Friday, December 15, 2006  
New Nuke Arsenal Decried Nationwide

By: Catherine Komp
Published In: The New Standard

*A correction was appended to this news article after initial publication.

A movement is mounting to foil a controversial federal program to "modernize" the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal. The Bush administration says its plan will lead to a "smaller, safer and more-secure" stockpile, but opponents call it a blueprint for a new atomic arms buildup.

The US Department of Energy, in partnership with the National Nuclear Security Administration, opened a 90-day public comment period on their plan in mid-October. Since then, scores of people have turned out at public heari...

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, December 12, 2006  
Complex 2030 Hearing in Livermore to Draw Nuclear Weapons Protestors

By: Staff
Published In: Bay City News Service Wire

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration will be holding an all-day public meeting in Livermore today on Complex 2030, a plan to transform and modernize the nation's nuclear arsenal by the year 2030.

Tri-Valley Communities Against Radioactive Environment announced today that they plan to hold press briefings on the NNSA's plan at 11:30 a.m. today to protest what they are calling a "new U.S. nuclear 'bombplex'" that will impact the Livermore lab as well as the testing site in Tracy.
While the NNSA has reported that they plan to make the nation's nucle...

Click here to read the full article.


Sunday, December 10, 2006  
DOE's "Complex 2030" plan

By: Marylia Kelley
Published In: Letter to the Editor

The Department of Energy plans to reorganize its nuclear weapons complex at eight locations, including at the Livermore Lab. DOE calls its plan "Complex 2030." The driving force for this new "Bombplex" is the controversial Reliable Replacement Warhead program to re-design every nuclear weapon in the enduring U.S. arsenal and build 125 new nukes per year.

If this plan moves forward it will mean a new plutonium bomb core factory to manufacture upwards of 200 "pits" each year in a single shift. This is the activity that so polluted Rocky Flats it was shut down following an FBI raid.

Click here to read the full article.


Wednesday, November 15, 2006  
Energy Department Faces Lawsuit

By: Phil Hayworth
Published In: Tracy Press

The lawsuit is being filed by an environmental watchdog group that says important documents were hidden from the public that could provide important information regarding our future safety.

An environmental watchdog group Tuesday filed a lawsuit in federal district court in San Francisco against the Department of Energy for failing to release requested information.

Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs said the energy department failed to provide documents for three years regarding the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory�s desire to develop ground-penetrating nuclear weapons, the...

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, November 14, 2006  
Livermore Group Files FOIA Lawsuit Against Dept. of Energy

By: Wire Service story
Published In: CBS5 news, Bay City Wire Service

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)
A nuclear weapons watchdog group sued the U.S. Department of Energy in federal court in San Francisco today for allegedly failing to provide documents about activities at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The lawsuit was filed by Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, or Tri-Valley CAREs.

It accuses the department of violating the U.S. Freedom of Information Act by failing to respond to requests for unclassified documents about nuclear weapons research, biological warfare defense research and security at the laboratory.
<...

Click here to read the full article.


Saturday, November 04, 2006  
Livermore lab watchdog group sues DOE over information issues

By: Chris Metinko
Published In: San Jose Mercury News

A Livermore-based national laboratory watchdog group filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Energy, alleging failures to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.

Tri-Valley CAREs claims the department has lagged on five different FOIA requests that range between one and three years old.

The five FOIA requests that are subjects of the suit involve unclassified information on the feasibility of developing earth-penetrating nuclear weapons, the environmental implications of a terrorist attack or catastrophic accident on Livermore ...

Click here to read the full article.


Saturday, October 28, 2006  
3 teams vie to manage nuclear research at Lawrence Livermore

By: Scott Lindlaw, Associated Press AP
Published In: San Jose Mercury News

SAN FRANCISCO - Three teams have submitted bids for the right to manage Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, including one consisting of nuclear watchdogs, academics and a "green" energy firm, the groups said Friday.

Livermore Lab GREEN, as the team calls itself, would halt the nuclear weapons research that has been the lab's primary mission since its inception in 1952.

For the first time in its history, the federal government opened up the process for securing the management contract for Lawrence Livermore to competitive bidding.

Lawrence Livermore, one of the nation's...

Click here to read the full article.


Saturday, October 28, 2006  
Watchdog group wants to turn weapons lab green

By: Alex Breitler
Published In: Stockton Record

Subheading: Environmental group bids to run Livermore site

LIVERMORE - It has filed more than 20 lawsuits, testified at dozens of hearings and hosted at least 200 community meetings.

Now a group of environmentalists that has long focused its fury on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is taking that watchdog role to a new level by filing a bid Friday to take over the lab entirely.

Lawrence Livermore, which employs about 2,000 San Joaquin County residents, has been managed for the past 50-plus years by the University of California. But for the first time ever, a com...

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, October 17, 2006  
Ruling stalls biodefense lab in Livermore

By: Ian Hoffman
Published In: San Jose Mercury News and other print outlets

subtitle: AGENCY MUST EXAMINE THREAT OF TERRORISM

The defense arm of the U.S. Department of Energy cannot open a new biodefense research facility at Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons laboratory until the agency

considers the risk and effects of a terrorist attack, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The ruling by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is likely to postpone by at least several months the start of research at the new lab on potential bioterror

germs that cause anthrax, plague, Q fever and other lethal or disabling diseases.

Exte...

Click here to read the full article.


Monday, October 16, 2006  
Court blocks Lawrence Livermore research center

By: Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff writer
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/17/LIVERMORE.TMP

A federal appeals court on Monday blocked Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from opening a research center for detecting biological weapons until the government studies the possible environmental consequences of a terrorist attack.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the federal Department of Energy must consider whether terrorists could attack the center, and then decide whether the possible consequences warrant a full environmental review. Such a review could take a year.

Two anti-nuclear organizations and several local residents sued the govern...

Click here to read the full article.


Monday, October 16, 2006  
More study of terrorist attacks on "hot lab" needed

By: Eric Kurhi
Published In: Contra Costa Times

A federal appeals court ruled today that the Department of Energy must take the possibility of terrorist actions into account before opening a biodefense facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The decision affirms a lawsuit filed by Livermore-based Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, which alleged such an attack on a Livermore biowarfare research lab could have a disastrous effect on the surrounding community.

"I can tell you honestly I feel safer today because of the ruling," said Marylia Kelley of Tri-Valley CARES. "Operating an advanced b...

Click here to read the full article.


Monday, October 16, 2006  
Court blocks Lawrence Livermore research center

By: Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff writer
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/17/LIVERMORE.TMP

A federal appeals court on Monday blocked Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from opening a research center for detecting biological weapons until the government studies the possible environmental consequences of a terrorist attack.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the federal Department of Energy must consider whether terrorists could attack the center, and then decide whether the possible consequences warrant a full environmental review. Such a review could take a year.
Two anti-nuclear organizations and several local residents sued the government to ...

Click here to read the full article.


Monday, October 16, 2006  
Livermore Lab officials comment on federal appeal court ruling

By: Julie Cheever
Published In: Bay City News Service
http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/bcn_livermore_labs_061016.shtml

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - A federal appeals court in San Francisco today ordered the U.S. Department of Energy to consider whether further study is needed of the

environmental impact of a possible terrorist attack of a planned biodefense facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The project, known as a "Biosafety Level 3" facility, will conduct research on how to detect and defend against biological warfare agents.

Lawyers for a citizens' group that sued the department said the ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means the opening of the facility wil...

Click here to read the full article.


Monday, October 16, 2006  
Appeals court questions Livermore biodefense lab

By: David Kravets
Published In: AP (Associated Press)

SAN FRANCISCO - The federal government's plan to research lethal agents such as HIV and anthrax in a San Francisco Bay area suburb hit a legal snag Monday when an appeals court ruled the Energy Department must consider what would happen if the lab were attacked by terrorists.

Acting in a case brought by neighbors of the Livermore facility, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Energy Department conducted an inadequate assessment of the lab's environmental impact because the agency did not adequately examine the repercussions of a terrorist attack.

The new biodefense lab ...

Click here to read the full article.


Sunday, October 08, 2006  
Group files longshot bid for control of lab

By: Keay Davidson, Science Writer
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/08/BAGS3LL5A21.DTL

subheading: Anti-nuclear activists, partners want Lawrence Livermore to focus on peaceful pursuits

It's a classic David versus Goliath standoff.

A band of nuclear disarmament advocates, college educators and wind-energy developers is positioning itself to go up against a consortium led by the University of

California and the politically powerful San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp. for control of one of the nation's top nuclear design labs.

The band, which includes longtime advocacy group Tri-Valley CAREs, acknowledges it has little chance of outbidding the UC-Bechte...

Click here to read the full article.


Wednesday, September 13, 2006  
Opponents say biological lab would pose threat

By: Jake Armstrong
Published In: Stockton Record
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060913/NEWS01/609130326/1001

TRACY - In less than a decade, research on the most-dangerous pathogens on the planet could be under way just south of this growing city.

The facility could identify remedies for diseases now considered incurable and plan responses to biological attacks. But at what risk? opponents of a proposed biological research laboratory asked at a public workshop Tuesday night.
A 7,000-acre piece of land south of Tracy is on the short list of sites the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is considering for a $451million, roughly 500,000-square-foot National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.

Click here to read the full article.


Wednesday, September 13, 2006  
Proposed biolab draws criticism

By: John Upton
Published In: Tracy Press

Tracy residents gathered Tuesday night to air their grievances about a proposed research lab that could be built near Tracy that would house deadly diseases.

A high-security biological defense laboratory that might be built near Tracy to store and study incurable diseases such as the Ebola virus and mad cow disease would be no different than a biological weapons research center, according to a molecular biologist from the University of California, San Francisco.
�The only difference between defense research and offense research is your intent,� said Dr. Judith Flanagan, who said the...

Click here to read the full article.


Wednesday, August 30, 2006  
Locals Rally to Combat biodefense labs

By: Erika Check
Published In: Nature, the international journal of science

Nature, the international journal of science
30 August 2006

Locals rally to combat biodefence labs
Protests mount against classified research centres.

As the US government picks up the pace of building high-security
biodefence laboratories, community groups and watchdogs are ramping
up their protests.

The latest clash centres on Fort Detrick, an army facility in
Frederick, Maryland, that has long been home to biosecurity labs. The
government is planning to overhaul the existing facilities and build
a new biodefence research complex. Construction has al...

Click here to read the full article.


Thursday, August 10, 2006  
Biodefense lab plan survives short list

By: Keay Davidson, Science Writer
Published In: SF Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/08/10/BAGLVKEOCO1.DTL

LIVERMORE---
Plans for a controversial second biodefense laboratory at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory moved closer to realization Wednesday, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it was putting the proposal on a short list of candidate sites.

At the lab proposed for a facility near Tracy on Livermore lab property known as Site 300, researchers would expose cattle and other animals to some of the world's deadliest diseases and then try to develop defenses against such lethal microorganisms, whether unleashed by terrorists or Mother Nature.

With Wednesd...

Click here to read the full article.


Thursday, August 10, 2006  
UC, lab courting bio tech facility

By: Ian Hoffman
Published In: Oakland Tribune

18 finalists are in running for new national microorganism center


On rolling, grassy hills between the Bay Area's cities and the farms of the Central Valley, the University of California and scientists of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory see a sprawling biodefense lab as large as two Wal-Mart Supercenters.

Federal homeland-security authorities gave the nod Wednesday to the the university and its 7,000-acre site near Tracy along with 17 other proposals nationwide as contenders for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, pronounced EN-BAF.

Originally, this new ...

Click here to read the full article.


Thursday, August 10, 2006  
Bioterror

By: Eric Firpo
Published In: Tracy Press

A bomb test site in the hills upwind of Tracy has made the �short list� of 18 spots where a research laboratory might be built to help protect against bioterrorism, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday.

Homeland Security is looking for a spot to build a 500,000-square-foot research lab to replace a similar, but antiquated, laboratory at Plum Island in New York, which was built in the 1950s.

The University of California asked to run the new lab at Site 300, 7,000 acres in the hills west of Tracy that�s part of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

H...

Click here to read the full article.


Thursday, August 10, 2006  
Livermore lab, UC contenders for biotech center, National Bio and Agro

By: Ian Hoffman, Staff Writer
Published In: Inside Bay Area

On rolling, grassy hills between the Bay Area's cities and the farms of the Central Valley, the University of California and scientists of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory say they see a sprawling biodefense lab as large as two Wal-Mart Supercenters.

Federal homeland-security authorities gave the nod Wednesday to the university and its 7,000-acre site near Tracy along with 17 other proposals nationwide as contenders for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.

But lately the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has retreated from talk of closing Plum Island and suggest...

Click here to read the full article.


Saturday, July 22, 2006  
UC enlists Bechtel for Livermore lab bid

By: Eric Stern, Bee Staff Writer
Published In: Sacramento Bee

SAN FRANCISCO -- The University of California is preparing to fight for a third federal nuclear lab contract since a series of accounting and security mishaps pushed the U.S. Department of Energy to order competitive bidding.

The UC's governing body, the Board of Regents, agreed last week to team with the Bechtel Corp., a giant engineering and construction firm, to bolster a bid to retain control of the Lawrence Livermore nuclear lab.

Last year the company helped UC hold on to its management contract at Los Alamos labs in New Mexico.

UC has operated the historic labs in Be...

Click here to read the full article.


Wednesday, June 14, 2006  
How risky is Bay Area biodefense lab?

By: Ian Hoffman
Published In: Oakland Tribune

SAN FRANCISCO � A federal appeals judge Tuesday questioned building a biodefense lab in Livermore, close to 7 million Bay Area residents, for handling lethal and possibly weaponized germs.

Federal attorneys and opponents sparred over whether the federal government adequately studied the risks of the new biodefense facility at Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons lab.

U.S. Justice Department environmental attorney Todd Aargaard said analysts found the biolab safe even in "catastrophic" situations. The lab is needed immediately, federal officials say, to develop biodetection methods ...

Click here to read the full article.


Wednesday, June 14, 2006  
Concern over lab's plan to test microbes

By: Keay Davidson
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/14/LIVERMORE.TMP

A federal court judge in San Francisco hinted on Tuesday that she finds it troubling that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory plans to build a lab in the Bay Area to store and experiment with trillions of deadly microbes without proper environmental review.

The nuclear weapons lab's environmental report on the project does not include "any discussion anywhere of what seems most troublesome," namely that the proposed biodefense lab "is being built in a very highly populated area of Northern California," said Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder.

But an attorney representing the lab ...

Click here to read the full article.


Wednesday, June 14, 2006  
How risky is Bay Area biodefense lab?

By: Ian Hoffman
Published In: Oakland Tribune
Federal appeals court questions hazards of Livermore facility in populated region

SAN FRANCISCO � A federal appeals judge Tuesday questioned building a biodefense lab in Livermore, close to 7 million Bay Area residents, for handling lethal and possibly weaponized germs.

Federal attorneys and opponents sparred over whether the federal government adequately studied the risks of the new biodefense facility at Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons lab.

U.S. Justice Department environmental attorney Todd Aargaard said analysts found the biolab safe even in "catastrophic" situations. The lab is needed immediately, federal officials say, to develop biodetection methods ...

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, June 13, 2006  
Hearings Set for Proposed Biodefense Lab

By: Scott Lindlaw
Published In: The Washington Post
Also published: Forbes, CBS national news, Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury news and over 100 national and international outlets

SAN FRANCISCO -- To the Bush administration, a biodefense lab designed to test lethal agents including HIV, plague and anthrax is vital to national security. But area residents have visions of a biodisaster, and warn an accident could kill thousands.

Years of legal wrangling were to culminate Tuesday when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments about whether the Department of Homeland Security should be permitted to open the lab at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, about 50 miles east of San Francisco.

The new facility would test some of the deadliest toxins k...

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, June 13, 2006  
Judge Troubled by Government's Biolab Plans

By: Associated Press, KTVU Television
Published In: KTVU TV

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court judge said Tuesday she found it "troublesome" that the Bush administration wants to open a lab for testing lethal agents including HIV, plague and anthrax in the densely populated San Francisco Bay Area.
But a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the administration had thoroughly researched its plans for a biodefense lab at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and concluded there was little risk of a disaster.
If pathogens were to seep from the proposed lab and reach the public, they would have di...

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, June 13, 2006  
Appeals court hears arguments on proposed biodefense lab

By: Scott Lindlaw
Published In: AP, Associated Press
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/14805928.htm(c)

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court judge said Tuesday she found it "troublesome" that the Bush administration wants to open a lab for testing lethal agents including HIV, plague and anthrax in the densely populated San Francisco Bay Area.
But a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the administration had thoroughly researched its plans for a biodefense lab at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and concluded there was little risk of a disaster.
If pathogens were to seep from the proposed lab and reach the public, they would have dis...

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, June 13, 2006  
Appeals Court considers Livermore 'hot lab'

By: Chris Metinko
Published In: Contra Costa Times

Watchdog groups want the federal government to further investigate the
impacts of possible terrorist attacks before it proceeds with its plan
to open a laboratory to study anthrax, plague and other deadly pathogens
at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

At a hearing Tuesday in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco, the Livermore-based Tri-Valley Communities Against a
Radioactive Environment and Nuclear Watch New Mexico groups argued the
Department of Energy did not do an adequate assessment of the potential
environmental impacts of locating a "hot lab" i...

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, June 06, 2006  
Judge to hear concerns over proposal for bioware lab

By: Knight Ridder
Published In: San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/14750893.htm

LIVERMORE
Judge to hear concerns over proposal for biowarfare lab
A federal judge will consider Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's plans to build a new ``hotlab'' to study anthrax, plague and other deadly pathogens.
The hearing, scheduled for next Tuesday in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, is the latest development in a battle over the ``Biosafety Level 3'' facility.
Livermore-based Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment and other watchdog groups claim the Department of Energy didn't do an adequate assessment of the potential enviro...

Click here to read the full article.


Monday, June 05, 2006  
Judge to rule June 13 on planned Livermore 'hotlab'

By: Betsy Mason
Published In: Contra Costa Times

A federal judge will consider Lawrence Livermore Lab's plans to build a new "hotlab" to study anthrax, plague and other deadly pathogens.
The hearing, scheduled for June 13 in the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco, is the latest development in a battle over the "Biosafety Level 3" facility.
Livermore-based Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Enviroment, and other watchdog groups, claim the Department of Energy didn't do an adequate assessment of the potential environmental impacts of locating such a facility in Livermore.
"It is outrageous that the DOE granted itself the go-...

Click here to read the full article.


Sunday, May 28, 2006  
Livermore considers bio-defense lab in Tracy: Proposed research site m

By: Keay Davidson, Science Writer
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/28/BAGLSJ3NVT1.DTL

TRACY
The University of California and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which are already pushing for federal court approval to store and study dangerous microbes at the Livermore lab, have expressed interest in building a second bio-defense lab near Tracy -- a lab that could experiment with even deadlier bugs.

Critics say approval might allow such a facility to be a storehouse and research center for particularly virulent diseases such as Ebola, dengue fever, Lassa fever and other illnesses for which there are no known cures.

"To propose location of (such a potentially...

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, April 25, 2006  
Council cleanup

By: Phillip Hayworth
Published In: Tracy Press
http://www.tracypress.com/local/2006-04-20-Council.php

Tracy�s City Council decided Tuesday to write a letter asking the Department of Energy to spend millions to excavate and remove radioactive waste from pits at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory�s Site 300 where bombs are tested.
�Pit 7� is the general term for four contaminated, unlined waste pits just 8 miles from Tracy city limits that the DOE used from 1958 through 1988 as a dump for tritium, uranium and other toxic substances.
Water has leached through the pits, contaminating groundwater. A toxic plume was discovered slowly moving toward Tracy.
�The City Council decided to g...

Click here to read the full article.


Thursday, April 13, 2006  
Group hails plutonium removal, warns of dangers

By: Marilyn Bechtel
Published In: Peoples Weekly World
http://www.pww.org/article/articleprint/8930

The Department of Energy said last week it plans to remove all �nuclear bomb useable� quantities of plutonium and highly enriched uranium from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by the end of 2014, establishing a new plutonium megaplex at another location. The lab is at the edge of the San Francisco Bay Area. Only last November, DoE announced plans to double the amount of plutonium at the facility, despite widespread concerns about the safety and security of the plutonium already in use there.

While calling the long-term plan to remove the highly radioactive materials a victory, th...

Click here to read the full article.


Saturday, April 08, 2006  
Activists Pleased with Livermore Lab Plutonium Removal

By: CBS
Published In: CBS-N ews, Channel 5
url

LIVERMORE (BCN)

A Livermore anti-nuclear activist says she's pleased that the Department of Energy has announced plans to move plutonium from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by 2014.
In a statement issued yesterday, Marylia Kelley of Tri-Valley CARES (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment), said, "We applaud the decision to remove plutonium from Livermore Lab even as we realize the devil will be in the details."
Kelley said her organization will closely monitor the removal effort.
She said, "We will press for both a more speedy removal plan and for approp...

Click here to read the full article.


Friday, April 07, 2006  
Plutonium will be removed from lab

By: Keay Davidson, Science Writer
Published In: San Francisco Chron icle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/04/07/BAGGCI59D31.DTL

LIVERMORE

Administration sets 2014 deadline for moving chemical

Amid long-standing public concerns about safety, all nuclear-weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium will be shipped out of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to another site by 2014, Bush administration officials say.
The presence of the radioactive material -- enough to make dozens or hundreds of nuclear weapons, in fast-growing Livermore immediately adjacent to suburbs -- has been a long-standing source of anxiety for local anti-nuclear activists.
Its presence has also attracted intense c...

Click here to read the full article.


Thursday, April 06, 2006  
Lab's plutonium to move by 2014

By: Betsy Mason
Published In: San Jose Mercury News
url

NEW MEXICO TO HOUSE RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL

The federal Department of Energy announced plans Wednesday to move plutonium from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by 2014, part of a plan to consolidate all U.S. work involving plutonium at a single facility by 2022.

The move, intended to enhance security and increase efficiency, is part of a larger plan to renovate the nuclear weapons complex by 2030.

``We're looking to make the complex safer and more secure,'' said Bryan Wilkes, spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration -- the Energy Department branch that ...

Click here to read the full article.


Thursday, April 06, 2006  
A Most Unclean Site

By: Phil Hayworth
Published In: Tracy Press
http://tracypress.com/2006-04-06-site.php

About 50 people attended a final public hearing Wednesday hosted by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Department of Energy regarding the cleanup of �Pit 7,� the general term for the four contaminated, unlined waste pits just eight miles from Tracy city limits.
Various members of the public weighed in on the best way to clean up the pits, and government agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy said they would consider their opinions when they finalize a cleanup plan.
But some who attended the meeting weren�t convinced that th...

Click here to read the full article.


Wednesday, April 05, 2006  
A Radioactive Problem

By: Phil Hayworth
Published In: Tracy Press, Tracy, CA
URL

The federal government wants to know how best to clean up Pit 7, a radioactive waste site at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory�s Site 300, which sits just 15 miles southwest of Tracy.
A public hearing will begin at 6 p.m. tonight at the Tracy Community Center, 300 E. 10th St., to discuss the waste at the lab�s bomb-testing site. It�s sponsored by the Department of Energy, the lab and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. Members and staff of the Livermore-based environmental advocacy group, Tri-Valley CAREs, will present testimony at the meeting.
�We want to make sure that t...

Click here to read the full article.


Wednesday, April 05, 2006  
Energy Department to Consolitate Plutonium

By: H. Josef Hebert
Published In: Associated Press, Washington Post
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/04/05/national/w161948D61.DTL

The Energy Department announced plans Wednesday to consolidate virtually all of the government's weapons research and development involving plutonium at a single site to enhance security.
The plan, which is part of a broader overhaul of the weapons program over the next two decades, calls for removing plutonium stocks now at the Livermore National Laboratory in California by 2014 and from all current facilities by 2022.
Plutonium is now kept at seven facilities within the government's weapons production and research complex, posing difficult and expensive security issues at some of them....

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, April 04, 2006  
Group wants lab toxins containment plan to go further

By: Sam Richards
Published In: Contra Costa Times
url


ALTAMONT HILLS: In proposal, trench would be built around Superfund site that leaks pollutants.

A proposal to dig a trench around a waste pit at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory's Site 300 testing area in the Altamont Hills is only a partial solution to containing the toxic pollutants, according to a watchdog group concerned with groundwater cleanup.
At a meeting in Tracy on Wednesday, the federal Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency will describe a plan to dig a trench around "Pit 7," which between 1958 and 1988 served as a dumping ground for nitrate, perchl...

Click here to read the full article.


Friday, March 31, 2006  
Area test site may see bio-weapons and crop sustaining methods added

By: Bob Browne
Published In: San Joaquin News Service
url

Last updated: Friday, Mar 31, 2006 - 06:59:32 am PST
A high explosives test site southwest of Tracy could end up on the list of candidate sites for a new federal research to combat animal and crop diseases as well as bio-weapons.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security put out the call in January for researchers around the U.S. to describe how they could create and operate a new "national bioand agro-defense facility."

The front entrance to Site 300 off Corral Hollow road, south of Tracy, is shown in this undated photograph. (News-Sentinel file photo)
The department wan...

Click here to read the full article.


Wednesday, March 01, 2006  
LLNL cited for nuclear safety breach

By: ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor
Published In: Los Alamos Monitor, New Mexico
URL

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to issue a citation for a series of safety violations going back nearly two years ago at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.
In a letter to LLNL Director Michael Anastasio released on Monday, Administrator Linton Brooks concluded that the nuclear weapons laboratory broke a number of nuclear safety rules over more than a year, beginning in April 2004.

Anastasio is the designated director for Los Alamos National Laboratory under a contract with Los Alamos National Security, LLC, scheduled to begin June 1.

Click here to read the full article.


Thursday, February 23, 2006  
Lawsuit Filed to Stop Biosafety Lab

By: Author
Published In: The Independent, Livermore, Ca
URL

An �urgent motion for stay� and a supplemental memorandum filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals late last week seeks to prevent the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from beginning operation of a new testing facility inside the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in April 2006. The Biosafety Level-3 Facility is slated to conduct aerosol experiments and genetic modifications using lethal pathogens such as live anthrax, plague, botulism and Q fever.
The groups� underlying lawsuit is aimed at compelling the DOE to conduct a comprehensive review of the project�s potential environmental im...

Click here to read the full article.


Friday, February 17, 2006  
Activists push fight on germ research: Appeal filed

By: Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer: kdavidson@sfchronicle.com
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/17/BAGTQHADM21.DTL

Appeal filed over lab's new facility for study of pathogens
-
Activists have turned to federal court to stop Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from opening a facility in April for testing disease-carrying microorganisms that critics fear might escape and wreak deadly havoc across the Bay Area.
The agents slated for study include anthrax, plague, botulism and Q fever, a bacterial disease that in its more virulent form, chronic Q fever, kills up to 65 percent of its victims.
Two groups, Tri-Valley CARES (or Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) and Nuclear Watch of ...

Click here to read the full article.


Friday, February 17, 2006  
Court halts testing of bio-agents

By: Phil Hayworth, 925-830-4221, phayworth@tracypress.com
Published In: Tracy Press, Tracy, California
http://www.tracypress.com/local/2006-02-17-Court.php

A Livermore-based advocacy group filed for an injunction in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday temporarily preventing the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from importing and testing dangerous biological agents at its proposed testing site in Livermore.
The Department of Energy in 2002 gave the Lawrence Livermore Lab permission to construct a laboratory that would house research on Level-3 pathogens. Level-3 laboratories work with bio-agents that may cause serious or lethal disease by inhalation if left untreated, according to the federal energy department.
The site would ...

Click here to read the full article.


Thursday, February 16, 2006  
Livermore lab watchdogs ask court to delay 'hotlab'

By: Betsy Mason
Published In: Contra Costa Times
URL

LIVERMORE - A local watchdog group has asked for an emergency injunction to stop Lawrence Livermore Laboratory from opening a new "hotlab" where anthrax, plague and other deadly pathogens would routinely be tested.
"Our main concern is the fact that the facility is not built to withstand foreseeable earthquakes in the Livermore area," said Loulena Miles of Livermore-based Tri-Valley Communities against a Radioactive Environment.
The group wants the Department of Energy to do a full environmental impact statement for the "Biosafety Level 3" facility, or "hotlab," that takes into account t...

Click here to read the full article.


Thursday, February 16, 2006  
New report says: Nuke management is costly, risky

By: Marilyn Bechtel
Published In: Peoples Weekly World
http://www.pww.org

The innocuously named Reliable Replacement Warhead program, launched over a year ago to manage the U.S. nuclear arsenal, could seriously damage U.S. national security while costing taxpayers many billions of dollars, a new report says.

�The Reliable Replacement Warhead Program: A slippery slope to new nuclear weapons� was prepared for the Bay Area-based Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (Tri-Valley CAREs) by Dr. Robert Civiak, a physicist, longtime nuclear weapons policy analyst and former program and budget examiner in the Office of Management and Budget.

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, February 07, 2006  
Times good for bomb designers

By: Ian Hoffman, Staff Writer
Published In: Tri-Valley Herald
URL:

Subtitle: Scientists drawing up plans for new nukes.

For the first time in more than 20 years, U.S. nuclear-weapons scientists are designing a new hydrogen bomb, the first of probably several new nuclear explosives on the drawing boards.

If they succeed, in perhaps 20 or 25 more years, the United States would have an entirely new nuclear arsenal, and a highly automated factory capable of turning out more warheads as needed, as well as new kinds of warheads.

We are on the verge of an exciting time, the nations top nuclear weapons executive, Linton Brooks, said last week at...

Click here to read the full article.


Friday, February 03, 2006  
POTENT FIREPOWER FOR WEAPONS LAB: Modern Gatling guns to defend again

By: Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle
URL:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory plans to install high-powered machine guns over the next few months capable of hitting land vehicles or aircraft almost a mile away in the event of a terrorist attack.
Known as Gatling guns because they are multi-barreled, like their 19th-century ancestors, they simultaneously fire 7.62mm bullets from six barrels at up to 4,000 rounds per minute, powerful enough to take down an enemy aircraft or helicopter, officials said.
The guns will give the nuclear weapons lab greater ability to guard its huge cache of radioactive plutonium, said Linton Brook...

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, January 24, 2006  
Report claims warhead program would promote new nukes

By: Betsy Mason
Published In: Contra Costa Times
URL:

LIVERMORE - A report commissioned by a local nuclear watchdog group concludes that the federal Department of Energy has embarked on a program that will eventually lead to the design and production of new nuclear weapons and could ignite a new arms race -- a contention DOE rejects.

The DOE's Reliable Replacement Warhead program, which recently received $25 million in congressional funding for a second year of feasibility studies, is a "slippery slope to new nuclear weapons," according to the author of the new report, physicist Robert Civiak. He worked for more than a decade on national s...

Click here to read the full article.


Tuesday, January 24, 2006  
Slippery slope to new nukes, Rumblings Over The Bomb

By: Dr. Robert Civiak
Published In: San Francisco Chronicle, B-9
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/01/24/EDGEPGQSRR1.DTL

Inside the national weapons laboratories in Livermore and Los Alamos, N.M., scientists are working on a project called the Reliable Replacement Warhead. Congress initiated the program in 2005 to "improve the reliability, longevity and certifiability of existing weapons and their components." This innocuous-sounding undertaking, however, could significantly damage our national security.
The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration and the weapons labs want to grow RRW into a multibillion-dollar effort to redesign and replace every nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal. B...

Click here to read the full article.


Sunday, January 01, 2006  
BY THE MONTH: Tri-Valley CAREs in the news in 2006

By: multiple
Published In: various

January 2006:

Nuclear weapons business as usual: Despite past performances
Online Journal, FL - Jan 8, 2006
... It's never been easy. Three bidding teams vied for the contract: Bechtel/UC; Lockheed Martin/UT; and Nuclear Watch New Mexico/Tri-Valley CAREs.

UC must bid to run Lawrence laboratory
San Francisco Chronicle, USA - Jan 15, 2006
... Marylia Kelley, executive director of the nonprofit Tri-Valley CAREs, or Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, said she hoped the contract competition ...

Marchers honor Dr. King
Tri-Valley Herald, CA - Jan 17...

Click here to read the full article.