This has been an amazing year for Tri-Valley CAREs. Thanks to you, and all of our supporters, we have many achievements to share. Here is a sample of our 2024 wins for you to enjoy…
1.Last month, we achieved a major victory when the federal Judge in our four-year-long litigation ruled that, yes, the government violated the law by failing to fully analyze its planned expansion of plutonium pit (bomb core) production at Los Alamos Lab in NM and the Savannah River Site in SC. Now the hazards posed by pit production activities at other sites, including here at Livermore Lab in CA, must be analyzed. Further, the entire scheme of expanding U.S. pit production must be reconsidered in light of alternatives that the government refused to consider. Tri-Valley CAREs, our three co-plaintiffs, and our attorneys are still negotiating final details. Look for additional news from us in the coming weeks!
2.This summer, Tri-Valley CAREs took the lead in addressing the “Corral” wildfire, which began on Livermore Lab’s Site 300 high explosives testing range near Tracy. The fire raged through a significant portion of Site 300 before moving off-site and growing to more than 14,000 acres. We published information about toxic smoke, lack of air monitoring, and damage to programmatic and cleanup facilities that was not previously released to the public. We met with Livermore Lab cleanup staff and regulators including the U.S. EPA, California Dept. of Toxic Substances Control, and the Regional Water Board. Through these efforts, we learned more about how the fire damaged and/or destroyed significant pollution cleanup infrastructure at Site 300, and resulted in a 6000-gallon spill of contaminated water. We held a community meeting in Tracy to report our results, which resulted in a major article in the Tracy Press.
3.In January, we celebrated the increase in community involvement that we achieved in Livermore Lab’s Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS). Our comments on the SWEIS resulted in significant improvements to the document and increased transparency into the Lab’s plans; for example, we got a final confirmation that the Lab will not be moving forward with increased bomb blasts at Site 300. We boosted public participation in the public comment process, both at the virtual and in-person hearings, resulting in community involvement that would not have occurred otherwise. The SWEIS, our comments and the public involvement foundation we established will provide a jumping off point for our activism in the coming years. Our work will continue into 2025 to stop the expansion of nuclear weapons activities while simultaneously promoting the cleanup of hazardous wastes outlined in the SWEIS.
4.This spring, we led a new initiative on government accountability and oversight of the nuclear weapons budget. Specifically, Tri-Valley CAREs and our allies in the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability met with Congress during DC Days 2024 with the goal of obtaining a new law that would force the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to inform Congress in a timely manner whenever its nuclear weapons programs exceed their budget limitations. (Our 2024 DC Days team is pictured to the left, Scott Yundt, Marylia Kelley, Barbara Dyskant, Sophia Stroud and Pam Rickard.) Our work caught the attention of Rep. John Garamendi (CA-8), who submitted House Resolution 8070 as an “en banc” directive in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. It directs the U.S. Government Accountability Office to provide a briefing to the House Armed Services Committee no later than December 31, 2024 on recommendations and options for Congress to apply a mandatory reporting process for the NNSA nuclear weapons programs. The goal of a new regulation is to pressure on NNSA to make more accurate initial cost estimates, thus making the true costs of the warhead projects immediately apparent to Congress and the public. Stay tuned for more on this in 2025!
Tri- Valley CAREs’ Executive Director Scott Yundt speaking to the crowd at Back from the Brink at the Livermore Lab West Gate on August 6, 2024.
5.Tri-Valley CAREs spoke truth to power at the Lab Gates. We collaborated with Bay Area groups to commemorate the 79th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima at the Westgate entrance to Livermore Lab on the morning of Tuesday, August 6, 2024. The program, “Back from the Brink: The Imperative of Nuclear Abolition” included a wonderful slate of speakers and more than 100 participants, many of whom also participated in a Japanese tradition of Bon, performing symbolic dance steps in the road to remember those who perished. Two dozen people nonviolently risked arrest at the conclusion of the event; they were cited and released. The event garnered television and newspaper coverage as well as numerous letters to the editor.
6.Tri-Valley CAREs reduced government secrecy and won hard-fought transparency of Livermore Lab’s nuclear weapons programs. For example, we completed successful litigation under the Freedom of Information Act. In fact, we won all seven of our claims against the government! Records we obtained due to the litigation included the full Performance Evaluation Report for Livermore Lab (which disclosed management deficiencies) and detailed information on the Lab’s “missed milestones” (meaning delays) in its development of the W87-1 and W80-4 warheads. We shared this information with Congress and the public. Members of Congress referred to our documents as evidence that these nuclear weapons programs face cost overruns and need increased oversight.
7.This year, we reconstituted the Tracy Environmental Advisory Committee. The newly active group has already conducted several outreach events and has connected with other groups including the Tracy Earth Project, El Concilio, Tracy Pride, The Southside Community Organization, the Tracy Farmers Market, Delta College and others. We have a solid foundation to continue building community involvement in our issues in 2025!
8.We played a lead role in promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Notably, Tri-Valley CAREs was part of the national organizing committee catalyzing actions at more than 100 nuclear weapons sites, military bases, congressional offices and other locations on the third anniversary of the Treaty’s entry into force in January (pictured at right). We hosted a local celebration at the Livermore Lab’s West Gate with our multiple 8-foot banners, a loudspeaker reading of the treaty text and more.(See below flyer for our upcoming January 2025 event).
