Tri-Valley CAREs
Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
This professional mini-documentary celebrates Tri-Valley CAREs' 30 years of creating peace, justice, and a healthier environment.
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Posted on Monday, January 18, 2022
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday, January 20, 2022. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually!
And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you!
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 865 9716 9610 • Password: 204636
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 865 9716 9610 • Password: 204636
Posted on Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
January 22 marks the first anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Fifty-nine states parties have ratified the TPNW to date, with Peru becoming the most recent country to do so in December.
In Livermore, we will celebrate the TPNW one day in advance of its anniversary, on Friday, January 21 from 9 AM to 10 AM at the Livermore Lab West Gate.
Here is where you come in: We have lots of 8-foot banners to hold in the lawn area in front of the nuclear weapons lab where workers and others can read the positive messages. Can you help hold one of them to support the treaty?
Please see our flyer below with TPNW event details, including safety protocols.
Then scroll to see the banners. Which would you like to hold? Email your first and second choice to marylia@earthlink.net and we will have your banner ready for you! Or, come at 9 am to hold any one of them.
THE BANNERS
- Nuclear weapons are illegal (TPNW) 3 feet by 8 feet:
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on nuclear weapons 3 feet by 8 feet:
- U.S. - Join the TPNW 3 feet by 8 feet:
- Text of the TPNW 5 feet by 3 feet:
BTW, if you are reading this e-newsletter from afar and cannot come to Livermore, check the ICAN calendar/map tool to find an event near you. Many groups across the country (and beyond) are celebrating the TPNW’s first anniversary with banner holdings at nuclear facilities and other sites, bell ringing, vigils, flyer postings around campuses and other locations, zoom events and more. Additional events are being added daily. Click here for a calendar of events.
Posted on Wednesday, January 5, 2022
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Later this month, the world will mark the first anniversary of the “entry into force” of the United Nation’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The TPNW became part of international law on January 22, 2021 after 50 countries ratified it.
And, we celebrated that day. Indeed, there were events in more than 100 cities in the U.S., and many more across the globe.
On Friday, January 21, 2022, from 9 am to 10 am, we will return to Livermore Lab to memorialize its first anniversary. Counties are continuing to join the TPNW. Peru ratified the Treaty last month, on December 23, becoming the 59th country to do so. This spring will see the first meeting of the States Parties to the Treaty. The President-designate of the meeting is Austria's Alexander Kmentt. The Treaty is on the move. We have momentum on our side!
The nuclear weapons states are not happy. In particular, the U.S. government has placed itself in opposition to the TPNW. But a vibrant movement to promote the TPNW - and to bring our country into compliance – is taking hold. This movement includes some federal legislators, state representatives, local leaders, and hundreds of groups representing millions of people.
We must seize the moment… and build the movement.
And, you can help. On January 21, 2022 come to Livermore Lab and hold a banner. Write a letter to the editor of your favorite paper. Write your Senators and Representatives. Or, take other creative nonviolent action that will inspire you and others. Promote the TPNW. Together, we can do this!
and Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs
More than fifty years after his death, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered as a civil rights icon, recalled for his stirring words at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 when he declared "I have a dream!"
Beyond that, for lots of people, things get blurry. When an MLK parade is led by the local high school ROTC honor guard, equipped with guns, in full military regalia, one wonders what the apostle of nonviolence who decried war in all forms, might have said about that.
No need to guess, though, about what King would have said about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and we might suspect he would not have been displeased that the anniversary of the Treaty's entry into force falls just a week after his January 15th birthday, on January 22.
Here are just a few of the things King said about nuclear weapons back in the day.
In the last Sunday sermon he preached, days before his assassination, King said:
“It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence or nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence, and the alternative to disarmament, the alternative to a greater suspension of nuclear tests, the alternative to strengthening the United Nations and thereby disarming the whole world may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation, and our earthly habitat would be transformed into an inferno that even the mind of Dante could not imagine.”
King was not a latecomer to the discussion about nuclear weapons. In the early days of his public ministry, in 1957, he said:
“The development and use of nuclear weapons should be banned. It cannot be disputed that a full-scale nuclear war would be utterly catastrophic. Hundreds and millions of people would be killed outright by the blast and heat, and by the ionizing radiation produced at the instant of the explosion . . . Even countries not directly hit by bombs would suffer through global fall-outs. All of this leads me to say that the principal objective of all nations must be the total abolition of war. War must be finally eliminated or the whole of mankind will be plunged into the abyss of annihilation.”
It is worth noting that King's objections to nuclear weapons were not superficial; he understood the devastating effects of the bombs and the reality that the effects of nuclear war would not be limited to the combatants; they would be global. In that sense, he was decades ahead of his time—scientists now know that even a limited nuclear exchange would trigger a nuclear winter that would cause a global famine.
King also called for his religious colleagues to join him in his denunciation of nuclear weapons. "I am convinced that the church cannot remain silent while mankind (sic) faces the threat of being plunged into the abyss of nuclear annihilation," he wrote in 1963 in the Christian Century. "If the church is true to its mission, it must call for an end to the arms race."
Unfortunately, King's statements about nuclear weapons could be delivered today with equal cogency and even more urgency. Now, nine nations possess nuclear weapons, and they are deployed on hair-trigger alert around the globe. Military experts like former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry and analysts at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists agree that the threat of nuclear devastation is greater now than at any time in our history.
If you want an MLK sound-bite on nuclear weapons, here's what he said about nuclear war in an article in Liberation magazine, 1959: "I have unequivocally declared my hatred for this most colossal of all evils."
Posted on Wednesday, January 5, 2022
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 860 7520 2296 • Password: 342586
Please click links below for A "How to" guide on how to write letters to the editor (English & Spanish).
Remember, Your Voice is Power.
CLICK HERE "How to" in English
CLIC AQUÍ "How to" en Español
Happy New Year! Despite great odds, we have had a tremendous year together, pursuing disarmament through the entry into force of Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, preventing Livermore Lab from detonating huge open-air bomb blasts locally, and so much more. Thank you for being part of these successes!
Yes, we have lots to do in the coming year, but I invite you to take a moment now to savor a success of a different kind. This year, one of our longest-standing funders, Ploughshares Fund, recognized Tri-Valley CAREs’ in their 2021 report. In this, too, you played a part. Tri-Valley CAREs is always a team effort.
Here is Ploughshares Fund’s tweet of December 24, and below the “screenshot,” you will find a link to the complete text. Please comment or share it if you feel so moved.
Click here for the complete tweet
Please make a tax-deductible 2021 contribution today so that we may keep the positive momentum going. Two of the easiest ways to contribute and claim your tax-deduction are:
- Send a check. Date and mail your check on or before December 31. Send it to our office at 4049 First Street Suite 243, Livermore, CA 94551. We will note the check date in our thank-you letter to you.
- Use a credit card. CLICK HERE to make a secure on-line donation through your choice of PayPal or Network for Good.
In return, we promise to work hard every day in the coming year to stop nuclear weapons, pollution and war. And, we promise to keep you informed and involved every step of the way. Thank you so much for your valuable partnership.
In appreciation,
Marylia Kelley
Executive Director,
Tri-Valley CAREs
From the desk of Marylia Kelley
Your generous, year-end support for Tri-Valley CAREs enables programs that change nuclear policy, challenge budget priorities, and assert our human right to air, land and water that is free of nuclear contamination.
Your financial gift really does make a difference at Tri-Valley CAREs. We are mighty, but we are not large or bloated. We keep our overhead low, and your tax-deductible donation goes directly into our programs.
As one of our longtime board members Janis Turner so often put it, “Tri-Valley CAREs offers the biggest [nonnuclear] bang for the buck.” Your support, along with the contributions of others like you, truly makes our work possible.
Working together, we resist - and overcome - dangerous U.S. nuclear weapons programs. With your partnership, we are making progress toward a more peaceful, just and nuclear-free world. And, on January 22, 2022 we invite you to celebrate with us the first anniversary of the entry into force of the international Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Together we watchdog the Livermore Lab, one of two locations that designs every nuclear warhead and bomb in the U.S. stockpile. We are changing operations at the Lab. We have stopped open-air blasts to test new warhead designs – and we have prevented these larger tests since the Lab announced its plan to conduct them in 2017.
Together we safeguard worker and community health and the environment. We assist Livermore Lab workers made ill by on the job exposures to get compensation. We scrutinize the Lab’s hazardous waste permits to increase safety. We involve the public in Superfund cleanup decisions to ensure that contaminated land and water are cleaned up to the communities’ standards, not the polluters.
I hope that you feel pride in these successes. Your support has enabled them.
And, together, we are winning. Not every single struggle to be sure (at least not yet), but we are winning so, so many of them. It gives me great hope to see our collective efforts succeed. I trust you feel heartened too!
So, I ask you to invest today in the positive change we will create together tomorrow. Your tax-deductible gift in any amount will be deeply appreciated and put to immediate good use!
CLICK HERE to give by credit card through either PayPal or Network for Good (Your choice). You may choose to offer a one-time donation or become a monthly sustainer in any amount.
And, if you want help making a credit card donation, you can call Pam Richard or Marylia Kelley at (925) 443-7148 or at (925) 255-3589 as a back up number.
Or, send your gift by check to: Tri-Valley CAREs, 4049 1st Street, Suite 243, Livermore, CA 94551.
From all of us at Tri-Valley CAREs, we wish for you greater peace and justice – and continued good health – this holiday season.
Marylia Kelley, Executive Director;
Scott Yundt, Staff Attorney;
Raiza Marciscano-Bettis, Bilingual Community Organizer; and,
Our Board of Directors (Mary Perner, Loulena Miles, Gail Rieger, Inga Olson, Tony Green, Kala Hunter, Pam Richard, Lukasz Wojtaszek, Ann Seitz, and Judith Flanagan)
Posted on Wednesday, December 8, 2021
Posted by Scott Yundt
As we previously reported here (https://trivalleycares.org/new/Lab-Hazardous-Waste-Permit-Public-Comment-Period-2.pdf), Livermore Lab’s hazardous waste management is undergoing a permitting process with the State of California’s Department of Toxic Substances (DTSC).
The permit, which governs the quantities of waste storage locations, the treatments performed, and much more had to be revised in response to the first round of comments and appeals from Tri-Valley CAREs and other stakeholders beginning back in 2016. These revisions, (which took the DTSC another 3 years to complete) are now ready for public review, comment, and a (virtual) public meeting.
The virtual public meeting, where oral comments can be made, will be held by DTSC on Thursday, December 9th at 6:30pm PT via Zoom.
Please sign up in advance using this link: https://dtsc-ca-gov.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3Dduls7QSDmNmlL_E_WtWA
Here is a link to the relevant permit documents: (CLICK HERE)
Here is a link to the draft questions Tri-Valley CAREs will ask about the permit renewal based on our initial review of the permit documents. (Questions for the Haz Waste hearing)
All interested parties are encouraged to review the permit documents, contact us with questions or things that are important to you, and draft unique comments to submit to DTSC. Tri-Valley CAREs will submit written comments that will be available on our website before the February 4th deadline.
The DTSC will accept written comments until February 4th by mail sent to Elena Espada, DTSC Project Manager 700 Heinz Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94710 or via email to Elena.Espada@DTSC.ca.gov. She can also be reached by phone at her office at (510) 540-3779.
Here are links to relevant documents: (CLICK HERE)
Tri-Valley CAREs is hosting its monthly Letter to the Editor writing party this coming Thursday. New and experienced letter writers are welcome. Check out our flyer and Zoom link, below. Then scroll down to enjoy three recently published Letters to the Editor and an Op-Ed that had their start at a prior LTE party.
Posted on Monday, November 29, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 818 1729 4113 • Password: 141826
Please click links below for A "How to" guide on how to write letters to the editor (English & Spanish).
Remember, Your Voice is Power.
CLICK HERE "How to" in English
CLIC AQUÍ "How to" en Español
Below are some of the letters that our members have published recently.
November 25, 2021
Source: The Intependent
By Mary Perner
Livermore Lab handles, stores and “treats” hazardous and mixed radioactive waste (radioactive and hazardous materials mixed together) in various Livermore Main Site buildings. These wastes are regulated by the California’s Department of Toxic Substances (DTSC). The DTSC began the Hazardous Waste Permit Renewal process for the Lab’s Main Site back in 2016. The permit governs the number of waste storage locations, treatments performed and more.
The initial permit had to be revised in response to the first round of comments and appeals from Tri-Valley CAREs and other stakeholders. CAREs has monitored Livermore Lab’s hazardous waste management, and associated problems, for four decades. These revisions, (which took the DTSC three more years to complete) are now ready for public review, comment and a (virtual) public meeting.
The community is urged to review the revised permit renewal documents and submit public comment. Links to permit docs and useful comment process information are available at http://www.trivalleycares.org.
The DTSC will accept written comments until Feb. 4, by mail sent to Elena Espada, DTSC Project Manager 700 Heinz Ave., Berkeley, California, 94710 or via email to Elena.Espada@DTSC.ca.gov.
Additionally, the virtual public meeting, where oral comments can be made, will be held by DTSC on Dec. 9, at 6:30 p.m. Advance sign-up using https://bit.ly/3l02i2v is advised.
We encourage you to get involved, and hope to see you at the DTSC virtual public hearing Thursday, Dec. 9.
October 14, 2021
Source: The Mercury News
By Loulena Miles
The U.S. nuclear weapons and military budgets increased dramatically under Donald Trump and sickeningly, will increase again under Joe Biden. But this year’s check has not yet been signed by Congress.
Now is a great time to get on the horn to Sens. Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier and ask them to take a leadership role in cutting these hugely bloated budgets. Why are they growing? The United States continues to push the envelope in promoting the development of new nuclear weapons, a pivotal one right here in the Bay Area at Livermore Lab – the W87-1 Warhead. The entire Bay Area sits in the Livermore Lab’s environmental impact zone for plutonium and other radioactive and hazardous materials releases from this research.
We don’t need these nuclear weapons, we don’t have money for these weapons, and we don’t want the cancer this research causes. Call and ask that the budgets be slashed.
November 12, 2021
Source: Tracy Press
by Gail Rieger
Editor,
The Tracy City Council just approved construction of more than 1400 new homes in Phase 2 of Tracy Hills. This phase will bring homes even closer to Lawrence Livermore Lab’s Site 300, an open-air high explosives testing facility just down the road on Corral Hollow.
In 1990, the EPA placed Site 300 on its Superfund list as one of the most toxic sites in America. In 2018, Site 300 requested a permit to increase the size of its open-air bomb tests, from 100 pounds to 1,000 pounds per blast.
These detonations will contain more than 100 toxic pollutants. Prevailing winds will blow the contamination over Tracy and the Central Valley, with no pollution controls.
We are still waiting for a permit decision from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. If they approve the permit, the Superfund cleanup of radioactive and toxic materials that have already polluted Site 300’s soil and groundwater will stop at the firing table where these explosions are slated to happen. The Air District is expected to hold hearings on the effects of the bomb blasts.
It is imperative that Tracy Hills and Tracy residents take a major role in stopping these open-air bomb blasts, as there is an enclosed bomb blasting facility in Nevada that can accommodate these tests. Nevada is where these blasts are done now. They should not be moved to Tracy.
Tri-Valley CAREs, a group organized by parents who lived next to the Lab and the pollution created around their homes, is the only watchdog of the Lab and its decisions that affect the health of our community.
I’ve lived in Tracy for years and joined Tri-Valley CAREs 10 years ago. For more information about Site 300 and its plans that will affect your family, go to trivalleycares.org.
Editor’s note: More information about Site 300 can also be found at https://wci.llnl.gov/facilities/site-300/about-site-300
November 09, 2021
Source: La Progressive
By John V. Walsh
$1.75 Trillion for the Social Welfare/Climate Bill; $1.75 trillion for “modernizing” nukes.
Last Friday Congress passed the Biden “Infrastructure” Bill which will be signed into law post haste says the White House. The bill, designed to upgrade roads, bridges, transport and broadband, is a bricks and mortar affair and will benefit industry and commerce. It is the first of two bills that have been the center of attention for months now.
The second bill is the Build Back Better Bill. This bill has provisions for child care and preschool, eldercare, healthcare, prescription drug pricing, immigration and curbing greenhouse gas emissions. This might be described as a bill for people not for bricks and mortar. It has been the darling of progressives in Congress. The White House has now promised it will come up for a vote by November 15.
A 23% cut in the military budget (or if you wish to cast yourWhatever one may think of the “Build Back Better” Bill, there is no doubt it is a shadow of its original self. The total for Build Back Better was to be in the neighborhood of $6 trillion, as originally envisioned by Congressional progressives, and then it slipped to about $3 trillion and now it has shrunk again to $1.75 trillion – the incredible shrinking Build Back Better Bill. It is woefully inadequate. On health care, greenhouse gases, family leave, education and other matters, it is little more than a stingy beginning.
Now look at the cost of “upgrading” and “modernizing” the US nuclear arsenal, a program which was originated by Barack Obama, after he got his Nobel Peace Prize, and has now ballooned beyond its original abdominous $1 trillion price tag to a stunning $1.75 trillion. No shrinkage there. For both Parties no cost is too high to keep us poised every instant on the razor edge of Accidental Armageddon.
Nuclear weapon “modernization,” however, is only one small corner of the total picture. Let’s look at the entire military budget. Biden’s first budget for the Pentagon and nuclear weapons, for fiscal 2022, is about $750 billion. The spending on the Build Back Better Bill is to extend over 10 years, yielding an average expenditure of $175 billion. Biden’s “transformative,” historic” Build Back Better Bill gets only 23% percent of the Pentagon budget – assuming the latter is not fattened up even more.
The situation is even more barbaric when we look at the entire “national security” budget which includes the yearly budget of the 17 “intel” agencies and comes to $1.3 trillion. No expenditure is too great, it seems, to ensure that the Feds track all our phone conversations and emails and harass every unsuspecting Chinese student and academic they can get their mitts on. It would take only 13% of that $1.3 trillion to fund Build Back Better.
For weeks, the mainstream media has been burdening its audience with a grueling daily account of the Build Back Better Bill, with tedious detail about inter- and intra-partisan quarreling. The basic tale is that Senator Manchin is standing in the way of all that is good, holy and angelic in the political world. True, but that makes him nothing more than a typical Senator. However, the Manchin morality play touches on a simple but important question for those already feeling the limber fingers on their wallets of the insidious pickpocket, inflation. How are we to pay for Build Back Better? Regardless of which side of the question you come down on, cost constitutes an obstacle in influential quarters.
From all of the above, a compelling proposal emerges. A 23% cut in the military budget (or if you wish to cast your net wider, a 13% cut in the “national security” budget) will fund the entire Build Back Better Bill – with no more cuts. With a 23% cut for fiscal 2022, the military budget drops from $750 billion to $580 billion. That is well in excess of the combined military expenditures of $314 billion for China ($252 billion) and Russia ($62 billion.) In fact a cut of 50% in the military outlay would still leave it at $375 bill, still higher than the combined expenditure of Russia and China. If an elected official cannot agree to that, they are either paranoid or a hegemonist up to no good. In either event they should be barred from public office.
The military budget of $750 billion is now under “continuing resolution,” which means interim funding until a final vote can be taken in the weeks ahead. One needs no crystal ball to forecast broad bipartisan support for this piece of legislation. The only serious discussion will be how much to increase the amount. “Bomb Back Better,” if we might call it that, will sail through Congress and White House as effortlessly as a vulture on the wing.
Common sense suggests we transfer our hard-earned dollars from guns to butter, but no such prospect is in sight. Only one act is required to get to that promised land. We must not vote for anyone who cannot see their way to an ironclad commitment to a 50% cut in the National “Security” Budget – for starters. It’s as easy as that.
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday November 18, 2021. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually!
And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you!
Our November meeting will feature DTSC's Alejandro Vivas at 7:30 PM.
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 818 1798 0617 • Password: 469583
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 818 1798 0617 • Password: 469583
Waste: State Announces Virtual Public Meeting
Posted on Friday, November 12, 2021
Posted by Scott Yundt
Tri-Valley CAREs has monitored Livermore Lab’s hazardous waste management, and its many problems, for four decades. The Lab handles, stores and “treats” hazardous and significant quantities of mixed radioactive waste (which means its radioactive stuff and hazardous stuff mixed together) in various buildings around the Livermore Main Site.
These wastes are regulated by the State of California’s Department of Toxic Substances (DTSC). After a 6-year delay, the DTSC began the Hazardous Waste Permit Renewal process for Livermore Lab’s Main Site back in 2016. The permit governs the quantities of waste storage locations, the treatments performed, and much more.
Importantly, that permit had to be revised in response to the first round of comments and appeals from Tri-Valley CAREs and other stakeholders.
These revisions, (which took the DTSC another 3 years to complete) are now ready for public review, comment, and a (virtual) public meeting.
In the coming weeks, Tri-Valley CAREs staff and membership will carefully review the revised permit renewal documents. We will offer the public a preliminary analysis at our monthly meeting on Thursday, November 18th at 7:30pm PT. We have also invited DTSC to give a short presentation at the beginning of our meeting. Our November Zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81817980617?pwd=bFdvdUpTUEVzc0hhVEhaRk1sbnAyZz09
Here is a link to the relevant permit documents: (CLICK HERE)
Sign on comments will be posted on the Tri-Valley CAREs website (www.trivalleycares.org) in the coming weeks. All interested parties are encouraged to review the permit documents, check out our sample comments, contact us with questions or things that are important to you, and draft unique comments to add to any of those you wish to submit to DTSC from our sample “template.”
The DTSC will accept written comments until February 4th by mail sent to Elena Espada, DTSC Project Manager 700 Heinz Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94710 or via email to Elena.Espada@DTSC.ca.gov. She can also be reached by phone at her office at (510) 540-3779.
Additionally, the virtual public meeting, where oral comments can be made, will be held by DTSC on December 9th at 6:30pm PT via Zoom. Please sign up in advance using this link: https://dtsc-ca-gov.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3Dduls7QSDmNmlL_E_WtWA
Tri-Valley CAREs and hundreds of other commenters were very critical of the inadequate and poorly prepared draft permit during the original public comment process in 2016. We formally petitioned the DTSC to review certain aspects of the agency’s permit decision.
In July 2018, a DTSC Permit Appeals Officer issued a Final Appeals Decision and Order on Tri-Valley CAREs’ Petition for Review of the final permit decision for the DTSC’s Hazardous Waste Facility Permit for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Main Site.
The Permit Appeals Officer’s job included reviewing a very complicated administrative record compiled over the first 3 years of the process. This included: The Hazardous Waste Permit (which was issued on April 30, 2015); Tri-Valley CAREs’ Comments to that permit (made orally on June 3, 2015 and in writing on August 3, 2015); The DTSC’s Responses to Comments (March 9, 2016); Tri-Valley CAREs’ Petition for Review of the Permit (submitted April 21, 2016 in response to the DTSC’s Final Permit Approval) (see attachment, below); The DTSC Permit Appeals Officer’s “Order Partially Granting Petition for Review and Denial of Review” (Issued December 1, 2016 and granting only some of our issues review); Tri-Valley CAREs’ Appellate Brief (February 13, 2017) (see attachment, below) and the DTSC Permitting Division’s Brief (April 3, 2017).
The Permit Officer did not agree with all of the commenters’ arguments, but did agreed that there were significant flaws in the Permit that require it to be remanded back to DTSC’s Permitting Division to correct. Specifically, the Permitting Division agreed to “correct, and in some instances expand, the Permit sections concerning the air impacts of miscellaneous units, macroencapsulation of waste, delayed closure, and permit modifications.”
This victory by Tri-Valley CAREs is the basis for the current circulation by DTSC of a revised hazardous waste permit for Livermore Lab. As noted, it was our members’ public comment as well as our staff work that scuttled issuance of a deficient permit in 2016. Tri-Valley CAREs believes that a more stringent hazardous waste permit is essential to worker and community safety alike. As you can imagine, lax permit requirements can lead to accidents and releases.
We encourage you to get involved, and hope to see you at the Tri-Valley CAREs virtual meeting on Thursday, November 18 as well as at the DTSC virtual public hearing on Thursday, December 9.
Here are links to relevant documents: (CLICK HERE)
CLICK HERE for Tri-Valley CAREs’ Appeal to DTSC of the Lab permit
CLICK HERE for Tri-Valley CAREs’ Petition for Review
Posted on Thursday, November 28, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 825 4010 8668 • Password: 452056
Please click links below for A "How to" guide on how to write letters to the editor (English & Spanish).
Remember, Your Voice is Power.
CLICK HERE "How to" in English
CLIC AQUÍ "How to" en Español
Posted on Monday, October 25, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
The Tri-Valley CAREs board members and staff recently got together to think strategically, review our progress on last year’s priorities, and choose the group’s program priorities for the coming year.
After reviewing the past year we looked carefully at strategic opportunities and potential threats that we anticipate in the coming year, balanced against Tri-Valley CAREs’ current strengths and weaknesses. At the conclusion of the process we voted on which program areas should rise to the top for the coming 12 months.
These are the strategic program priorities that garnered the most votes:
1st Place: STOP NEW NUCLEAR BOMBS AND BOMB PLANTS (TIE)
This is about preventing the development of new and modified nuclear weapons – and the new factories that would produce them. Under this priority, Tri-Valley CAREs will address Livermore Lab’s warhead development programs, with a particular focus on the novel-design W87-1 and other other new warheads. This priority involves a parallel focus on expanded plutonium bomb core production, including Livermore Lab’s role. Through this priority, Tri-Valley CAREs will influence national nuclear policy and the federal budget process.
1st Place: REMEDY AND PREVENT ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE; INVOLVE FENCELINE COMMUNITIES (TIE)
This is about achieving a publicly accepted, comprehensive cleanup under the Superfund law of toxic and radioactive contamination from past activities at the Livermore Lab Main Site and Site 300. This priority also seeks to proactively prevent pollution from Livermore Lab’s current and proposed programs, including by addressing open-air bomb blasts at Site 300 and Livermore Lab Main Site’s hazardous waste permit revisions. This priority also addresses projects that may be revealed in Livermore Lab’s upcoming Site Wide Environmental Impact Statement. Through this priority, Tri-Valley CAREs will increase public involvement in environmental decision-making.
3rd Place: INVESTIGATE LIVERMORE LAB FACILITIES AND PUBLICIZE FINDINGS
This is about scrutinizing key nuclear facilities at Livermore Lab. With this priority, Tri-Valley CAREs will use the Freedom of Information Act and other community right-to-know laws alongside other means to monitor Livermore Lab activities. Through this priority, Tri-Valley CAREs will exercise its watchdog capabilities and increase public knowledge of the connection between weapons activities and environmental contamination.
4th Place: PROMOTE GLOBAL NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, NON-PROLIFERATION AND THE RULE OF LAW.
This is about contributing to the global abolition of nuclear weapons. Under this priority, Tri-Valley CAREs will focus on the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force early this year. This priority also addresses our participation as a non-governmental organization (NGO) at the UN in proceedings such as the Review Conference on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and other similar instruments of international and humanitarian law.
5th Place: SAFEGUARD WORKER HEALTH AND SAFETY
This is about justice for Livermore Lab, and Sandia, Livermore, workers exposed to toxic and radioactive materials. Through this priority, Tri-Valley CAREs will assist nuclear workers, and families of deceased workers, obtain compensation under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). With this priority, we will also act to preserve and enhance worker health and safety measures, including by interacting with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and other oversight institutions.
CLICK HERE to read our annual progress report, “Looking Back; Providing a Framework to Move Forward”
Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday October 21, 2021. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually!
And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you!
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 896 6392 2819 • Password: 673483
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 896 6392 2819 • Password: 673483
Posted on Thursday, September 30, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 844 3939 3707 • Password: 976926
Please click links below for A "How to" guide on how to write letters to the editor (English & Spanish).
Remember, Your Voice is Power.
CLICK HERE "How to" in English
CLIC AQUÍ "How to" en Español
Posted on Friday, September 10, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday September 16, 2021. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually!
And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you!
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 845 2384 3748 • Password: 469451
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 845 2384 3748 • Password: 469451
Posted on Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday August 19, 2021. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually!
And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you!
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 851 7861 1661 • Password: 763140
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 851 7861 1661 • Password: 763140
We invite you to participate on August 9th at 9 AM Pacific in an amazing virtual rally with Nagasaki survivor, Nobuaki Hanaoka, Daniel Ellsberg, Nell Myhand, Tsukuru Fors, John Burroughs, Marylia Kelley, Marshallese climate activists and more! Betsy Rose, Benjamin Mertz, and Francis Wong provide the music.
NOTES & LINK:
Northern California peace and justice groups planned this commemoration, which first ran on August 6 (see below) and will now run on August 9 in its entirety.
We had some technical problems on August 6 with the program’s live opening remarks at Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab. Among other things, Livermore Lab tried to drown out our opening with a lawnmower! But we brought truth and light and would not be “turned around” by garden equipment.
The problems have been fixed and we’re excited that the entire program will be rebroadcast at 9 AM on Monday, August 9 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB57nQAcSWQ
The August 9 program opens with “live” August 6 footage at the gates of Livermore Lab and continues with speakers and musicians who were prerecorded. A few of the opening remarks may be difficult to hear. Please listen carefully and stay tuned for the inspiring prerecorded session that follows.
The full program runs about 1 hour 50 minutes. Written transcripts will be available on our website soon.
Again, your August 9 link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB57nQAcSWQ
If you experience an issue with the link, no worries, we have a backup https://youtu.be/mK5vnrfQgrA
Here is the flyer with short bios and more info. Let us go forward, together, to the abolition of nuclear weapons. I hope to see you at the virtual rally on August 9.
For the planning committee,
Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs
CLICK HERE for the pdf of the flyer
Posted on Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Posted by Marylia Kelley and Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
Commemorate Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Stand with the Hibakusha. Abolish nuclear weapons. You are invited to tune in and act for positive change!
We invite you to participate in a virtual rally with Daniel Ellsberg, Nobuaki Hanaoka, Nell Myhand, Tsukuru Fors, John Burroughs, Marylia Kelley, Marshallese climate activists and more! Betsy Rose and Benjamin Mertz will provide the music. You will find more info, links, and bios in the flyer below.
The U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki seventy-six years ago on August 6 and 9, 1945. The nuclear explosions created shadows where there had been people. These nuclear shadows have been with us each day since, and they remain with us today.
On August 6 and 9, 2021 Tri-Valley CAREs and a coalition of Bay Area peace and justice groups will commemorate the past and act to change the future.
We ask you to join us on the commemorative date of your choice (rally program is the same both dates). We will be joined by a Hibakusha (A-bomb survivor) to say “never again” to nuclear devastation. And we will re-dedicate ourselves to the global abolition of nuclear weapons.
In a still-lingering time of Covid, this year’s commemoration will include a limited in-person program at Livermore Lab, one of two places where the U.S. designs all of its nuclear weapons. The live and virtual portions of the commemoration will be woven together into one experience for the viewer.
CLICK THIS LINK for August 6th.
CLICK THIS LINK for August 9th.
Click images to enlarge
CLICK HERE to download the front of the flyer
CLICK HERE to download the back of the flyer
HAGA CLIC AQUÍ para descargar el anverso del volante en español
HAGA CLIC AQUÍ para descargar el reverso del folleto en español
Posted on Monday, July 19, 2021
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Dear members and friends,
Every day is a good day to stop nuclear bombs, but now is a particularly crucial time to support Tri-Valley CAREs’ work to abolish nuclear weapons globally and address the health and environmental harms that occur with nuclear development.
To commemorate the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and lift up the voices of the Hibakusha and other radiation survivors, Tri-Valley CAREs and allied groups are working mightily to put the final touches on a powerful program.
On August 6, and again on August 9, we will bring you a virtual rally featuring nuclear analyst and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Nagasaki A-bomb survivor Nobu Hanaoka, and an amazing line-up of speakers and musicians dedicated to the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Our “save the date” flyer is at http://www.trivalleycares.org/new/Save-the-Date-Aug-6-and-9-2021-FNL.pdf. Further, as a member and friend, you will soon receive the full rally program and links.
Tri-Valley CAREs also speaks truth to power with federal lawsuits to protect our environment.
Tri-Valley CAREs and allied groups filed litigation this summer to force the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to analyze the pollution that will happen nationwide because of the agency’s plan to manufacture plutonium bomb cores, or pits, at two sites – while also involving seven additional sites including Livermore Lab, which is developing the warhead (W87-1) that would require the new pits.
If we win the lawsuit, the government won’t be able to move full-speed-ahead with its plan to manufacture 80 or more plutonium pits every year. Instead, the DOE will have to undertake the program-wide environmental analysis that is at the heart of our litigation. And, importantly, DOE would be forced also to hold public hearings across the country.
You can find more at http://trivalleycares.org/new/Groups-File-Lawsuit-Over-Plutonium-Bomb-Core-Production.html. And, while you are on our website, cruise by our Press Room and see TVC “in the news” for local and national media coverage of the litigation.
As a unique organization, located at the place new warheads are being designed (Livermore Lab), we are building a strong grassroots movement to challenge the money that enables the weapons.
Here, too, Tri-Valley CAREs is seeing some success: the Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 budget request has just run into a sharp scalpel in the House appropriations subcommittee that has first crack at “marking up” the nuclear weapons numbers.
The House appropriations subcommittee zeroed out all funding for a new sea-launched cruise missile warhead (called the W80-Alt-SLCM, a Livermore Lab design). Further, the subcommittee refused to allot any funds to keep the last megaton-class nuclear bomb in the stockpile (called the B83, another Livermore Lab design). Finally, the subcommittee cut back the funds for development of a new strategic submarine launched warhead (called the W93, no lead lab assigned yet).
I am reminded of the poet Robert Frost, who wrote, “… I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” We here at Tri-Valley CAREs likewise have miles to go and promises to keep.
We will stay on the congressional budget processes and continue our strong advocacy to cut all funding for new warheads and bombs.
We will continue to stand with the Hibakusha and others worldwide to lift up the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons alongside other measures to eliminate these horrific weapons – no exceptions!
And, we will pursue our plutonium litigation in the coming days and months; always demanding greater openness, public involvement, and environmental justice for all communities, like ours, downwind and downstream of nuclear weapons and other polluting industries.
This is the journey. We invite you to join us.
Your tax-deductible contribution now – in any amount right for you – is essential to our success.
If you would like to donate by credit card, click DONATE, and you will have a choice to use either Network for Good or PayPal. You may choose a one-time gift - or set up a regular giving amount. Whichever you choose, please know we honor your generosity!
If you prefer to donate by check, send it to our office at: 4049 First Street, Suite 243, Livermore, CA 94551. Your check in any amount will be appreciated - and put to good use!
Thank you for everything that you do to promote peace, justice and a healthy environment for all.
Peace,
Marylia Kelley
Executive Director,
Tri-Valley CAREs
Posted on Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday July 15, 2021. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually!
And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you!
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 884 1850 0565 • Password: 721378
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 884 1850 0565 • Password: 721378
Posted on Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Today, a coalition of community and public interest groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). This legal action is prompted by the agencies’ failure to take the “hard look” required by the National Environmental Policy Act at their plans to more than quadruple the production of plutonium pits and split their production between the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
A plutonium pit is the heart and trigger of a nuclear bomb. Production involves the extensive processing and handling of extremely hazardous and radioactive materials. In 2018, the federal government called for producing at least 80 pits per year by 2030, including 30 or more at Los Alamos and 50 or more at the Savannah River Site.
The new plutonium pits are intended for the W87-1, a controversial new warhead under development at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Its novel design will necessitate new pits and require all of the cores manufactured at both production sites through 2038 or later, according to government documents.
Tri-Valley CAREs, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, and Savannah River Site Watch have reached out to DOE and NNSA on more than six occasions since 2019 over the legal requirement for a nationwide programmatic environmental impact statement, or PEIS, and public hearings before expanding the production of plutonium pits in NM and SC. On March 22, 2021 government lawyers sent a final letter of refusal to undertake the necessary environmental review.
Joining as a co-plaintiff in today’s lawsuit is the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, founded by Queen Quet, the Chieftess and head of state for the Gullah/Geechee Nation. The acclaimed South Carolina Environmental Law Project is representing the four organizations.
The litigation seeks to force the government to involve the public in the review and decision-making process and to evaluate the environmental impacts of the significantly altered pit production plan, including the environmental justice implications for the many underserved communities that are located near these facilities. A PDF of the Complaint is at https://bit.ly/3y93yUW and also linked below.
Leslie Lenhardt, staff attorney for the South Carolina Environmental Law Project, said, “It is imperative that NNSA correct glaring environmental-review deficiencies and conduct a thorough programmatic EIS on the impacts of pit production across the DOE complex.”
Jay Coghlan, Executive Director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, commented, “NNSA has tried four times to expand plutonium pit bomb core production, but failed each time due to overwhelming citizen opposition. NNSA is now cutting the public out by refusing to complete nation-wide review of expanded pit production for controversial new-design nuclear weapons. We file this lawsuit to enforce the legal right of citizens to speak out on the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars that will be squandered in the new nuclear arms race.”
Tom Clements, director of SRS watch, in Columbia, S.C., said, “DOE’s rushed planning to unnecessarily expand nuclear bomb production has already resulted in a massive cost increase and significant delays in the SRS plutonium bomb plant. While more delays and cost increases appear likely, it is essential that DOE slow down and comply with requisite environmental laws before jumping into ill-conceived plans to expand plutonium pit production which would be a key part of a dangerous new nuclear arms race.”
Marylia Kelley, of Tri-Valley CAREs in Livermore, Calif, charged “NNSA’s refusal to undertake a programmatic review of its pit production plan is intended to allow the agency to dodge analysis of reasonable alternatives. For example, LLNL’s W87-1 design is driving both the schedule and ‘need’ for expanded pit production. The warhead’s novel design features are elective; a refurbishment option could meet stockpile requirements without necessitating expanded pit production. NNSA is robbing the public of its right to comment on alternatives, yet those of us in frontline communities will bear the brunt of this refusal. It is workers and the public who will suffer the risks of accidents, spills, leaks, radioactive exposures, and the production and transportation of plutonium wastes.”
Click here for slides from today’s press conference.
Click here for a link to watch the press conference
Click here for the 43-page Complaint
Posted on Friday, June 18, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 822 2732 4231 • Password: 469347
Please click links below for A "How to" guide on how to write letters to the editor (English & Spanish).
Remember, Your Voice is Power.
CLICK HERE "How to" in English
CLIC AQUÍ "How to" en Español
Posted on Friday, June 11, 2021
Posted by Scott Yundt
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) issued a new report entitled Complicit: 2020 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending that outlines the $72.6 billion spent by the nine nuclear weapons states on their nuclear weapons programs during the 2020 pandemic.
The country by country details provide a grim picture of increasing budgets to fund new generations of nuclear weapons. The report also sheds light on the numerous private weapons contractors that profit off of the nuclear weapon largess from these countries and the huge amounts these companies spend on lobbying to keep the largess coming. This creates what the authors have deemed,” the nuclear weapons complicity cycle.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the United States spent by far the most on its nuclear arsenal in 2020. The report finds that The United States spent $70,881 every minute of 2020 on nuclear weapons, for a total of $37.4 Billion in 2020.
The report further points out that the nine nuclear weapons states found they had more than $72 billion on hand for their weapons of mass destruction in 2020, $1.4 billion more than 2019, despite the global pandemic. The report illustrates the how these governments are putting these weapons and their corporate benefactors before the needs of their people.
ICAN is a global campaign working to mobilize people in all countries to inspire, persuade and pressure their governments to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. ICAN is comprised of more than 600 partner organizations (Tri-Valley CAREs included) in over 100 countries. More information about ICAN can be found at www.icanw.org.
To read the Executive Summary CLICK HERE.
To download the Full Report CLICK HERE.
Para leer la información en español HAGA CLIC AQUÍ.
Posted on Monday, June 7, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday June 17, 2021. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually!
And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you!
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 822 4729 6139 • Password: 120489
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 822 4729 6139 • Password: 120489
New Warheads in the First Biden Budget
Posted on Saturday, May 29, 2021
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Over the course of four years, the Trump Administration increased funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to redesign nuclear weapons by a whopping 50%, resulting in less money for domestic programs on the one hand and the escalation of a perilous global arms race on the other.
Now these decisions belong to a new President, Joe Biden. Granted, he has a lot on his plate. Still weapons of nuclear mass destruction capable of ending life as we know it in a single afternoon should command serious attention. President Biden has promised a new nuclear posture review, to begin soon. Yet his first budget request to Congress continues the dangerous arms racing of his predecessor. All of the new warheads in the Trump posture review and budgets are fully funded in the fiscal 2022 request. Further, a city destroying, megaton-class bomb whose planned retirement was blocked by Trump gets a Biden infusion to keep it in the stockpile.
The Biden budget request went to Congress on Friday, May 27, 2021. The Department of Energy and its NNSA did not post the budget book containing the warhead numbers until late that evening, around 7pm. In media parlance, when a government agency does that it’s called “taking out the trash,” which means making an announcement at a time not likely to be noticed – such as late on Friday before a holiday weekend. Worse, some of the Department’s budget books are still not posted as of today (Saturday), including the volume detailing Livermore Lab’s budget.
In this analysis, we offer insights into the funding to develop three dangerous, wrongheaded new warheads: the W87-1 to sit atop a new land-based ICBM, the W93 to be coordinated with the UK, and a warhead based on a still-evolving air-launched cruise missile design that will be launched from attack subs and, perhaps, surface ships. We will also cover some NNSA top line numbers and the money to sustain the B83 in the arsenal.
The fiscal 2022 request for the NNSA is $19.7 billion, a small increase of about $11 million over the current fiscal year. However, this request is nearly $3 billion above the fiscal 2020 request, which in turn was higher than in fiscal 2019, and so on. Tri-Valley CAREs had hoped to see the Biden budget truly trim the excess and not merely tweak the amount of increase.
Within NNSA, the lion’s share of the budget is for the line item called nuclear Weapons Activities. The fiscal 2022 request contains $15.5 billion for this single line item. Weapons Activities is the budget line that funds new warheads and the bomb plants to produce them. Notice that $15.5 billion subtracted from $19.7 billion leaves only a tad over $4 billion for the rest of NNSA including Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, which gets about $2.3 billion. A change in priorities is needed.
This will be the first new-design warhead with wholly new components to be developed since end of the Cold War and the cessation of nuclear explosive testing in Nevada. It is intended to replace the W78, and will sit atop a new ICBM, called the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) missile. The W87-1 is a main driver for expanded plutonium pit production because it is being designed with a novel core that will require new pit production.
A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report detailed serious problems with this warhead and pegged its cost and desired features at about $15 billion. Cost overruns are likely to add billions more.
The Biden budget offers this new warhead program more than $690 million for fiscal 2022. This is precisely the same amount that the Trump budget had projected. No cut here. It’s also about $150 million more than fiscal 2021, an increase of nearly 28%. According to the Biden budget, this funding boost will allow the W87-1 to move into “Development Engineering” (called phase 6.3).
The budget contains a number of passages that hint at how truly novel this warhead is. To cite one example, the W87-1 certification rests on a whole new suite of technologies called “Enhanced Capabilities for Subcritical Experiments (ECSE).”
Subcritical tests are conducted in underground chambers at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site, previously known as the Nevada Test Site where more than a thousand above and below ground full-scale nuclear tests were detonated before 1992. Subcritical experiments use weapons grade plutonium but the small amounts involved do not reach a self-sustaining “critical” fission chain reaction, or nuclear explosive yield. They may, however, go up to that bloody edge.
ECSE is intended to increase the diagnostics capabilities for these tests – and to allow more of them to occur. According to the budget request, the W87-1 will require ECSE and include at least one subcritical nuclear test as part of its certification. One concern of Tri-Valley CAREs’ is that if there are certification difficulties due to the novel nature of the W87-1 it will increase pressure to conduct a yield-producing nuclear explosive test, an event that would lead to other nuclear-armed states, including Russia, China, India and Pakistan, quickly following suit. The escalation of nuclear dangers in that event cannot be overstated. This warhead development scheme should not move forward.
This is a new-design submarine-launched warhead that lacks justification. U.S. nuclear class submarines patrol with two designs, and both have been upgraded recently. The W93 was not funded until fiscal 2021, when it received $53 million for initial studies. The Biden budget contains $72 million for the W93, an increase of $19 million or nearly 36%.
We can’t talk about the W93 without discussing the UK. The United Kingdom’s nuclear capability contains a single sub-launched design based on a U.S. warhead. Recently, the UK announced plans to increase the “ceiling” for its stockpile. Tri-Valley CAREs has questioned the extent to which the UK’s needs underlie the sudden plan for NNSA to create this new W93 warhead.
The fiscal 2022 budget request contains some interesting answers to our question. In discussing the W93 Concept Assessment, the budget states that the UK “is participating as observers in the US W93/Mk7 warhead program.” And, in the subsequent budget section subtitled Stockpile Major Modification, it states U.S. weapons designers will “coordinate with the UK on their Replacement Warhead.” This begs the question of why U.S. taxpayers are funding this warhead.
Moreover, the U.S. and the UK are bound by the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which prohibits this kind of nuclear sharing. While there is a bit of complicated history here, one has to ask if this latest collaboration in the W93 program goes beyond the pale. The W93 should be abandoned.
This new warhead is a product of the Trump nuclear posture review of 2018, which proposed bringing back nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs). This weapon type was removed from service and placed into storage by President George H.W. Bush circa 1991. In the decades since U.S. attack subs and surface ships have carried conventional, but not nuclear, weapons - and the old SLCM warhead has been retired.
While a new nuclear SLCM concept was studied in the closing months of the Trump Administration, a wholly new warhead for this old Cold War mission shows up in the Biden budget as the W80-4 ALT-SLCM. The designation W80-4 means that this new warhead will be based on the design chosen for a new air-launched cruise missile capability, which is still under development at NNSA. The Biden budget allots $10 million to jumpstart development the W80-4ALT-SLCM rather than cancel it altogether as a bad idea inherited from the prior administration.
The B83 is the last U.S. megaton-class nuclear bomb, certified to have a variable (adjustable) yield of up to 1.2 megatons. One megaton is the explosive equivalent of one million tons of TNT. This Cold War relic was developed in the late 1970s and put in the stockpile in 1983. Until Trump’s nuclear posture review changed its course, the B83 had been slated for retirement.
Without explanation, the Biden budget request includes “sustainment” funding to keep the B83 in the stockpile at a cost of more than $98 million in fiscal 2022. The budget specifies that to extend its service life the B83 will require two alterations (Alt 753 and Alt 353) during the fiscal year - specifically for a new neutron generator and a new tritium (radioactive hydrogen) reservoir, respectively. Instead, these funds should be used to retire this bomb.
These nuclear weapons are but one part of a so-called “modernization” scheme to redesign and rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, including warheads, production plants and delivery vehicles, i.e., missiles, planes and ships. The overall financial cost over 30-years will be upwards of $2 trillion (and more if you count likely cost overruns).
Last week the Congressional Budget Office released its revised near-term cost estimate for “modernization.” The CBO report stated that the costs have risen $140 billion, or 28%, to $494 billion for the 2019 to 2028 timeframe that CBO originally studied. It’s notable that this steep rise has occurred in the single year since the last CBO report. What does it portend for the coming 30-years?
Moreover, the direct financial costs of U.S. nuclear weapons do not tell the whole story. Included in this story are the costs to communities when health care and other needs go unmet. (For example in this pandemic U.S. nuclear weapons did not save a single life – nor will they in the next similar crisis.)
Nor can dollars alone account for the proliferation costs of U.S. nuclear weapons. These costs may be extreme. As Tri-Valley CAREs celebrates the entry into force this year of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and promotes its vision, we note too that U.S. nuclear “modernization” spending has helped catalyze each of the other nuclear-armed states to upgrade its nuclear capabilities too.
Our global, and domestic, future hangs in the balance. If the Biden Administration wants to “Build Back Better” following Covid-19, it must not blindly retain the Trump nuclear policies and budgets. Presidential attention is needed now. The announcement of a new nuclear posture review to be undertaken in the future is welcome, but the NNSA’s nuclear weapons budget request that has just been released is where the “rubber” of U.S. policy meets the “road” of new warheads and new dangers. The NNSA weapons budget must be cut now.
Note: This is Tri-Valley CAREs’ fiscal 2022 budget analysis part one. Part two will cover the NNSA’s new bomb plants, with a focus on expanded plutonium pit production and other new weapons complex infrastructure schemes. Part three will cover the fiscal 2022 budget request for Livermore Lab in detail.
Stay tuned. And do use the information we offer to accelerate your advocacy.
HAGA CLIC AQUÍ para leer la información en español.
Posted on Friday, May 28, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 832 7450 8584 • Password: 622864
Please click links below for A "How to" guide on how to write letters to the editor (English & Spanish).
Remember, Your Voice is Power.
CLICK HERE "How to" in English
CLIC AQUÍ "How to" en Español
Posted on Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis and Marylia Kelley
The U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki seventy-six years ago on August 6 and 9, 1945. The explosions created shadows where there had been people. On many levels nuclear shadows have been with us each day since, and they are with us today.
On August 6 and 9, 2021, Tri-Valley CAREs and a coalition of Bay Area peace and justice groups will commemorate the past and act to change the future.
We invite you to join us. We will stand with Hibakusha (A-bomb survivors) to say “never again” to nuclear annihilation. And we will dedicate ourselves to the global abolition of nuclear weapons.
This year’s event will span both anniversary dates; there will be a short program at 9 AM on August 6 and a longer one at 9 AM on August 9 (all times local). This year’s commemoration will be a “hybrid” event, featuring a virtual rally with music and speakers and a limited in-person program at Livermore Lab, one of two places where the U.S. designs all of its nuclear weapons.
Planning for these August peace events is ongoing. Visit our website regularly for updates. And “save the date” today. Here is our initial announcement. Feel free to download and share with others who may be interested.
CLICK HERE for a PDF in English
CLICK HERE for a JPG in English
HAGA CLIC AQUÍ por el PDF in español
HAGA CLIC AQUÍ por el JPG in español
Posted on Monday, May 10, 2021
Posted by the TVC DC Days team: Marylia Kelley, Raiza Marciscano-Bettis, Scott Yundt, Mary Perner, Inga Olson and Pam Richard
A team of advocates from Tri-Valley CAREs is Zooming (literally) into Washington, DC this month to participate in “DC Days,” an annual event that draws organizations from across the nation whose members are directly affected by nuclear weapons and the health and environmental consequences of their production.
Your favorite Livermore Lab watchdog group is pressing federal lawmakers to prioritize toxic cleanup and public health while saving billions by terminating ill-conceived new nuclear weapons programs.
Tri-Valley CAREs and allied organizations drafted a new report, “Safety, Security, and Savings” to serve as the cornerstone of our 2021 advocacy. Each Biden Administration official and member of Congress with whom we meet gets a copy – and so do our members and friends (see below). The report includes a series of fact sheets and recommendations covering new warheads, bomb plants, nuclear waste, cleanup, and more.
“DC Days 2021” is hosted by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a network of three-dozen groups whose members live around U.S. Dept. of Energy sites, including active nuclear weapons facilities such as Livermore Lab. Tri-Valley CAREs has been an ANA member group since 1989, and its executive director, Marylia Kelley, currently serves as president of the ANA board of directors.
CLICK HERE for the full report.
Posted on Friday, May 7, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday May 20, 2021. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually!
And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you!
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. Posted on Monday, May 3, 2021 Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis Listen to Marylia Kelley, Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs, talk at the West Gate of the Livermore Lab about the importance to change U.S. policy by stopping the further development of nuclear weapons. Livermore Lab’s most recent federal budget shows that more than 85% of its Department of Energy funding is used for nuclear “weapons activities.” For comparison, less than 2% of the funding is allocated for “science.” And, less than 1% of its budget is for research into “energy efficiency and renewable energy” sources. It is safe to say that Livermore Lab’s central role in driving a new and dangerous global arms race.
Marylia Kelley invites you to take this journey with Tri-Valley CAREs and millions of peace advocates, to take effective actions and work tirelessly to change the future for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. To read Marylia Kelley’s talk CLICK HERE. To listen to Marylia Kelley talk CLICK HERE. To listen to the entire event go to:
https://youtu.be/7RpZgZ6X99k
Meeting ID: 833 4057 9427 • Password: 919768
Meeting ID: 833 4057 9427 • Password: 919768
Posted on Monday, April 26, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link.
Meeting ID: 811 1493 0084 • Password: 085043
Please click links below for A "How to" guide on how to write letters to the editor (English & Spanish).
Remember, Your Voice is Power.
CLICK HERE "How to" in English
CLIC AQUÍ "How to" en Español
Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Multi-state coalition says DOE’s plans to massively expand plutonium pit production violate a major environmental law and constitutes an environmental injustice.
CHARLESTON, S.C. — A coalition of public interest organizations notified (PDF below) the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) urging a comprehensive review of plans to vastly ramp up production of nuclear bomb cores at the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
In Tuesday's letter to department officials, the groups say this lack of review violates the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and would saddle already-burdened communities nearby the two DOE sites with significant quantities of toxic and radioactive waste, contravening President Biden’s executive order of making environmental justice a part of the mission of every agency.
“The federal government appears ready to embark on this significant change in U.S. nuclear policy without studying the cross-country risks and environmental justice impacts, which indicates that the health and safety of workers and downwind and downriver communities are not worth the consideration or protection they deserve,” said Leslie Lenhardt, a staff attorney for the South Carolina Environmental Law Project, a law firm representing the coalition.
The organizations listed in the letter include Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions, Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, The Imani Group, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, Tewa Women United, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Savannah River Site Watch and Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment.
The latter three groups intend to file an action pursuant to NEPA within 60 days if DOE and NNSA fail to reconsider its decision. The nuclear watchdogs have reached out on more than five occasions since 2019 to DOE and NNSA over the necessity of a broad, nationwide programmatic environmental impact statement, or PEIS, of producing the nuclear weapon triggers, also known as plutonium pits, at the two sites. In its March 22, 2021 correspondence (PDF) with the groups, NNSA said it has no plans to revisit its review of pit production, relying instead on a supplemental analysis of an outdated PEIS completed more than a decade ago, along with a separate review done for the Savannah River Site alone.
The coalition has numerous concerns, including the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on the line, uncertain future radioactive waste disposal that could strand yet more plutonium in South Carolina, and the risk of lethal accidents, fires, radioactive and hazardous waste releases that could harm the predominantly low-income and African American communities near the Savannah River Site and the Pueblo communities and other minority populations living around the Los Alamos National Lab.
Beata Tsosie, Environmental Health and Justice Program coordinator for Tewa Women United, commented, “It is clear that communities impacted by nuclear colonialism need healing, strength and restorative justice. We know that the environmental violence our land-based and Native Peoples, ecologies and waters continue to endure from nuclear contamination will not end until the harm stops. It is imperative that the Biden Administration conduct a nationwide public review of its plans for expanded plutonium pit production that give affected communities a real voice in fighting for true environmental justice. It is our right that a commitment is made to get this done.”
Marian Naranjo, founder of Honor Our Pueblo Existence, said: “The Los Alamos National Lab is located on a geographically unsafe area for the work that transpires there, a place that is and has been considered as Sacred to Pueblo People since time immemorial.”
Tri-Valley CAREs’ director Marylia Kelley highlighted the national implications of NNSA’s decision to expand pit production. “The driver for the program is a novel warhead, called the W87-1, under development at California’s Livermore Lab that requires wholly new components including pits. The W87-1 and a new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent missile to carry the warhead are both under scrutiny in Congress and within the Administration, which is just beginning its nuclear posture review. NNSA should conduct the necessary programmatic review to help inform these important decisions rather than try to outrun them.”
“To compound the lack of a thorough system-wide analysis of disposal of waste streams from pit production, the politically motivated Environmental Impact Statement on SRS pit production unacceptably waves off Environmental Justice issues without even so much as a cursory analysis,” noted Tom Clements, director of SRS Watch. “There is urgent need for preparation of a PEIS that does not marginalize environmental justice issues as a tactic used to justify a second factory to produce plutonium components for provocative and costly new nuclear weapons.”
Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico commented, “Instead of maintaining the safety and reliability of the existing nuclear weapons stockpile, NNSA may actually undermine it because all future pit production is for speculative new-design nuclear weapons. This is a colossal and unnecessary waste of taxpayers’ money on top of already wasted taxpayers’ money.”
The South Carolina Environmental Law Project protects the natural environment of South Carolina by providing legal services and advice to environmental organizations and concerned citizens and by improving the state’s system of environmental regulation. Contact: Leslie Lenhardt, (843) 527-0078, leslie@scelp.org
Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety is a 33-year-old non-governmental organization, based in Santa Fe, NM. CCNS works to inform and educate the public, elected officials and the media about DOE activities in New Mexico—at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant—impacting public health, water, air and lands. Contact: Joni Arends, (505) 986-1973, jarends@nuclearactive.org
Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions envisions a world without militarism or systemic violence, with just, healthy, secure, and sustainable communities, and in which Georgia is a leader in regional, national, and global movements. They are an independent, community-driven, grassroots, woman-led organization that works on environmental justice issues as they relate to impacts of nuclear projects at the Savannah River Site, including plutonium pit production. Contact: Janie Scott, (404) 524-5999, janie@georgiawand.org
The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition operates in accordance with the mission of the Gullah/Geechee Nation to preserve, protect, and promote their history, culture, language, and homeland and to institute and demand official recognition of the governance (minority rights) necessary to accomplish our mission to take care of our community through collective efforts, which will provide a healthy environment, care for the well-being of each person and economic empowerment. The Gullah/Geechee Nation spans from North Carolina to northern Florida and receives the downward flow of the Savannah River, which brings its benefits and also could bring disastrous impacts to a community that relies so closely on the water. Contact: Queen Quet, gullgeeco@aol.com
The Imani Group is a Graniteville, South Carolina non-profit founded by Rev. Brendolyn Jenkins Boseman in 2004, to address criminal and environmental justice, as well as youth development. As the founder she has served on the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site’s Citizen Advisory Board and works to address environmental issues at the Savannah River Site and other sites affecting underserved communities. Contact: Rev. Brendolyn Jenkins Boseman, bjboseman@theimanigroup.org
Honor Our Pueblo Existence is a nonprofit organization based in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, immediately downwind from LANL. We embrace the Pueblo teachings of love, respect and care, working together to improve the life ways of our people in order to provide an enhanced and sustainable environment for generations to come. Contact: Marian Naranjo, (505) 929-2151, mariann2@windstream.net
Nuclear Watch New Mexico’s mission is to: promote safety and environmental protection at regional nuclear facilities; mission diversification away from nuclear weapons programs; greater accountability and cleanup in the nation-wide nuclear weapons complex; and consistent U.S. leadership toward a world free of nuclear weapons. Expanded plutonium pit production will have adverse environmental justice impacts given that the population within the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory’s 50-mile radius Region of Influence is largely People of Color. Contact: Jay Coghlan, (505) 989-7342, c. (505) 470-3154, jay@nukewatch.org
Savannah River Site Watch monitors a host of projects at SRS from the public interest perspective, with a focus on cleanup of existing waste and plutonium management and pit production. We are attentive to health and safety impacts, especially to workers and populations near to the Savannah River Site and are very concerned that NNSA has summarily waved off reviewing the probable environmental justice impacts from plutonium pit fabrication to minority populations living at the fence line. Contact: Tom Clements, (803) 834-3084, tomclements329@cs.com
Located in the ancestral Tewa homelands of Northern New Mexico, Tewa Women United is a multicultural and multiracial organization founded and led by Native women. Our Environmental Health and Justice Program integrates body, mind, and spiritual awareness into environmental justice advocacy, policy change, and community education while uplifting Indigenous and land-based families and oppressed Peoples to build grassroots leaders and community capacity. Contact: Beata Tsosie-Peña, 505-747-3259, beata@tewawomenunited.org
Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment is a non-profit founded in 1983 by frontline residents around the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to conduct research, analysis, education and advocacy regarding the environmental justice, health and proliferation impacts of LLNL in California and the U.S. nuclear weapons complex of which it is an integral part. Contact: Marylia Kelley, (925) 255-3589, marylia@earthlink.net
Additional Links:
Here is the "letter of intent to sue” to DOE/NNSA: https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5f2c352f324853b8b51c50db/607f1b8d3dcd9e7a6132fb05_4-20-21%20NEPA%20pit%20correspondence.pdf
Here is the attorneys’ (SCELP) webpage dedicated to legal info related to our case https://www.scelp.org/cases/plutonium-pits
Here is an article on the pending litigation by Sammy Fretwell at The State (newspaper) http://www.trivalleycares.org/new/Minorities-threatened-by-atomic-weapons.html
Para leer esta información en español HAGA CLIC AQUÍ
Posted on Monday, April 12, 2021
Posted by Marylia Kelley
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA-Silicon Valley) have introduced a bill to defund the Pentagon’s development of a new Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and Livermore Lab’s development of a wholly new warhead that would sit atop the missile.
The Bill is called the “Investing in Cures Before Missiles (ICBM) Act.”
Instead of investing in a new and lethal ICBM, called the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) missile, this legislation would send the money instead to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to fund development of a universal coronavirus vaccine to save lives.
Further, the bill redirects funds from Livermore’s W87-1 warhead to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention to research and combat emerging infectious diseases.
The bill would also prevent any new funding for the GBSD missile or W87-1 warhead in the fiscal year 2022 federal budget.
The bill number in the Senate is S.982.
Alongside Ed Markey, Senators Chris Van Hollen, Bernie Sanders, and Jeff Merkley are co-sponsors. Our California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla are not yet on the bill. Please call and/or email their offices and ask them to co-sponsor this important measure to enhance our real security.
In the House it’s H.R.2227.
Alongside Ro Khanna, CA Representatives Barbara Lee and Jared Huffman are co-sponsors. If one of them is your Rep., please thank him or her. Otherwise, please call and/or write your member of Congress and ask him or her to co-sponsor the bill. And, don’t forget to say that you would like a response, including any action your Rep. takes on this bill.
Additional co-sponsors of H.R.2227 to date are Rep. James McGovern, Mark Pocan, Pramila Jayapal, Earl Blumenauer, Steve Cohen, Raul Grijalva, Jesus Garcia, Sheila Jackson Lee, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.
More information can be obtained at congress.gov.
CLICK HERE for a one-page “ICBM Act” factsheet from Rep. Ro Khanna and Senator Ed Markey.
CLICK HERE for the text of the “ICBM Act.” Text is the same for S.982 and H.R.2227.
Posted on Friday, April 9, 2021
Posted by Marylia Kelley
The Biden Administration released its top line numbers for funding the federal government in fiscal year 2022, which begins on October 1, 2021. This is sometimes called a “skinny budget” because it lacks detail.
Here is our analysis of the military portion. Overall, the Biden budget request fails to curtail the excesses of the Trump years.
The President’s budget request for National Defense, called 050, covers Pentagon spending as well as Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons programs. It has a top line that represents a 1.7% increase over the current fiscal year and stands at a whopping $753 billion.
The increase prompted Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI) to note acerbically, “We cannot best build back better if the Pentagon’s budget is larger than it was under Donald Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump Administration and Congress increased the Pentagon budget by $133 billion. Moreover, the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget rose 50% during the Trump years. Think about that: 50%.
Regarding the DOE and its nuclear weapons programs, the top line number proposed by Biden is upwards of $46 billion for fiscal 2022, about 10% more than the current fiscal year’s appropriation.
Because Biden’s top line budget lacks detail, we can’t say exactly how much of the $46 billion is being requested for new warhead programs. Similarly, we cannot yet tell you what Biden’s proposed funding level will be for cleanup of contaminated nuclear weapons sites, including Livermore Lab.
We can tell you that the Biden budget will support ongoing nuclear “modernization” programs, including infrastructure at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The 58-page skinny federal request (see below in PDF) has 2 pages for DOE, and says: “The discretionary request supports a safe, secure, and effective nuclear stockpile and a continued modernization program that includes the recapitalization of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s physical infrastructure and essential facilities to ensure the deterrent remains viable…”
In plain language, this means billions will be requested for new warhead designs and new bomb factories to build them.
That said the President’s budget request is just that. However much influence the chief executive may wield, the constitution gives to Congress the authority of the purse. Congress authorizes spending levels and appropriates the funds for them.
It is up to us to make our voices heard. The full fiscal 2022 President’s budget request will be sent to Congress in the coming months. It had been scheduled for an early May release and is now rumored to be slipping toward June.
As soon as it is available, Tri-Valley CAREs will dive into its thousands of pages and bring you the key nuclear weapons details to help inform your advocacy.
In the mean time, there are bills being introduced in Congress to curtail some nuclear weapons programs in advance of the specific budget numbers.
For example, there is a bill recently introduced in the House (H.R.1554) and in the Senate (S.595) to stop the development of a new nuclear-armed sea launched cruise missile and its associated warhead.
Plus, there is another important bill just introduced in the House (H.R.2227) and in the Senate (S.982) that would defund a new land-based ICBM, called the GBSD, and its new warhead, the W87-1 under development at Livermore Lab.
The authors of these bills are seeking additional cosponsors, and your Senators and Representatives can be contacted with the request that they do so.
You can get more information at congress.gov (type in the bill numbers). Tri-Valley CAREs is also posting summaries and the full text of the bills at trivalleycares.org.
CLICK HERE for the 58-page skinny budget (Note: DOE is 26 pages from the front).
Posted on Friday, April 9, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
On Friday April 2nd, 2021, activists in the San Francisco Bay Area gathered for an ecumenical Good Friday service of worship and witness focused on the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab. Most folks participated virtually rather than in person.
This year we celebrated the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This treaty entered into force on January 22, 2021, after it reached ratifications from more than 50 countries.
Marylia Kelley, Executive Director and co-founder of Tri-Valley CAREs, addressed the gathering from the West Gate of the Lab, as scientists and support workers entered to start the morning’s work. Tri-Valley CAREs monitors nuclear weapons and the environmental consequences of nuclear development throughout the U.S. nuclear weapons complex with a special focus on Livermore Lab and the surrounding Northern CA communities.
Marylia Kelley described nuclear weapons programs happening right now at the Livermore Lab. She illuminated the role and importance of peaceful witness at this site, where nuclear weapons of mass destruction get more than 85% of its Department of Energy funding. She noted the budget line is explicitly titled, nuclear “weapons activities.” Further, less than 2% of the funding is allocated for “science” and less than 1% of its budget is used for research into “energy efficiency and renewable energy” sources.
Rev. Michael Yoshii, pastor of the Buena Vista United Methodist Church in Alameda, California, gave an introduction and thanked respective organizations for the ongoing work of monitoring, education, and advocacy towards nuclear disarmament. Rev. Yoshii spoke movingly about the Hibakusha (A-bomb survivors) and the ongoing work for peace.
We also listened to beautiful music from Betsy Rose and Benjamin Mertz. Carla De Sola brought to us liturgical dance and Jackie Cabasso spoke on how we can work to make the prohibition of nuclear weapons the world-wide standard and how to hold our country to that standard.
To read Marylia Kelley’s talk CLICK HERE.
To read the sermon by Rev. Michael Yoshii CLICK HERE.
Mark Coplan has posted his photographs on-line: www.flickr.com
CLICK HERE for an excellent news article about the Good Friday service, written by Marilyn Bechtel.
Posted on Friday, April 9, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday April 15, 2021. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually!
And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you!
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. Posted on Monday, April 5, 2021 Posted by Marylia Kelley - Introductions (5 min.) - Biden’s Top Line Military & Nuclear Budget Release: What’s in it; What’s Next? (10 min) President Biden released top line numbers for funding the federal government in fiscal year 2022, which begins on October 1, 2021. Funding for civilian programs gets a boost in the request. However, the Biden “National Defense” budget fails to curtail the excesses of the Trump years. We will discuss what’s in the Pentagon request and in the Department of Energy nuclear weapons budget. The administration promised a full budget request (with the all-important line-item details) later this spring. And, the congressional authorization and appropriations process are just beginning for fiscal 2022. Come and learn how to make your voice heard. - Legislation Introduced to Constrain Nuclear Weapons and Change U.S. Policy (15 min.) - Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; What’s Next? (10 min) Early this year the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force and became part of international law. We will discuss next steps - and some upcoming initiatives our members are invited to join, hosted by networks in which we play an active role – Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, the Back from the Brink Campaign, and International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. We will also discuss the TPNW interface with the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the NPT’s planned review conference at the UN in NYC this August (to be held if safe). - Plutonium Pit Production (10 min) The productions sites chosen to produce 80 or more pits per year are the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico. The plutonium pits to be produced are expressly for a novel warhead that Livermore Lab is developing, called the W87-1. We have news to share about our campaign to prevent expanded pit production. In particular we will discuss the legal implications of President Biden’s “executive order” on Environmental Justice and how we are seeking to enforce it in connection with the agency’s refusal to do needed environmental review before going full-steam ahead with its dangerous plans. - Planning Outreach Events/Zoom (10 min.) Tri-Valley CAREs is planning for the following events: 1. A virtual DC Days with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability scheduled for April 28th through May 15th. 2. A Hiroshima-Nagasaki rally on or around August 6 at Livermore Lab (likely virtual/hybrid), 3. Outreach for the NNSA/Livermore Lab release of its draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (announced for late spring/early summer). We will plan a Zoom on what’s in the draft SWEIS. 4. A Zoom session on the full Biden budget when it’s released; probably May or early June. Additional Notes: Posted on Monday, March 29, 2021 Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis You are invited to the annual Good Friday interfaith service of worship and witness to be focused on the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab. You are invited to join virtually (see below for how to get the link). Some of the speakers, including Marylia Kelley of Tri-Valley CAREs, will present from the Livermore Lab West Gate. WHEN: Friday, April 2 at 8:00 AM. (There will be opening music starting at 7:45 am.) WHERE: Go to: www.epicalc.org for a link to the virtual event. The Good Friday witness at the Livermore Lab began in 1983, and has continued annually. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 event was mostly virtual, and this will apply also for 2021. This year we will celebrate the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is the treaty we celebrated January 22 when it reached enough ratifications to enter into force. The latest count is 54 "states parties" (nations that have ratified or acceded). The Ecumenical Peace Institute (EPI) organizes the annual Good Friday rally and service. All people of good will are invited to participate. This year’s preacher will be Rev. Michael Yoshii. Betsy Rose and Benjamin Mertz will give us music. Carla De Sola brings us liturgical dance. Marylia Kelley will tell us what the Lab is doing to design nuclear weapons. Jackie Cabasso will speak on how we can work to make the prohibition of nuclear weapons the worldwide standard and how to hold our country to that standard. According to EPI, “Our preacher, our scripture, our dance, our music, our speakers and our prayers will raise in our hearts and spirits the dedication to indeed beat our swords into plowshares.” HAGA CLIC AQUÍ para leer la información en español Posted on Monday, March 29, 2021 Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. Please click links below for A "How to" guide on how to write letters to the editor (English & Spanish). Remember, Your Voice is Power. CLICK HERE "How to" in English CLIC AQUÍ "How to" en Español Posted on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 Posted by Marylia Kelley On January 22, 2021 the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force and became part of international law. Across the U.S. and around the globe, people celebrated this historic moment. And took action: at nuclear weapons sites, military bases, financial institutions, corporate offices, universities, congressional offices, town squares – in cities and towns and everywhere in between. It was a moment. Now we are making it a movement. This inspiring 5-minute video is created from actions photos celebrating the Ban Treaty’s “entry into force day” at more than 70 locations, including Livermore Lab. The slides are accompanied by the sound of church bells ringing in Tucson and Yusuf/Cat Stevens singing Peace Train at the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize concert. We invite you to watch the video… and to join us in the joyous, and essential, work ahead to move the U.S. and the world to the abolition of all nuclear weapons – no exceptions.
Meeting ID: 811 1309 3235 • Password: 193130
Meeting ID: 811 1309 3235 • Password: 193130
April 15, 2021 • 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Meeting ID: 821 8562 2638 • Password: 511830 
#NuclearBan. Thank you TVC board member Kala Hunter for the photo shown…
HAGA CLIC AQUÍ para leer la información en español
Posted on Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis
Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday March 18, 2021. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually!
And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you!
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. Posted on Wednesday, February 26, 2021 Posted by Marylia Kelley On January 22, 2021 the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force, enshrining the illegality of nuclear weapons under international law. The TPNW is binding on the countries that signed and ratified it, and more countries are joining and strengthening its norms even as we write this. The U.S. and other nuclear-armed states boycotted the negotiation and adoption of the Treaty by 122 countries at the United Nations in 2017. Now that the Treaty is formally in force and part of international law, how can we in civil society seize this moment and help move the U.S. and the world to eliminate nuclear weapons? Tri-Valley CAREs will be involved in analysis and action toward this goal on a regular basis. We invite you to join us. One good place to plug-in is by registering for a webinar put together by the U.S. Back from the Brink Campaign and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the Nobel peace prize in 2017 for its actions to bring the TPNW to fruition. Tri-Valley CAREs is a longstanding member in both coalitions. The webinar, which will feature interactive workshops, is titled “Ending Nuclear Weapons Before They End Us.” Its subtitle centers us in this task: “Opportunities Under the Biden Administration to Take Action.” It’s being held on Thursday, March 4th at 11 AM Eastern - which is 8 AM Pacific Time. We know it’s early for us Californians, so bring your coffee and/or breakfast foods. The flyer and schedule are below. More information and the registration link are at: https://preventnuclearwar.org/end-nuclear-weapons-before-they-end-us/ Register today. We’ll see you there! Click image to enlarge HAGA CLIC AQUÍ para leer la invitación en español Posted on Friday, February 24, 2021 Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. Please click links below for A "How to" guide on how to write letters to the editor (English & Spanish). Remember, Your Voice is Power. CLICK HERE "How to" in English CLIC AQUÍ "How to" en Español Posted on Monday, February 22, 2021 Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis Tri-Valley CAREs’ executive director will be the guest speaker on Wednesday, March 3rd at 6pm to discuss the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Hosted by the San Diego Veterans for Peace, the talk will cover the treaty’s legal provisions and the process of its negotiation and entry into force as well as the role for U.S. peace advocates in promoting its aims and standards to create real policy change in this country and globally. CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. Click image to enlarge CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. HAGA CLIC AQUÍ para leer la invitación en español Posted on Friday, February 12, 2021 Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday February 18, 2021. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually! And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you! CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. Posted on Friday, February 12, 2021 Posted by Marylia Kelley As you know Tri-Valley CAREs and colleague groups undertook numerous efforts during the Trump Administration to stop its proposal to expand plutonium “pit” (bomb core) production. The productions sites chosen to churn out 80 or more pits per year are the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico. The plutonium pits to be produced are expressly for a novel warhead that California’s Livermore Lab is developing, called the W87-1. Today’s blog brings you new information on our campaign. One prong of our campaign is to force the National Nuclear Security Administration to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires that the agency undertake a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) before proceeding with expanded pit production at two locations. In this endeavor, we are particularly happy to announce a new association with the much-respected South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP). The three groups retaining the firm are Tri-Valley CAREs, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Savannah River Site Watch. Here, for your reading pleasure, is our – and SCELP’s - opening salvo to the new Biden Administration asking them to review and reject decisions made by the Trump team. FIRST, here is a link to today’s news release on the pit issue… "Biden Administration Asked to Review Plutonium Pit Expansion Plans"
Our new legal counsel at SCELP posts it at https://www.scelp.org/news/biden-administration-asked-to-review-plutonium-pit-expansion-plans
You can also find a copy on our website at http://www.trivalleycares.org/new/TVC-press-releases.html SECOND, I am pleased to say that one prominent news organization has already published a story. More articles are expected to follow… The State (in Columbia, So. Carolina) “Atomic weapons plan risky for SC, lawyers say. Noted legal service joins fray”
By Sammy Fretwell, February 12, 2021 A South Carolina legal service has joined the fight against an atomic weapons components factory at the Savannah River Site, raising the possibility that environmental groups will sue the federal government to stop the effort. The South Carolina Environmental Law Project, a non-profit service with an extensive court record, outlined concerns about the factory in a letter this week to the U.S. Department of Energy. The letter called the proposed factory risky and in need of further study. At issue is a proposal to build a nuclear weapons pit plant that would use plutonium, a deadly long-lived radioactive material, at the Savannah River Site. The pit factory would produce potentially thousands of jobs, but is drawing opposition from environmental groups in South Carolina, New Mexico and California. Savannah River Site Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tri-Valley CAREs recently retained the Environmental Law Project. They say pit factories are expensive, unnecessary, needlessly threaten the environment, and could leave unused plutonium stranded in South Carolina and New Mexico. President Joe Biden’s administration needs to be “aware of the serious environmental and human health risks associated with a significant expansion in pit production,’’ according to a letter written Wednesday by law project attorney Leslie Lenhardt to the energy department. Nearly a dozen key members of Congress were copied on the letter, including Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-New Mexico. Plans call for producing 50 pits a year at SRS on the site of a failed mixed oxide fuel plant near Aiken not far from the Georgia border. Another 30 pits would be produced each year at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos, N.M., site. The government says the factories would provide fresh pits to replace the aging ones now used in nuclear weapons, while also providing the stockpile to produce a new type of atomic weapon. Boosters say pit factories are vital to the nation’s defense, although not everyone agrees. Opponents are asking the government to conduct an extensive study, called a programmatic environmental impact statement, before moving ahead with the effort. Such a study would be more comprehensive than past studies, likely delaying the pit production effort. They are concerned that more than 7 tons of plutonium could be brought to SRS after the state negotiated a deal to rid the site of stranded plutonium. No decision has been made on whether to file suit because opponents of the pit factories hope the Biden administration will reverse course and scrap the long-discussed proposal. Plans to build the SRS pit factory, on the table since the 1990s, resurfaced while President Donald Trump was in office. “We would like to avoid a lawsuit, so now the door is open to negotiation with DOE,’’ said Tom Clements, who heads Savannah River Site Watch. “I hope they will step through that door and talk to us.” If not, filing a lawsuit “remains on the table,’’ Clements said. Lenhardt’s letter said the groups are “hopeful that you will seek to review the former administration’s failure’ to conduct’’ the comprehensive environmental impact statement. The S.C. Environmental Law Project has taken on some of the highest profile environmental cases in the state since Pawleys Island attorney Jimmy Chandler founded the service in 1987. Through the years, the law project has handled a variety of cases, including numerous lawsuits to protect coastal wetlands and beaches from over development. But it also has been involved in suits against Barnwell County’s nuclear waste dump, a disposal site at the Savannah River Site, garbage landfills across South Carolina and a hazardous waste incinerator in York County. One of its most high profile cases was a successful effort to close a hazardous waste landfill on Lake Marion. Until the Southern Environmental Law Center opened an office in Charleston, the Environmental Law Project was the only non-profit legal service of its kind in South Carolina. Dear friends, stay tuned! We will alert you as developments continue to unfold on this important topic - and on our other programs too. And, don’t forget to join our Tri-Valley CAREs February meeting on Thursday the 18th at 7:30pm. Our flyer and zoom link follow… HAGA CLIC AQUÍ para leer la información en español Posted on Wednesday, February 3, 2021 Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. Please click links below for A "How to" guide on how to write letters to the editor (English & Spanish). Remember, Your Voice is Power. CLICK HERE "How to" in English CLIC AQUÍ "How to" en Español Posted on Friday, January 15, 2021 Posted by Marylia Kelley This month, we at Tri-Valley CAREs commemorate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on what would have been his 90th Birthday. We celebrate his wisdom, persistence, eloquence and commitment to peace, justice and nonviolence. Throughout his adult life, Dr. King spoke publicly about need for racial justice and nuclear disarmament. For example, in speaking out against nuclear weapons testing, he said, “What will be the ultimate value of having established social justice in a context where all people, Negro and White, are merely free to face destruction by Strontium-90 or atomic war?” On this occasion, we note, too, that Coretta Scott King was a noted social justice advocate and nuclear disarmament activist in her own right. Among her many accomplishments, King was a delegate for Women Strike for Peace, representing the group at numerous venues including an international conference in Vienna. It is up to us to carry on their legacy, and to achieve a world of greater peace and justice. Here at Tri-Valley CAREs we are continually inspired and motivated by this vision. Join us! HAGA CLIC AQUÍ para leer la información en español Posted on Thursday, January 14, 2021 Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis Tri-Valley CAREs' would like to remind you of our monthly virtual meeting that will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday January 21, 2021. Our monthly meetings are open to all interested members of the public. You will get up-to-the-minute reports on nuclear issues, and become part of a peace and justice community that is creating positive change locally, nationally and globally! Join us virtually! And, if Spanish is your first language, I'd love to provide translation on request. Contact me at raiza@trivalleycares.org. I hope to see you! CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. Posted on Monday, January 7, 2021 Posted by Raiza Marciscano-Bettis CLICK HERE to join the Zoom Meeting using the link. Please click links below for A "How to" guide on how to write letters to the editor (English & Spanish). Remember, Your Voice is Power. CLICK HERE "How to" in English CLIC AQUÍ "How to" en Español
Meeting ID: 811 5564 4457 • Password: 233705
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Meeting ID: 896 8559 8257 • Password: 751032
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