we demand that we arm our war fighters with overwhelming and lethal technology right now… This strategy will unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus on investments, and demonstrate the execution approach needed, to ensure that we lead in military AI and that it grows more dominant into the future. In short, we will win this race.”

The only race being fueled in the planet’s current poly-crisis is the race to extinction, where there are only losers. The current push by the Department of War to accelerate AI-driven warfare alongside the development of new nuclear weapons eerily echoes the War Room scenes in Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, where General “Buck” Turgidson treats mass murder and nuclear holocaust as a logistics problem and a branding opportunity. Reality is stranger than fiction when today’s enthusiasm for automation, speed, and “dominance” mimics satire like in Kubrick’s dark comedy. When machines shorten decision time and leaders prioritize advantage over restraint, the system begins to outrun moral judgment.

It was only a few Presidencies ago in 1985 when the U.S.A. under Reagan reached a joint agreement with Soviet leader Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” The dialogue implied that neither side would seek military superiority, with the intention to lower the risk of catastrophic conflict and to advance arms-control negotiations.

From survivors of nuclear tests on American soil — in New Mexico to Nevada to San Francisco’s Hunter’s Point Shipyard — to communities across the Pacific, from the Marshall Islands to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there are innocent victims who experienced the horror of nuclear weapons. Their testimonies exist. Their pain is documented. Their warnings are clear:

“On the roads I saw thousands upon thousands of men, women, and children fleeing the hell of Hiroshima. All of them, without exception, were covered with terrible wounds. Their eyebrows were completely burned off. On their faces and hands the skin was burned too and hung in strips. If many of them held their two arms stretched toward the sky, it was purely to try and calm the pain. These unfortunate creatures had their whole bodies swollen up, like drowned men who have been a long time in the water. Their eyelids were swollen so that their eyes were completely shut, while the skin all around was bright red. They were all blind…Most of them were naked to the waist…girls completely naked, women without a hair on their heads, an old woman with both arms dislocated, walking along with them hanging by her sides, the flesh, burnt as if on a grill, came away from the bones; blood was flowing abundantly and a yellow liquid like fat mingled with it…There wasn’t a single person who wasn’t wounded. A woman was lying on the ground, her head split open horizontally. The whole inside of her head was red, like a watermelon. In spite of this horrible wound the woman was still alive and crawled along the ground, leaving behind her a long red streak…”

— part of the statement of Mrs. Yoko Ota, a Japanese writer who put down this description shortly after the Bomb destroyed Hiroshima.

Survivors of nuclear weapons deserve to be listened to — not dismissed, not minimized, and not disregarded.

Nuclear weapons should never have been created, yet we live with their existence. If the New START treaty lapses, there will be no legally binding limits on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals. A new arms race would not make anyone safer — but it would make weapons manufacturers wealthier. According to The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), “The private sector earned at least $42.5 billion from their nuclear weapons contracts in 2024 alone.”

Companies positioned to profit include defense contractors and tech-military hybrids, many of which already benefit from massive government contracts. Elon Musk’s companies, particularly SpaceX, stand to gain further through expanded “orbital infrastructure” and defense systems. Trump’s proposal for an impossible “Golden Dome” missile defense system would funnel billions more into contractors like SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman — all while creating the illusion of safety rather than actual security — and leaving the working class impoverished and degraded. “Food, not bombs,” has been a persistent slogan among people who demonstrate for peace.

Letting New START expire would end more than a treaty — it would end the last remaining restraint on nuclear escalation. Secretary of War Hegseth announced that the U.S. military will “learn from failure” as a strategy — so wouldn’t it be efficient strategy to learn from the failures of dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and take the opportunity now to renew New START?

Contact your senators in writing or call your representatives at the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, and urge them to support extending the New START Treaty before it expires on 5 February 2026. Without it, there will be no legal limits on U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, triggering a costly and dangerous arms race. We need immediate diplomacy to preserve New START, as nuclear arms control is a present and urgent challenge.

Leah Yananton is a teacher, filmmaker and writer with attention on biosphere dynamics, human connection, indigenous stewardship, nuclear disarmament, and the peace economy.

Original article….

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The Doomsday Clock

The Independent February 5, 2026

The alarm is once again sounding, and it’s louder than ever. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock has reached 85 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight it’s ever been. For those who may not know, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nonprofit organization of elite scientists that publishes information on man-made threats, mainly nuclear weapons and climate change. Some of its early founders are Oppenheimer, Einstein, and Edward Teller, the “Father of the Hydrogen Bomb” and former director of Lawrence Livermore Lab.

The Doomsday Clock was designed in 1947 as a warning about how close humanity is to destroying itself. The clock reaching midnight symbolizes the end of the world, and every year the clock goes backwards or forwards, depending on the steps taken to prevent global catastrophe.

It isn’t simply a fear tactic; the Doomsday Clock is run by nuclear scientists and experts who do thorough research on whether the clock should move forward or backward. Unfortunately, the last time the clock went backwards was in 2010, and on Jan. 27, 2026, the clock went to 85 seconds before midnight, the closest to disaster humanity’s ever been since the creation of the doomsday clock.

This may seem like a far-off issue, but with a national nuclear weapons lab located right here in Livermore, this warning hits very close to home. One of the main reasons the clock has moved forward is the imminence of a nuclear arms race and war. With the last remaining bilateral nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia, New START, set to expire on Feb. 5, the likelihood of a nuclear arms race is higher than ever.

Livermore Lab plays a crucial role as one of the two locations in the country that develops nuclear warheads for the U.S stockpile. Efforts have been made by local watchdog groups, such as Tri-Valley CAREs, which works to increase the transparency of Livermore Lab’s weapons programs and generally to stop its development of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, the lab is continuing to push forward in its development of new nuclear weapons designs for the U.S. stockpile, actively stoking the flames for another nuclear arms race.

As Livermore residents, we must do more to raise awareness about this emergency.

To learn more about the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, you can go to their website at thebulletin.org.

Original article….

Press Releases

Plaintiffs Tour the Savannah River Site’s Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Plant, Most Expensive Building in U.S. History is Key to New Nuclear Arms Race

by Tanvi Kardile | Apr 22, 2026 | Nuclear Weapons, Press Releases

South Carolina Environmental Law Project

Savannah River Site Watch

Nuclear Watch New Mexico

Tri-Valley CAREs

Union of Concerned Scientists

Plaintiffs Tour the Savannah River Site’s Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Plant, Most Expensive Building in U.S. History is Key to New Nuclear Arms Race

For Immediate Release April 22, 2026

Contact: Tom Clements, Director, SRS Watch, 803-240-7268, tomclements329[at]srswatch.org;

Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch NM, 505-989-7342, cell: 505.470.3154, jay[at]nukewatch.org

Shelby Cohen, Comms Manager, SC Env. Law Project, 864.414.7726, shelby[at]scelp.org

Columbia, SC – On April 21, plaintiffs Savannah River Site Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tri-Valley CAREs toured the plutonium “pit” bomb core production plant at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina. They were accompanied by their attorney from the South Carolina Environmental Law Project and a science consultant from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Plutonium pits are the core components of all U.S. nuclear weapons. The NNSA is seeking to expand production to at least 30 plutonium pits per year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and at least 50 pits per year at SRS, which has never previously produced pits. NNSA pushed forward with the project without required public review, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Plaintiffs sued in federal court in Columbia, SC and won, requiring the NNSA to complete a nationwide programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS), with public hearings to be held this May (listed below). The court-approved settlement agreement also required an inspection of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility by plaintiffs to ensure that no production begins before the completion of the final PEIS and simultaneous Record of Decision, which NNSA now says is expected in early 2027. NNSA officials also informed plaintiffs that 90% design and “rebaselined” costs will not be completed until September 2026, which means that once again Congress will be appropriating taxpayers’ money without knowing full costs.

The SRS pit plant will be the most expensive buildings ever built in the USA, with a current NNSA estimate of up to $30 billion even before all total costs are known (includes at least $5 billion in sunk costs for SRS’ failed MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility being “repurposed” to pit production). The agency’s recent budget request for FY 2027 (pp 17-19) reveals an 87% jump in combined pit production funding for LANL and SRS, averaging $5 billion for each of the next six years.

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Livermore-Based Organization Travels to Nevada to Oppose Potential Resumption of Nuclear Testing

Nov 18, 2025 | Featured Press Release, Nuclear Weapons, Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Tuesday, November 18, 2025

For further information contact: tanvi@trivalleycares.org or ianzabarte@gmail.com

Las Vegas, Nevada – On November 21st, members of Livermore-based organization Tri-Valley CAREs will head to Peace Camp at the gates of the Nevada National Security Site to join experts and activists from around the country in a display of opposition to Trump’s recent statement suggesting the US will conduct nuclear tests.

The gathering will include the member groups of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a national network of organizations of communities with nuclear weapons complexes that address issues about nuclear weapons production and environmental cleanup, of which Tri-Valley CAREs is a member. These experts from around the US, will join with Nevadans, including local tribal leaders, to oppose resumption of any explosive nuclear testing and will hold a site visit at Peace Camp to conduct educational sessions from 10 am to noon Pacific Time.

The site visit is in response to an October 29th Truth Social post from the President stating that, “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis.” The site visit is our effort to pursue peace.

The President could not have been referencing other countries conducting explosive nuclear tests, because no nation except North Korea has conducted an explosive nuclear test this century. His statement displayed the administration’s confusion on the topic, for example his instruction was directed at the “Department of War,” (aka Department of Defense) which is not responsible for conducting explosive nuclear weapons tests, a job that belongs to the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration. Additionally, the reference to other “countries testing programs” suggest that the “equal basis” appears to be in reference to conducting these delivery system tests by both Russia and China, but, as a matter of fact, we already conduct these tests.

The United States has observed the moratorium on nuclear testing for the past 33 years and is a signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), but has not ratified the treaty. However, the US was the sole “No” vote on the recent, annual UN resolution calling for the entry into force of the CTBT. During Trump’s first term, the US abstained on the vote. The U.S. government’s first ever “No” vote raises further troubling questions about U.S. intentions.

Principal Man Ian Zabarte of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians, Secretary of State of the Western Shoshone National Council, and Secretary of the Nevada-based Native Community Action Council (NCAC) is a resident of Las Vegas who is concerned about the potential underground explosive nuclear testing at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). This concern centers on the impacts to the land, water and people. Underground testing contaminates underground aquifers. The NCAC, advocates for radiation awareness and risk mitigation for the Shoshone and all other Americans. Mr. Zabarte said, “we can’t hug our children with nuclear arms.”

The 1,054 nuclear weapons tests conducted by the US during the 20th Century left behind a legacy of radioactive poison and ecological destruction. Tanvi Kardile, President of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability and Nuclear Policy Program Director at Tri-Valley CAREs, states that “from New Mexico to Nevada to the Marshall Islands, US nuclear tests spread radioactive fallout that killed thousands, contaminated land, oceans, and poses cascading health consequences for future generations. Resuming testing would knowingly recreate that suffering—sacrificing more lives, more communities, and more of our planet.”

ANA and NCAC stand alongside the state legislatures of Nevada who unanimously passed a joint resolution earlier this year urging the federal government to maintain the moratorium on the explosive nuclear testing, citing that over 72% of Nevada voters oppose the resumption of underground testing of explosive nuclear weapons.

U.S. Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and their western senate colleagues recently introduced legislation to ensure that no president can unilaterally resume explosive nuclear testing. The No Nuclear Testing Without Approval Act (S. 4099) would require Congressional approval to restart any explosive nuclear tests. The bill would require President Trump, or any future administration, to show Congress proof of engagement with the state in which the tests would be conducted.

“Nevadans are still dealing with the fallout of explosive nuclear testing conducted during the Cold War era and the radiation unleashed in our state. Donald Trump’s directive to resume nuclear testing is reckless, unnecessary, and dangerous,” said Senator Rosen. “Senator Cortez Masto and I are introducing this legislation to require congressional approval for any and all future explosive nuclear weapons testing. A decision of this magnitude should not be made lightly or on a whim by an erratic President.”

The ANA members, alongside the Shoshone, will be gathering at the US 95 Mercury Exit outside the gate of the NNSS to hold a Peace Camp and educational session with experts from 10 am to noon on Friday, Nov 21, 2025. They will be in Las Vegas holding a vigil at the Federal Building at 4:30 pm on Saturday November 22, 2025. Members of ANA will be available for comment about the entire nuclear weapons complex poisoning communities across America.

Contacts:

Ian Zabarte, Secretary of the Native Community Action Council: (702) 203-8816 or ianzabarte@gmail.com

Tanvi Kardile, President of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, and Nuclear Policy Program Director at Tri-Valley CAREs: (925) 549-0910 or tanvi@trivalleycares.org

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U.S. Tests ICBM Nuclear Warhead Delivery System from CA After Trump Amps Up Nuclear Testing Rhetoric

Nov 5, 2025 | Featured Press Release, Nuclear Weapons, Press Releases

by Emma Claire Foley and Scott Yundt | Nov 4, 2025 |

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Tuesday, November 5, 2024

For further information, contact: info@defusenuclearwar.org or scott@trivalleycares.org

In the early morning hours of November 5th, Vandenberg Space Force Base launched a Minuteman III missile, the current intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) ground-based nuclear warhead delivery system in roughly 400 underground silos across five states that would target US adversaries in a full-scale nuclear war.

This ICBM test, which landed roughly 30 minutes later at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, is one of several that occur at Vandenburg every year – as they have for many decades. According to the Space Force Press Release, today’s test “validates” the “reliability, operational readiness, and accuracy of the ICBM system.” While these tests are launched without the nuclear warhead, the purpose is to practice nuclear war fighting and these tests are just as provocative to US adversaries as their nuclear-capable missile tests are to us.

This launch has an increased gravitas, as it comes hardly a week after the President used his social media platform to make a confusingly provocative announcement that, “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis.”

Exactly what was meant by the President’s vague statement has been debated in the days since. The President could not have been referencing other countries conducting explosive nuclear tests, because no nation except North Korea has conducted an explosive nuclear test this century.

The reference to “equal basis” with other “countries testing programs” has been thought to be in reference to nuclear weapon delivery system tests, which have been conducted by both Russia and China. But as today’s launch displays, these delivery system tests are nothing new, and the United States has long tested all of the delivery vehicles in its triad, including today’s ICBM test.

If the US were to resume explosive nuclear testing, Russia and others have already signaled they will follow. This reckless move would break a 30-year taboo that has kept the world safer. If the US resumes testing, it won’t just poison the air: it could destroy decades of progress toward preventing nuclear war.

Resuming explosive nuclear testing at this time would solely be a political decision, and it would be a very bad one. The human and environmental toll would be immense: radiation poisoning that seeps into lungs, water, and soil; children born with preventable cancers; ecosystems rendered unlivable. Testing again would repeat history’s worst mistakes on purpose.

US resumption of explosive nuclear testing would open the door to all of the other nuclear powered states conducting their own tests for both their existing stockpile warhead designs, and those that are in development, potentially opening the door to decades of testing and associated releases of radiation into the environment.

Influential right wing think tanks like The Heritage Foundation have come out in opposition to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and have directly called for the U.S. to prepare to resume explosive nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). For example, in its January 2025 report, America Must Prepare to Test Nuclear Weapons, it claims that testing is necessary for the global image of America and would be a display of resolve.

Additionally, Project 2025 calls for the United States to “Reject ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and indicate a willingness to conduct nuclear tests in response to adversary nuclear developments if necessary. This will require that the National Nuclear Security Administration be directed to move to immediate test readiness…”

Officials from the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Labs who manage the existing nuclear weapons stockpile have expressed that there’s no military or technical justification for explosive nuclear testing at this time. The billions spent on the Labs’ supercomputer modeling, National Ignition Facility laser testing and multiple other simulation systems allow them to ensure that the stockpile will work as designed in a “use scenario.”

The US conducted 100 atmospheric and 828 underground explosive nuclear tests at NNSS between 1951 and 1992. The agency currently needs 36 months to get “ready” for a full-scale, underground, explosive nuclear test at NNSS.

In response to the President’s sudden announcement, on October 30th Congresswoman Dina Titus (NV-01) introduced the Renewing Efforts to Suspend Testing and Reinforce Arms Control Initiatives Now (RESTRAIN) Act to prohibit the United States from conducting explosive testing of nuclear weapons.

In her press release announcing the RESTRAIN Act, Representative Titus states, “Donald Trump has put his own ego and authoritarian ambitions above the health and safety of Nevadans. His announcement to resume nuclear testing in the United States goes against the arms control and nonproliferation treaties that the U.S. has spearheaded since the end of the Cold War, and will trigger new tests by Russia and China, reigniting an international arms race. It also puts Nevadans back in the crosshairs of toxic radiation and environmental destruction. With just 97 days until the only arms control agreement between the U.S. and Russia expires, now should be the time to negotiate further arms-control agreements, not create mushroom clouds in the Nevada desert.”

The RESTRAIN Act amends U.S. Code to insert a prohibition of explosive nuclear testing while simultaneously preventing any funding from going toward the Trump Administration’s effort to conduct explosive nuclear tests.

Emma Claire Foley with the Defuse Nuclear War coalition said of today’s launch, “ICBM tests make war more likely and damage the place they supposedly protect. Scheduling this latest test on Election Day is an attempt to avoid public attention on a weapons system that experts agree makes the U.S. less safe.” She added, “ICBMs are a threat to the life and health of every single person in the United States and around the world. We ask that the upcoming ICBM test, all future scheduled tests, be canceled, and that the U.S. hold to its decades-long record of not conducting nuclear tests.”

ICBMs have been sold to the public as a guarantor of security, when in fact, they are an imminent threat. In the words of the late Daniel Ellsberg, author of The Doomsday Machine, these weapons make “any conflict enormously more dangerous than it has to be” by increasing “the danger that any armed conflict between major nuclear states can escalate to all-out war.” ICBMs are on hair-trigger alert and, once launched, cannot be recalled, virtually guaranteeing a strike on the country that launches them. As long as ICBMs exist, we live with the constant risk that misinterpreted intelligence, human error, or a single rash decision could end civilization as we know it within an hour.

Maintaining these weapons is a huge waste of resources. The U.S. has committed to spending hundreds of billions of dollars to “modernize” its ICBM force, which in practice means replacing the Minuteman III system that was tested today with an entirely new missile system – the Sentinel ICBM, and a new nuclear warhead design.

Thus far, the Sentinel ICBM program is now an astonishing 81% over budget and years behind schedule, not including the expense for its new W-87-1 nuclear warhead development being done at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory or the new plutonium pits that will be built at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Yet the U.S. Secretary of Defense has certified, through a “comprehensive, unbiased review” not shared with the public, that the program will proceed.

Scott Yundt, Executive Director of Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs criticized today’s launch from Vandenburg, saying, “Test launches like today’s damage human communities and ecosystems. The Marshall Islands, already forced to bear the overwhelming environmental costs of U.S. nuclear weapons testing, are still used as a target test area.”

Yundt went on to say “When tensions among nuclear-armed states are high, each test launch carries an added risk. The U.S. military has acknowledged as much by pausing these launches at high points of tension in the war in Ukraine. The risk of nuclear escalation remains too high to introduce the possibility of misinterpretation of a test into the mix.”

“ICBM tests are damaging and provocative acts masquerading as business as usual. We condemn all wasteful, destructive tests that keep the world at the edge of nuclear destruction,” Yundt concluded.

Sources:

Emma Claire Foley can be contacted at emmaclaire@rootsaction.org

Scott Yundt can be contacted at scott@trivalleycares.org or at 415-990-2070.

Additional Resources

Activists attended the launch on November 5, 2024 and captured it on film.
Click here for more of our writing about the potential impacts of resuming explosive nuclear testing. Click here for more about the New START treaty expiration on February 5, 2026.

[1] See Arms Control Association’s 2019 White Paper, “U.S. Claims of Illegal Russian Nuclear Testing: Myths, Realities, and Next Steps, for more details and analysis.

[2] See this State Dept. Fact Sheet on the Scope of the CTBT: https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/avc/rls/212166.htm and this State Dept. Fact Sheet on P-5 Statements on Scope: https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/avc/rls/173945.htm )

Note for journalists:

A limited number of advance interviews are available with speakers and/or event organizers. Email scott@trivalleycares.org or any of the contacts listed at the top of the advisory.

Event flyer, simulcast link, and more information can be found at www.trivalleycares.org

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“Remember our History, Reshape our Future” – Nonviolent Rally & Action at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab

On the 80th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, We Will Join the Last Witnesses to Carry Forward Their Urgent Plea for a Nuclear Weapons Free World… “Never Again”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, August 1, 2025

Media Contacts:
Marylia Kelley and Scott Yundt, Tri-Valley CAREs, Livermore, CA; cell, 925-255-3589, marylia@trivalleycares.org, scott@trivalleycares.org
Grace Morizawa, Asian Americans for Peace and Justice, East Bay; cell, 510-289-1285, gmorizawa@yahoo.com
Dr. Bob Gould, SF Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility; 415-408-8806, rmgould1@yahoo.com

WHAT: “80 Years of Nuclear Devastation: Remember Our History, Reshape Our Future” features a rally, symbolic die-in, and Japanese Bon Dance, with an opportunity for those who choose to peaceably risk arrest at the end of the program. The event will be held in front of the West Gate at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab. The 80^th anniversary rally highlights include a nuclear engineer (PhD., UC Berkeley) on the U.S. decision to use atomic weapons, a Methodist minister’s reflections on the Japanese experience, and a nuclear analyst’s connections between the first atomic bomb used in war and the urgent nuclear challenges of today (bios follow).

WHEN: Hiroshima Day, Wednesday, August 6, 2025 at 9am (90-minute program)

WHERE: At the West Gate of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, located on Vasco Road and West Gate Drive in Livermore, CA.

FULL PRESS RELEASE [PDF]

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Lawsuit Compels Nationwide Public Review of Plutonium Bomb Core Production

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, May 9, 2025Media Contacts:
Ben Cunningham, Esquire, SCELP, 843-527-0078, ben@scelp.org
Queen Quet, Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, 843-838-1171, GullGeeCo@aol.com
Tom Clements, Savannah River Site Watch, 803-834-3084, tomclements329@cs.com
Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, 505-989-7342, jay@nukewatch.org
Scott Yundt, Tri-Valley CAREs, 925-443-7148, scott@trivalleycares.org

AIKEN, S.C. — Today the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency within the Department of Energy, published a formal Notice of Intent in the Federal Register to complete a nationwide “programmatic environmental impact statement” on the expanded production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores. Pits are the essential radioactive triggers of modern nuclear weapons. The NNSA is aggressively seeking their expanded production for new-design nuclear weapons for the new nuclear arms race.

The South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP) successfully represented the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition and Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Savannah River Site Watch and Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment in a legal challenge to NNSA’s attempt to improperly jump start dual site pit production. On September 30, 2024, United States District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis ruled that the NNSA had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to properly consider alternatives before proceeding with its plan to produce at least 30 pits per year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and at least 50 pits per year at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.