Reading Room


Tri-Valley CAREs Press Releases:   Most Recent • 2020 - 2016  •  2015 - 2012  •  2011 and earlier


For media inquiries contact: Marylia Kelley, (925) 443-7148, [email protected]


Media Advisory for October 22, 2015 Public Forum & New Report Release on Water Pollution

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 20, 2015

body of press release

CONTACT:

Marylia Kelley, 925-443-7148, [email protected]

Peter Strauss, 925-443-7148, [email protected]

Public Forum: “Bomb Tests, Polluted Water and Our Future”

New Report: “State of the Superfund Cleanup - Hazardous and Radioactive Pollution Issues at the Livermore Lab Main Site and Site 300”

WHAT: Public forum and the release of a new report on the Superfund law, hazardous and radioactive contaminants in soil and groundwater aquifers at the Livermore Lab nMain Site and Site 300, how the Lab’s broken public participation program imperils critical progress on cleanup, and what the public can do.

WHEN: Thursday, October 22, 2015 from 7 PM to 8:30 PM

WHERE: Transit Center, Room 105 (note room change), 50 East 6th Street in Tracy

SPEAKERS:• Peter Strauss is an environmental scientist and President of the San Francisco-based PM Strauss & Associates. He began working for Tri-Valley CAREs in 1991 as Technical Advisor on the Superfund cleanup of the Livermore Lab Main Site. In the,mid-90s, Strauss was also awarded a second contract by Tri-Valley CAREs to analyze data and advise on the Superfund cleanup at the Livermore Lab Site 300 high explosives testing range near Tracy. His responsibilities include providing detailed analysis of technical data on soil and groundwater contaminants and their migration through the environment. Strauss also provides analyses of remediation methods. Strauss is the author of a new report that will debut at the forum.

• Marylia Kelley is Executive Director at Tri-Valley CAREs. She brings 32 years of research, writing and facilitating public participation in decisions regarding the Livermore Lab, nuclear weapons, waste and cleanup. Kelley has testified before the U.S. Congress, the California Legislature and the National Academy of Sciences. Kelley has served on the Livermore Lab "Community Work Group" (since 1989) to advise the government and the community on the Lab’s Superfund cleanup of toxic and radioactive pollution at the Main Site. Kelley is leading efforts to revive the Work Group in Livermore and establish a formal mechanism for public involvement in Tracy where none exists.

• Viola Cooper is the Community Involvement Coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region IX. Cooper will outline EPA roles and responsibilities in the Superfund process, including the Superfund law’s public participation provisions.

• Gail Rieger is a long-time Tracy resident who is active in public policy questions. She will offer a community perspective on the importance of achieving a complete cleanup at Site 300. Rieger presently serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors at Tri-Valley CAREs.

• Scott Yundt is the Staff Attorney at Tri-Valley CAREs and will serve as facilitator for the forum.

WHY: The Livermore Lab’s Main Site in Livermore and Site 300 near Tracy are Superfund sites. Congress passed the Superfund law to force cleanup of uncontrolled releases of hazardous and radioactive materials. Decisions being made now will determine the effectiveness of the cleanup. Hanging in the balance are the quality of our groundwater aquifers and the health of our communities. The public’s role is key, yet Livermore Lab has not held a meeting of its “Community Work Group” in about three years. At Site 300, there is no formal process to involve the public in Superfund cleanup decisions.

A preview of the new 19-page report and additional background materials are available at www.trivalleycares.org, or call us at (925) 443-7148.

###



Media Advisory: Today's Livermore Lab $37.25 Million Lawsuit Settlement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 30, 2015

Livermore Lab “watchdog” organization Tri-Valley CAREs’ statement on the $37.25 million settlement announced today to settle six years of litigation for age discrimination and wrongful termination brought by 130 longstanding Livermore Lab workers.

“While it is regrettable the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory dragged its feet for years on the age-discrimination and wrongful termination claims, we are celebrating a long-overdue victory for justice for workers. Plaintiffs’ attorneys at Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer, worked tirelessly to achieve today’s result, said Tri-Valley CAREs Staff Attorney, Scott Yundt. “This settlement announcement verifies the failure of this federal public institution, the Livermore Lab, to act in the best interest of its own employees, which is in flagrant violation of its own employment agreement,” according to Yundt.

Yundt continued, “I have mixed feelings as news comes out today that the six-year wrongful termination lawsuit against Lawrence Livermore Lab, brought by workers laid-off in 2008, has finally settled. On the one hand, I am happy and relieved that 129 of the workers bringing suit will be compensated. On the other hand, the uncalled for terminations were the result of the new Livermore Lab management and operations (M&O) contracting system that had just been put into place. That contracting system and the corporate entities that run it remain in place today. Indeed, the suit arose after 430 permanent employees were laid off immediately following the 2008 privatization of the Lab.”

Yundt explained further: “In 2005, Tri-Valley CAREs, Livermore-based community ‘watchdog’ organization that monitors Lawrence Livermore’s activities, closely monitored the process under which the management contract for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was put up for bid for the first time in its history.

“While exclusive University of California management had come under fire in the media and on Capitol Hill for lax security and other problems, as a public watchdog group, we were concerned about the for-profit contract management process and its potential to reduce transparency and make dangerous choices in the name of maximizing profits.

“The 430 permanent employee layoffs that immediately followed the 2008 privatization and creation of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (“LLNS”), a consortium led by the giant San Francisco based private contractor, Bechtel Corporation, confirmed the validity of our concerns. There had been lay-offs in the past at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, but they were normally voluntary and allowed the employees some time to pass on their work and/or specialized knowledge.

“It was concerning as a public “watchdogs” aware of the sensitive nature of much of the nuclear weapons and other national security work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to stand by while many senior employees (the average age of whom was 54) were suddenly laid-off without a chance to ensure their institutional knowledge regarding operational safety, hazardous materials management and security was passed on. They employees have said that the lab had disregarded its own rules that were supposed to protect senior employees.

“The jury in this case found in 2013 that LLNS did not have good or reasonable cause to terminate the plaintiffs’ employment and/or that it acted in bad faith. Thus, LLNS breached its contractual obligations to its employees and the jury awarded some of the plaintiffs $2.7 million.

“This raised important issues about the privatization of management of the Lawrence Livermore and other national labs. These labs have a broad mission and manage to spend billions in taxpayer dollars each year. However, they have come under fire for producing relatively little science given the large investment, far exceeding budget estimates for projects, opaque and wasteful fiscal management and other problems. It has become clear that this general mismanagement has increased rather than decreased since privatization of the labs occurred in 2005-2006. This waste of government resources has consequences for the public’s interest.

“The problems have reached the level that the Department of Energy’s own Inspector General has called for a process to potentially realign and even close some national energy labs. Recognizing the significance of the problems and the important public interest, Congress called for the establishment of, (and appropriated funds for), a Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Labs (http://energy.gov/labcommission/commission-review-effectiveness-national-energy-laboratories). Among other things, this commission is reviewing the effects of privatization of the National Labs.”

More information, contact [email protected].

Tri-Valley CAREs: 925-443-7148

CONTACT:

Marylia Kelley, 925-443-7148, [email protected]

###



VIDEO CONTEST OPENS TO ENGAGE YOUTH IN ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AT LIVERMORE LAB

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 3, 2015

The launch this month of Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs’ second annual Youth Video Contest is part of the group’s ongoing initiative to engage the next generation in nuclear weapons and environmental policy questions and to ensure that their voices are heard.

“Youth voices are often left out of environmental decision-making at Livermore Lab,” noted Tri-Valley CAREs’ Staff Attorney, Scott Yundt, who is coordinating the contest. “The 2015 Youth Video Contest allows young people to speak to issues that will impact their future through video, a format of interest to many youth.”

“Nuclear Weapons or a Healthy Environment?” is the theme of this year’s Youth Video Contest. The basic instructions are simple: Describe what you think and what is important to you through the medium of video.

Youth from ten to thirty years old are invited to submit videos of two minutes or less, with a Grand Prize of $500, a Second Place prize of $250, and a Third Place prize of $100. All videos are due electronically by October 31, 2015 and will be posted on the contest Facebook Page: Click here . Details of the contest can be found at: here.

While submitters may take a broad perspective, contest rules require that the video address some aspect of environmental pollution or nuclear weapons activities at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Main Site in Livermore or its Site 300 near Tracy, CA. Both locations are on the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Superfund” list of the most contaminated sites in the country. Cleanup of contamination at both sites is scheduled to take another 40-60 years or more.

Contestants need not be from Livermore or Tracy. Nuclear contamination affects a wide area. A committee that includes a professional videographer has been empaneled to judge the videos.

Video submittals can be cartoons, live-action, documentary style, etc. Contestants can film with such technologies as cell phones and laptop web cams.

Winners will be notified in November 2015. The three winning videos will be shown at a special awards ceremony and party on December 8th at the Livermore Main Library, 1188 South Livermore Ave. The contest, now in its second year, attracted impressive entries last year, and the three 2014 winning videos can be viewed on Tri- Valley CAREs’ website.

CONTACT:

Scott Yundt, 925-443-7148, [email protected]

###



HISTORIC 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ATOMIC BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI: Major Protests at U.S. Warhead Facilities Across the Nation Unite to Decry Trillion Dollar Plan for New U.S. Nuclear Weapons; Advocate Disarmament

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 4, 2015

A thousand or more peace advocates, Hibakusha (A-bomb survivors), religious leaders, scientists, economists, attorneys, doctors and nurses, nuclear analysts, former war planners and others across the country are coming together to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki this August 6 through 9 at key sites in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex.

Major commemorations, rallies, protests and/or nonviolent direct actions will place at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in CA, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in NM, the Kansas City Plant in MO, the Y-12 Plant in TN, the Rocky Flats Plant in CO, the Pantex Plant in TX, and in GA near the Savannah River Site. These events are united by their reflection on the past, and, uniquely, their focus on the present and future with a resolute determination to change U.S. nuclear weapons policy at the very locations that are linchpins in producing the new trillion dollar stockpile of nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles.

“We stand on the brink of a new, global nuclear arms race,” noted Ralph Hutchison, the longstanding coordinator for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance. “This is epitomized by government plans for a new Uranium Processing Facility to produce H-bomb components at Y-12, including for new-design weapons.”

“U.S. plans to ‘modernize’ the arsenal are also underway at Livermore Lab,” stated Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs’ executive director. “A new Long-Range Stand Off warhead design and the start of plutonium shots in the Lab’s National Ignition Facility reveal two facets of this new arms race,” Kelley continued. “In contrast to the cold war, which was largely about sheer numbers, the new arms race and its dangers stem from novel military capabilities now being placed into nuclear weapons.”

Around the world, pressure for the U.S. to show leadership toward the abolition of nuclear weapons is growing. Pope Francis has repeatedly pressed the moral argument against nuclear weapons, inveighing not only against their use but also against their possession. In the wake of the successful Iran agreement, many are suggesting that since it has been settled that it would never be legitimate for Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, shouldn’t we also agree that the 16,000 nuclear weapons in existence have no legitimacy either. Moreover, 113 governments recently signed the “Humanitarian Pledge,” circulated by Austria, to press the U.S. and other nuclear weapons states to fulfill their disarmament obligations.

Actions this week at U.S. nuclear weapons facilities will highlight the mounting international calls for nuclear abolition, with U.S. organizers lending their deep and often unique “on the ground” knowledge from the gates and fence lines of the facilities involved in creating new and modified U.S. nuclear weapons. “This 70th anniversary should be a time to reflect on the absolute horror of a nuclear detonation,” mused Ann Suellentrop of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Kansas City, “yet the new Kansas City Plant is churning out components to extend U.S. nuclear weapons 70 years into the future. The imperative to change that future is what motivates me to organize a peace fast at the gates of the Plant.”

Key events at U.S. nuclear weapons complex sites include:

• Y-12 – pastoral letter, remembrance, rally and nonviolent direct action, peace fast and lanterns. (For more Click here.)

• Livermore Lab - peace camp, August 6 rally and nonviolent direct action, peace fast at the gates. (More: Click here.)

• Los Alamos Lab - film screening, panels, rally and conference (More Click here.)

• Kansas City Plant – atomic photographers exhibit, speakers, film screening, and peace fast at the gates. (More: Click here.)

• Savannah River Site – film screening, vigil, and circle of hope. (More: Click here.)

• Rocky Flats Plant – peace quilt, concert, film screening, labyrinth mourning walk. (More from [email protected])

• Pantex Plant – Hiroshima exhibit, panel discussion. (More: Click here.)

These and other Hiroshima events and actions at sites in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex are being led by organizations that are members of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, which represents about three dozen groups. More about ANA can be found at www.ananuclear.org.

CONTACT:

Joni Arends, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, [email protected], 505 986-1973 (NM sites)

Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, [email protected], 505-989-7342 (NM sites)

Ann Suellentrop, Physicians for Social Responsibility-KC, [email protected], 913-271-7925 (MO site)

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, [email protected], 240-462-3216 (Ohio sites)

Jerry Stein, Peace Farm, [email protected], 806-351-2744 (TX site)

Judith Mohling, Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center, [email protected], 303-447-9635 (CO sites)

Glenn Carroll, Nuclear Watch South, [email protected], 404-378-4263 (SC, GA sites)

Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action, [email protected], 951-217-7285 (in Hiroshima)

Ralph Hutchison, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, [email protected], 865-776-5050 (TN sites)

Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs. [email protected], 925-443-7148 (CA sites)

Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation, United for Peace & Justice, [email protected], 510-839-5877 (CA sites, calendar of national events)

Additional resources for media:

Physicians for Social Responsibility calendar and map of Hiroshima and Nagasaki actions: Click here.

United for Peace and Justice, Nuclear Free Future Month calendar of events: Click here.

###



70 YEARS OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS – AT WHAT COST?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 3, 2015

Daniel Ellsberg, A-bomb Survivor Takashi Tanemori, Country Joe McDonald to Headline Historic 70th Anniversary Hiroshima Commemoration, Protest & Nonviolent Direct Action at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab

WHAT: Northern California peace advocates will mark the historic 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the Livermore Lab, where the U.S. is presently spending billions of dollars to create new and modified nuclear weapons. The Lawrence Livermore Lab is one of the two national laboratories that have designed every warhead in the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

WHEN: Thurs., August 6, 2015. Rally will begin at 8 AM. An A-bomb survivor from Hiroshima will speak at 8:15 AM, the moment the first atomic bomb used in war exploded over the city he loved. At 9 AM there will be a procession to the Livermore Lab’s West Gate, followed by a traditional Japanese Bon dance, and the chalking of human bodies on the pavement to mimic the vaporized shadows of human beings left on the streets of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atomic bombings. Those who choose will peaceably risk arrest. Others will offer witness and support.

WHERE: Livermore Lab, corner of Vasco & Patterson Pass Roads in Livermore. The procession, led by Buddhist drummers, will go south down Vasco Road to Westgate Drive.

FEATURED SPEAKERS AND PERFORMERS:

Daniel Ellsberg is best known as the courageous whistleblower who published “The Pentagon Papers” and was sentenced to 109 years in prison before his conviction was overturned. Earlier, Ellsberg served as a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation, and consultant to the Defense Department and the White House, specializing in problems of the command and control of nuclear weapons, nuclear war plans, and crisis decision-making. In addition to becoming a prominent opponent of the Vietnam War, Ellsberg has been a leading advocate for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. His forthcoming memoir is tentatively titled, “America’s Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner.”

Takashi Tanemori is a survivor of the August 6, 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Then eight years old, he was less than one mile from ground zero when the bomb exploded. Tanemori-san is a renowned artist, writer and poet. His testimony of losing both parents and two siblings, losing his eyesight, facing humiliation, and overcoming hatred is documented in his 2007 book, “Hiroshima: Bridge to Forgiveness, Takashi Tanemori’s Hiroshima Story.”

Country Joe McDonald straddles the two polar events of the 1960s, Woodstock and the Vietnam War. The first Country Joe and the Fish record was released in 1965, in time for the Vietnam Day Teach-In anti-war protest in Berkeley. He sang one of the great anthems of the era, “I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag,” to an audience of a half-million at Woodstock in 1969. After 48 albums and more than four decades in the public eye as a folksinger, Country Joe McDonald qualifies as one of the best known names from the 60s rock era still performing.

Chizu Hamada is a member of No Nukes Action, formed after the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown disaster to protest Japanese and US government nuclear policy. For more than three years she has organized rallies on the 11th day of each month at the Japanese consulate in San Francisco. She owns a Japanese gift store in Berkeley.

Marylia Kelley is Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs. She brings 32 years of research, writing and facilitating public participation in decisions regarding the Livermore Lab and the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. She has testified before the U.S. Congress, the California Legislature and the National Academy of Sciences, among other deliberative bodies. In 2002, Kelley was inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame. She has lived in Livermore since 1976.

WHY: Seventy years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, preparations for nuclear war are ongoing at the Livermore Lab. Over 85% of the Fiscal Year 2016 budget request for the Lab is dedicated to Nuclear Weapons Activities. Scientists at Livermore are developing a modified nuclear warhead for a new long-range stand off weapon to replace the air-launched cruise missile. Nearly 16,000 nuclear weapons - 94% of them held by the U.S. and Russia - continue to pose an intolerable threat to humanity. Nuclear weapons have again taken center stage on the borderlands of Europe, one of several potential nuclear flashpoints. Whether a nuclear exchange is initiated by accident, miscalculation or madness, the radiation and soot will know no boundaries.

The U.S. plans to spend a trillion dollars over the next thirty years “modernizing” its nuclear bombs, warheads, delivery systems and infrastructure to sustain them for decades to come. The human cost is immeasurable—to our health, environment, ethics, and democracy, to our prospects for global peace, and to our confidence in human survival. We gather at Livermore Lab to demand that nuclear weapons spending be slashed and redirected to meet human needs. On this 70th anniversary date, we welcome the Iran deal and call on the U.S. government to now lead a process, with a timetable, to achieve the universal elimination of nuclear weapons.

WHO: 40 sponsoring organizations

CONTACT:

Marylia Kelley, 925-443-7148, [email protected]

###



LIVERMORE-BASED WATCHDOG GROUP HEADS TO D.C. TO TELL CONGRESS & THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO CONFRONT “THE GROWNING NUCLEAR THREAT”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 13, 2015

Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment), a Livermore-based non-profit that monitors the activities of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab and the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex, will be sending three local students and two senior staff members to join community leaders from around the country in Washington, DC next week to oppose U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons projects, which they say will waste billions in taxpayer funds, damage the environment and undermine the Nation’s non-proliferation goals. The group will meet with leading members of Congress, committee staffers, and top administration officials with responsibility for U.S. nuclear policies to press for new funding priorities.

Activists from a dozen states across the Nation are participating in the 27th annual Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) "DC Days." They will deliver copies of ANA’s just-published report, The Growing U.S. Nuclear Threat. The 20-page analysis dissects the Obama Administration’s latest plans to spend hundreds of billions on unnecessary nuclear weapons programs that may reduce, rather than enhance, U.S. security.

“Profligate spending on nuclear weapons ‘modernization’ increases the nuclear danger for the U.S and the world. Moreover, lack of accountability at DOE wastes billions more while risking public health and safety, including in Livermore,” said Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs’ Executive Director, and a contributor to the ANA report.

Tri-Valley CAREs’ Staff Attorney, Scott Yundt, is on the 2015 DC Days Planning Committee. Yundt noted that “ANA members from across the country will urge policymakers to cut programs that fund dangerous boondoggles, like the plutonium MOX (mixed-oxide) factory at Savannah River Site and the National Ignition Facility at Livermore Lab.”

Also on the team are two local high school seniors, as well as a law student from the University of Pittsburg who grew up in Livermore. “The money saved from wasteful nuclear weapons programs could be redirected to cleaning up the legacy of nuclear weapons research, testing and production. Some funds could also be put into higher education to give more Americans better access to college,” Said Hayden King, a student intern at Tri-Valley CAREs who will be bringing a “next-generation” perspective to his meetings with Congress and the administration.

ANA is a network of local, regional and national organizations representing the concerns of communities downwind and downstream from U.S. nuclear weapons production and radioactive waste disposal sites.

As part of its DC Days, ANA will sponsor an Awards Reception honoring leaders of the movement for responsible nuclear policies on Monday evening, May 18. Honorees include Northern CA Congressman John Garamendi, who will be recognized for his work on the House Armed Services Committee where he plays a leadership role cutting back dangerous nuclear weapons schemes. Other awardees will include Nevada Senator Harry Reid, Los Alamos Lab whistleblower Dr. James Doyle, former FBI environmental crimes investigator of Rocky Flats, Jon Lipsky, and nuclear campaigner Michael Keegan. The event will take place in Room B-340 of the Rayburn House Office Building from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. Journalists are welcome to attend.

CONTACT:

Marylia Kelley, 925-443-7148, (Cell in DC (925) 255-3589), Scott Yundt, Cell in DC (415) 990-2070 [email protected]

###



QUESTIONS FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) FY 2016 NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND CLEANUP BUDGET REQUEST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 29, 2015

The US nuclear weapons budget continues to spiral out of control. Look for double-digit increases in Department of Energy (DOE) weapons activities. Core nonproliferation programs will be cut because of funding for mixed-oxide fuel. Cleanup of radioactive and toxic pollution from weapons research, testing, production and waste disposal will fall further behind. The DOE budget for FY 2016 will illuminate the Obama Administration's misplaced nuclear priorities.

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), a 28-year-old network of groups from communities downwind and downstream of U.S. nuclear sites, will be looking at the following issues. For details, contact the ANA leaders listed at the end of this Advisory.

-- Does the budget request boost funding for "modernization" programs that indefinitely maintain nuclear warheads? Such funding is contrary to the Obama Administration’s previously declared goal of a future world free of nuclear weapons.

-- Does the budget reflect the Administration's commitment to reduce funding (currently $335 million) on the multi-billion dollar Uranium Processing Facility at Oak Ridge by downsizing it to the capacity needed to support stockpile surveillance, maintenance and limited life extension?

-- Does the budget increase funds for nuclear weapons dismantlement capacity? Will cooperative programs with Russia be maintained?

-- Is there increased funding for expanded production of plutonium bomb cores? Why is expanded production needed when expert studies find that existing plutonium pits are durable?

-- Is more than $300 million provided for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Livermore Lab that has repeatedly failed to achieve “ignition”? What is the funding level for uncontained plutonium shots that will taint the NIF target chamber and optics with alpha radiation?

-- Does the budget seek an increase for the B61 Life Extension Program (currently $643 million)?

-- As DOE affirms that the $30-billion plutonium fuel (MOX) project at the Savannah River Site is financially unsustainable, is the MOX plant construction again proposed for “cold standby” (~$200 million) or a level to barely allow it to survive (~300+ million)? Does the budget include the current validated base-line cost of MOX plant, a validated construction and operation schedule and names of nuclear utilities willing to use experimental MOX fuel?

-- Does the budget include $0 for Yucca Mountain? No funding is consistent with past requests that terminate this technically flawed site that is strongly opposed by Nevada state officials and the public.

-- Does the budget provide additional Environmental Management (EM) funding (currently $5 billion) to meet all legally mandated cleanup milestones? States say cleanup agreements at a dozen major sites are underfunded by hundreds of million dollars.

–- How will DOE and its contractors pay fines for missing milestones? In the past three months, New Mexico, Idaho, and Washington state have issued fines of tens of millions of dollars, and fines loom in South Carolina. In which other states does DOE face fines and lawsuits for missing milestones?

-- What is the high range for total life-cycle clean-up costs (LCC) for EM sites? Because of funding shortfalls, High Range LCC costs have increased from $308.5 billion in the FY 2013 Budget Request, to $330.9 billion in the FY 2014 Request, and were $328.4 billion in the FY 2015 Request.

-- How much does the budget include for the shut down Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)? How much is for recovery and how much for waste emplacement (previously $220 million a year) even though no waste is being emplaced? How much additional funding is requested for the Idaho National Lab, Los Alamos, Savannah River, and Oak Ridge because of the shutdown?

-- Does the budget for Hanford (more than $2 billion) protect workers from toxic chemical exposures, provide an Operational Readiness Review of the nuclear safety of the Waste Treatment Plant, and fund construction of new double-shell tanks to replace the leaking ones?

-- Does the budget increase funding (currently $28.5 million) for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) to provide independent oversight of DOE projects because of the many cost over-runs, schedule delays, safety culture issues and technical problems?

-- Is the funding for design and licensing of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) enough to make them viable? As private financing is lacking, will DOE reaffirm that it will not finance SMR construction?

CONTACT:

Marylia Kelley, 925-443-7148, [email protected]

###



Tri-Valley CAREs & NRDC Ask Energy Secretary to Halt Plutonium “Shots” in NIF Scheduled to Begin Thursday at Livermore Lab

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 28, 2015

Groups’ Attorneys Cite Unaddressed Plutonium Exposure Risks and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Concerns

LIVERMORE, CA AND WASHINGTON, DC – Citing potential risks to public health, the Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are calling on the U.S. Secretary of Energy to immediately cancel highly secretive experiments involving plutonium at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) mega-laser. Government documents released to Tri-Valley CAREs under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the experiments will be conducted without an inner containment vessel in the target chamber to capture the plutonium debris.

The urgent request was made in a 10-page letter yesterday to the Department of Energy (DOE) by the Washington, DC law firm of Meyer, Glitzenstein and Crystal, acting as counsel for the environmental groups.

"Livermore Lab plans to zap plutonium with lasers in NIF with the clear risk of contaminating the laser optics and target chamber, and potentially exposing workers and the public to plutonium," charged Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs' executive director and a long-time Livermore resident. "Before these controversial experiments begin, at a minimum, we believe the government must undertake a stringent environmental review and solicit public comment pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act."

Dr. Matthew McKinzie, a physicist and the director of NRDC's nuclear program, noted, "The planned use of plutonium in NIF raises serious non-proliferation concerns. Indeed, NIF construction and operation was predicated on agency assurances that plutonium would not be used in experiments, as evidenced in NIF's 1995 Nonproliferation Report."

Plutonium is a highly toxic radioactive metal that in some forms can be used to create atomic weapons. The government said it may conduct up to 120 plutonium experiments, also called shots, at the NIF facility.

The letter urgently requests that before any plutonium experiments begin, the agency:

(1) Clearly delineate its plan, timeline, and potential isotopic mixes for plutonium in NIF;

(2) Publicly describe steps the agency will take to insure the experiments are consistent with non-proliferation objectives; and

(3) Publicly commit to delaying initiation of the experiments – which may be scheduled to begin as soon as January 29, 2015 – until adequate environmental review is completed.

The groups' letter poses key questions about potential exposure scenarios, and seeks to halt the plan until they are answered. Those impacts include possible airborne contamination; off-site exposure in the event of an accident, earthquake or other natural disaster; the scope of worker exposures due to the inevitable contamination of the NIF target chamber; and, the impact on future civilian science uses of NIF, given contamination resulting from the lack of inner containment for plutonium shots.

"We are hopeful that the Secretary of Energy responds in good faith to our request today, and that he suspends the initiation of plutonium experiments in NIF until the necessary reviews are completed," Kelley concluded.

CONTACT:

Marylia Kelley, 925-443-7148, [email protected]

Matthew McKinzie, [email protected]

###


to download the Press Release...

to download the letter...




Status of the “Superfund” Cleanup: Toxic and Radioactive Wastes at Livermore Lab Require Urgent Attention and What the Public Can Do

Media Advisory for Thurs., Sept. 18, 2014 event in Livermore

September 16, 2014

WHAT: Community meeting on the Superfund law, the hazardous contaminants in the environment, and why Livermore Lab’s broken public participation program imperils critical progress on cleanup.

WHEN:Thursday, September 18, 2014 from 7 PM to 8:30 PM

WHERE: Livermore Library Community Room A, 1188 So. Livermore Ave

SPEAKERS:

• Peter Strauss is President of the San Francisco-based PM Strauss & Associates. He began working for Tri-Valley CAREs in 1991 as Technical Advisor on the Superfund cleanup of the Livermore Lab's main site. In the mid-90s, he was also awarded a second contract by Tri-Valley CAREs to analyze data and advise on the Superfund cleanup at the Livermore Lab's site 300 high explosives testing range. His responsibilities include providing detailed analysis of reports, well logs and other technical data on soil and groundwater contaminants and their migration through the environment. Strauss also provides analyses of remediation technologies.

• Marylia Kelley is Executive Director at Tri-Valley CAREs. She brings 31 years of research, writing and facilitating public participation in decisions regarding the Livermore Lab, nuclear weapons, waste and cleanup. Kelley has served on the Livermore Lab "Community Work Group" (since 1989) to advise the government and the community on the Lab’s Superfund cleanup of toxic and radioactive pollution. Kelley has testified on issues related to the U.S. nuclear weapons complex before the House Armed Services Committee of the U.S. Congress, the California Legislature and the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, among other deliberative bodies.

• Scott Yundt is Staff Attorney at the Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs. He heads the group’s environmental and “right to know” litigation, and is managing Tri-Valley CAREs analysis of the renewal of Livermore Lab’s permit to store and treat hazardous and “mixed” radioactive wastes on site. Yundt also facilitates a support group for Livermore Lab and other workers made ill by on the job exposures.

WHY: At the main site, Livermore Lab has not held a meeting of its official “Community Work Group” in about two years. The public is being excluded. Contributing problems include a thick veil of institutional secrecy, hypertechnical “Lab-speak,” an absence of Spanish translation, and the regulatory agencies’ inability to compel meaningful changes in the Lab’s public involvement methods. At Site 300, a pressing problem is the lack of any official process to involve the public in Superfund cleanup decisions. Background on environmental contaminants at Livermore Lab is available at www.trivalleycares.org, or call us at (925) 443-7148. ###

Click here for more info...



“Failure to Disarm: Holding Our Government Accountable”

Hiroshima Commemoration, Protest & Nonviolent Direct Action at Livermore Lab Highlights Courageous “Nuclear Zero” Lawsuits Brought by the Marshall Islands

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 31, 2014

WHAT: California peace advocates will mark the 69th Anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the Livermore Lab, where the U.S. is spending billions of dollars to create new and modified nuclear weapons. The aptly titled event, “Failure to Disarm,” will highlight the landmark litigation filed recently by the tiny Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), used as a U.S. nuclear test site for 12 years, against the nine nuclear weapons states for their failure to disarm under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and customary international law. The RMI also filed a separate case against the U.S. in Federal Court in San Francisco. The complaint specifically cites Livermore Lab’s activities to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile as a breach of the NPT and flagrant violation of international law.

WHEN: Wed., August 6, 2014. Rally will be from 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM, with a moment of silence at 8:15 AM, the moment the first atomic bomb used in war exploded over Hiroshima. At 8:30 AM there will be a procession to the Livermore Lab West Gate, with a traditional Japanese dance and the chalking of human bodies on pavement to commemorate the vaporized remains found after the atomic bombings. Those who choose will peaceably risk arrest. Others will offer witness and support.

WHERE: Livermore Lab , corner of Vasco & Patterson Pass Roads in Livermore. Procession will go southward down Vasco Road to Westgate Drive.

SPEAKERS: • Rick Wayman will deliver the keynote. Wayman is Director of Programs for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He worked on nuclear policy with the UK Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament before moving to Santa Barbara in 2007 to join NAPF. Wayman works closely with the government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to coordinate the educational, policy and legal components of the litigation.

• Scott Yundt will detail weapons activities currently underway at Livermore Lab. Yundt is Staff Attorney at the Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs. He manages the group’s environmental and “right to know” litigation, and is preparing an amicus brief in support of the Marshall Islands’ Federal case. Yundt facilitates a support group for Livermore Lab and other workers made ill by on the job exposures.

• Jackie Cabasso will address resurgent U.S. militarism in Asia-Pacific and the growing dangers of great power wars among nuclear armed nations. Cabasso, Executive Director of the Oakland-based Western States Legal Foundation since 1984, is an internationally recognized leading voice for nuclear weapons abolition. She was the recipient of the 2008 Sean McBride Peace Prize.

• Chizu Hamada will speak on the links between nuclear weapons, nuclear power and the ongoing dangers at Fukushima Daiichi. Hamada is a San Francisco business owner and spokesperson for the No Nukes Action Committee, a group of Japanese citizens, Japanese-Americans and others who came together after the 3/11/2011 earthquake, tsunami and meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

• Music by Duamuxa, world music ensemble, and Daniel Zwickel, singer-guitarist.

WHY: On the 69th Anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, we will gather at the location where scientists are developing new and modified nuclear weapons. The Livermore Lab budget request reveals that 89% of the money will go to nuclear weapons activities in the coming fiscal year. Overall, the U.S. government spends nearly $2 million each hour on the nuclear weapons stockpile. U.S. spending will reach nearly $4 million each hour by 2030. This reality stands in stark contrast to the President’s rhetoric of seeking a “world without nuclear weapons” and the U.S. legal commitment to disarm under the NPT. The tiny Pacific Island Nation of the Republic of the Marshall Islands has filed valiant “Nuclear Zero” lawsuits against the U.S. and eight other nuclear weapons states in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The nuclear nine are: the U.S., Russia, UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea. The Marshallese have also filed separately against the United States in the U.S. Federal District Court in San Francisco. The Marshall Islanders know all too well the devastating effects of living in the nuclear age. From 1946 to 1958, the U.S conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands. Their explosive power was estimated to be 1,000 times greater than the atomic bombs that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet, the Marshallese are not seeking damages in their historic litigation. Instead they seek to compel compliance with the nuclear disarmament obligation enshrined in the NPT and in customary international law binding on all states.

The Japanese Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) also speak for global nuclear disarmament. Each August 6 and 9th, their voices are raised to cry “never again,” so that no others shall ever feel the horrific blast, heat, thirst, radiation sickness and either bloody death or [often] lingering illness that follows. On this August 6th, we will remember with sadness our government’s use of nuclear weapons on the Japanese people and recommit with joy to our ongoing our efforts to abolish nuclear weapons – an urgent necessity for our collective survival. We will stand, too, in solidarity with the people of the Marshall Islands as their historic litigation for nuclear zero wends its way through the international and domestic court systems.

OPS: Pre-event interviews with speakers, artists or organizers available on request.

Photo opportunities available at the rally site at 7:30 AM, and also along the procession route and at the Livermore Lab’s West Gate. Call for details.

Click here for more info...





Inaugural Youth Video Contest on Livermore Lab Contamination Issues

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 24, 2014

Livermore, CA - “Six Decades of Nuclear Bombs at Livermore Lab” is the theme of the inaugural Youth Video Contest sponsored locally by Tri-Valley CAREs*. The instructions are simple: Describe why a clean environment is important to you.

On Tuesday, July 29th at 10am at Livermore Main Library (1188 South Livermore Avenue), Tri-Valley CAREs will hold a press conference announcing the video contest. Members of the organization will put up a display on the bulletin board in the main hall, as well as be available for interviews, questions, and photo opportunities.

Click here for more...

LIVERMORE GROUP HEADS TO WASHINGTON TO EXPOSE “BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLES” FOR NUCLEAR FACILITIES & WARHEADS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 14, 2014

Livermore, CA - Members of Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) will be in Washington, DC the week of May 18 to oppose U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear projects, including work proposed for, and being done at, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, that will waste billions in taxpayer funds, damage the environment and undermine the nation’s non-proliferation goals. The group will meet with leading members of Congress, committee staffers, and top administration officials with responsibility for U. S. nuclear policies.

The Livermore delegation will be working with colleagues living around other DOE facilities, from a dozen other states, who are participating in the 26th annual Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) "DC Days." The activists will meet with California Senators and Representatives, as well as leaders of congressional committees that oversee nuclear issues, and key federal agency staffers.

On Monday, May 19, ANA will release Billion Dollar Boondoggles, a comprehensive analysis of the Obama Administration’s latest plans to spend more money for less security. Tri-Valley CAREs’ Executive Director, Marylia Kelley, authored several sections of the report and will speak at the Monday news conference to release it to media and the public. The report highlights the proposed use of plutonium in the National Ignition Facility at Livermore Lab and warhead “Life Extension Programs,” among other topics.

Click here for more...

Budget Dispatch #3 – NUCLEAR AGENCY WITHHOLDS CRITICAL BUDGET DOCUMENTS; WATCHDOG GROUP DECRIES DELAY, PROVIDES OVERVIEW OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS, NONPROLIFERATION & CLEANUP FUNDING REQUEST BASED ON AVAILABLE DOCUMENTS

This is the third in a series of Tri-Valley CAREs’ dispatches from deep within the FY 2015 budget request documents for the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). This dispatch will conclude our remarks on the budget documents released today. The NNSA’s detailed budget submittal to Congress has yet to be made public. We will resume these dispatches when key details become available, which may not be until March 11, 2014.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 4, 2014, 5PM

Tri-Valley CAREs celebrated important budget victories in the placement of the Mixed Oxide Plutonium Fuel (MOX) program into “cold standby” and the 5-year deferment, amounting to cancellation, of the new W78/88-1 “interoperable” nuclear warhead (see dispatches #1 and #2). The overview of the entire nuclear weapons budget request is far less rosy, however.

The “top line” request for DOE NNSA nuclear weapons activities rises to $8.3 billion, an increase of nearly $534 million, or about 7%, above the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 level, which was already far too high. Notably a major increase is requested in FY2015 for “directed stockpile work” (mostly to combine 4 versions of the B61 into a new B61-12 nuclear bomb, a risky enterprise that is neither desirable nor necessary). Additionally, the related increase in NNSA’s “readiness campaign” was also attributed to the B61-12. (See pages 12 and 13 in the DOE Budget Highlights).

Click here for more...



Budget Dispatch #2 – INTEROPERABLE W78/88-1 WARHEAD DESIGN DEFERRED 5-YEARS; TRI-VALLEY CAREs PRONOUNCES THIS LIVERMORE LAB PROGRAM “DEAD”

This is the second in a series of Tri-Valley CAREs’ dispatches from deep within the FY 2015 budget request documents for the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 4, 2014, NOON

Tri-Valley CAREs applauds the White House decision to defer the W78/88-1 "interoperable" nuclear warhead by at least 5-years. Further, the nuclear watchdog group declares that the Livermore Lab-led program is now “effectively dead in the water.”

The W78/88-1 Life Extension Program, as envisioned by weaponeers at Livermore Lab, would have entailed the design of a new, untested warhead “mash up” of the land-based W78 warhead, the submarine-launched W88 warhead and the core from a third design, the W87. The NNSA estimated about its cost at around $14 billion, but congressional staff and independent analysts, including at Tri-Valley CAREs, estimated its costs would meet or exceed the $28 billion mark.

Click here for more ...



Budget Dispatch #1 – TRI-VALLEY CAREs CELEBRATES MAJOR VICTORY; MIXED OXIDE FUEL (MOX) BOONDOGGLE IS PUT IN “COLD STANDBY”

This is the first in a series of Tri-Valley CAREs’ dispatches from deep within the FY 2015 budget request documents for the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 4, 2014

Tri-Valley CAREs declares a major victory as the White House announces it will place the Dept. of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration’s beleaguered Mixed Oxide Plutonium Fuel (MOX) program into “cold standby” as it examines other less costly alternatives for disposition of plutonium declared surplus from nuclear weapons programs.

The MOX plant, under construction at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has been rife with escalating costs, including a new, internal estimate rumored to top $30 billion. Tri-Valley CAREs is one of dozens of organizations across the country that has worked tirelessly over the past several years to bring accountability to the MOX program and to encourage the federal government to reopen a search for disposition alternatives that will be safer, faster and cheaper, including further analysis of the “immobilization” option.

Click here for more...



QUESTIONS FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) FY 2015 NUCLEAR WEAPONS, REACTOR AND CLEANUP BUDGET

from Tri-Valley CAREs, Livermore, CA & Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, Washington, DC

for use with March 4, 2014 Obama Administration Budget Request

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 3, 2014

The U.S. nuclear budget is out of control. Huge cost overruns for unnecessary production facilities are common. At the same time, cleanup of radioactive and toxic pollution from weapons research, testing, production and waste disposal is falling behind. The Department of Energy (DOE) budget for FY 2015 will reveal the Obama Administration’s nuclear priorities.

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), a 25-year-old network of groups from communities downwind and downstream of U.S. nuclear sites, will be looking at the following issues. For details, contact the ANA leaders listed at the end of this Media Advisory.

Click here for more info...



Unfinished Business and Our Most Urgent Responsibility: Banning the Bomb at the Livermore Lab and Globally

Hiroshima Commemoration, Protest & Nonviolent Direct Action at Livermore Lab

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 1, 2013

WHAT: Northern California peace advocates will mark the 68th Anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the Livermore Lab, where the U.S. is presently spending billions of dollars to create new and modified nuclear weapons. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is one of two locations that have designed every warhead in the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

WHEN: Tues., August 6, 2013. Rally will be from 7 AM – 8:15 AM, the moment the first atomic bomb used in war exploded over Hiroshima. At 8:15 AM there will be a procession to the Livermore Lab West Gate and the chalking of human bodies on pavement to commemorate the vaporized remains found after the atomic bombings. Those who choose will peaceably risk arrest. Others will offer witness and support.

WHERE: Livermore Lab, corner of Vasco & Patterson Pass Roads in Livermore. Procession will go southward down Vasco Road to Westgate Drive.

Click here for more info...



Tri-Valley CAREs Files Federal Lawsuit to Compel Release of Information About Nuclear Weapons Activities at Livermore Lab

Group charges Energy Dept. illegally withheld documents on dangerous plans to use plutonium in the National Ignition Facility, ship nuclear bomb cores to California, and more; requests Special Prosecutor be named

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, June 7, 2013

LIVERMORE & OAKLAND, CA – Today, Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) filed a Federal lawsuit in United States District Court for the Northern District of California against the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for numerous failures to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which requires federal agencies to respond to public requests for information within 20 days.

According to the complaint filed today in US District Court, Tri-Valley CAREs alleges five separate instances the DOE and NNSA failed to provide responsive, unclassified documents regarding operations at the agencies’ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as required by law. The information that is the subject of the litigation is overdue by time periods between one and two years.

Click here for more info...

For a PDF of the press release, click here.

To read the whole Tri-Valley CAREs' Complaint filed against the DOE and NNSA, click here.



Tri-Valley CAREs Team Heads to Washington to Cut Spending on Nuclear Weapons Programs; Restore Needed Funds for Radioactive Waste Cleanup and Securing Nuclear Materials

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, April 11, 2013

A unique delegation of activists and experts from Tri-Valley CAREs will be in Washington, DC from April 14 through 17 to conduct meetings with leading members of Congress and the Obama Administration in the wake of the Fiscal Year 2014 budget request’s increases for nuclear weapons, which were released April 10, 2013. The team aims to prevent billions of dollars from being spent on ill-conceived nuclear weapons projects that threaten the nation’s nonproliferation goals as well as public health and the environment.

Representing the Livermore, CA-based group will be Janis Kate Turner, the Board President whose home sits near a contaminated groundwater plume emanating from Livermore Lab. Additionally, Dr. Robert Civiak, a physicist and former White House official, will be joining the team. Rounding it out will be Scott Yundt, the group’s Staff Attorney, and Marylia Kelley, its longtime Executive Director. Tri-Valley CAREs’ delegation will be in DC working with colleagues from a dozen other states who are participating in the 25th annual Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) “DC Days.”

Click here for more info...

For fact sheets and more information on “DC Days” events, check here.



From Tri-Valley CAREs, Livermore, CA for Reporters and the Public: Our Initial Response to the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Request for Nuclear Weapons

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 10, 2013

Noon April 15, 2013: The “top line” budget numbers for the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are now on the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) website. Tri-Valley CAREs notes with concern that the NNSA “nuclear weapons activities” are receiving an increase in this era of budget austerity.

The request of $7.87 billion for Fiscal Year 2014 (page 89) is actually $900 million (13 percent) above the FY 2013 final enacted level including the sequester. Indeed, all posted comparisons in the NNSA budget request to FY 2013 funding levels are misleading, because they do not reflect the effect of the 7.8 percent sequester.

Click here for more info...



QUESTIONS FOR THE APRIL 10 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) FY 2014 NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND CLEANUP BUDGET ROLLOUT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 8, 2013

for further information:

Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs, Livermore, CA (925) 443-7148

Katherine Fuchs, ANA, Washington, DC (202) 544-0217

Bob Schaeffer, Public Policy Assoc. and ANA, (239) 395-6773

and local contacts listed below

An overriding issue for the Wednesday, April 10, budget release is: Will the Obama Administration continue to escalate funding for unnecessary nuclear programs in light of current fiscal constraints while cutting legally required cleanup spending? The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), a national network of groups from communities downwind and downstream of U.S. nuclear facilities, is concerned that out-of-control spending on nuclear weapons will divert resources from legally required environmental cleanup, dismantlement, and critical nonproliferation efforts. Here are some key questions that the Department of Energy (DOE) budget should address:

-- How much will be spent on construction of the Mixed Oxide (MOX) plutonium fuel plant at the Savannah River Site, which is far behind schedule and over budget? What is DOE’s re-baselined cost estimate for building the facility, recently reported by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to have increased from $4.9 billion in 2008 to $7.7 billion? What is the projected life-cycle cost for all aspects of the MOX program, which ANA estimates to be over $20 billion?

-- Will the budget rein in over-spending on the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) in Oak Ridge? Will there be any accountability for the flawed $500 million building design fiasco before more money is spent? Will an Independent Cost Estimate be required before UPF construction funding is released?

Click here for more info...



Federal Official “Cooks the Numbers” in Livermore Lab Management Review; $44 Million Bonus and Contract Extension Unwarranted, Charge Watchdogs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 7, 2013

As the nation faces sequestration and across the board budget cuts, one federal official has made "an adjustment to the recommended incentive fee" for the Limited Liability Company (LLC) that manages and operates the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the U.S. Dept. of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The contractor, Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), LLC is a consortium made up of Bechtel National, the University of California, Babcock and Wilcox, the Washington Division of URS Corp. and Battelle.

The just-released NNSA Fiscal Year 2012 Performance Evaluation Report (PER) shows that the numbers were cooked to benefit the management contractor after the evaluation had been completed, allowing for an increased fee award and an extra year, non-competitive extension of the contract for the LLC. Nuclear watchdogs, including the Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs, are crying foul and calling for "greater oversight of taxpayers’ money and a more open and transparent contract process."

Click here for more info...

Click here to read the publically available summary of the Fiscal Year 2012 Performance Evaluation Report of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Click here to read the FULL Fiscal Year 2012 Performance Evaluation Report of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory




Livermore Lab at the Crossroad

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 28, 2013

Forum this Wednesday on Potentially Illegal Plan to Ship Plutonium Bomb Cores from NM to CA

On January 30, Tri-Valley CAREs will host a forum in Livermore with environmental, legal and nuclear experts from New Mexico and California to discuss a federal proposal to transport plutonium bomb cores from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Bay Area. Livermore and Los Alamos are the nation’s two major nuclear weapons design facilities. The event will be held from 7 PM to 9 PM in the large community room at the Livermore main library, 1188 South Livermore Avenue. Livermore Lab permanently lost its security authorization to handle, use or store bomb-usable quantities of plutonium, including bomb cores, on September 30, 2012. At that time, Livermore Lab changed from a Category I/II security infrastructure to a lesser Category III security posture, which does not allow any nuclear bomb-usable quantities of plutonium on-site. Yet, the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE), the agency that owns both weapons labs and mandated the de-inventory of plutonium from Livermore Lab, left a suite of bomb core diagnostics in a service bay in Livermore’s Bldg. 334. The DOE now proposes to bring whole plutonium pits from NM to CA to utilize the diagnostics, known as “shake and bake,” which consist of a shaker table, thermal unit and drop test. Los Alamos Lab does not currently possess this particular diagnostic suite and Livermore Lab does not possess the security infrastructure to safely handle the plutonium bomb cores, also called “pits”.

Tri-Valley CAREs’ Executive Director Marylia Kelley commented on plan, “Livermore Lab management appears to be placing its bomb testing desires above public safety. Moreover, DOE is exercising poor planning in leaving the diagnostics behind. The bottom line,” Kelley continued, “is that communities should not be put in danger because Livermore Lab has ‘plutonium envy’ and DOE Headquarters suffers from an abysmal lack of foresight. The government must either decommission the bomb core diagnostics at Livermore or move them to where the bomb cores are located.”

Click here for more info...



"Foreclose on the Bomb, Not the People"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 30, 2012

Hiroshima - Nagasaki Commemoration and Protest at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory

WHAT: Bay Area peace and justice advocates will mark the 67th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the Livermore Lab, where the U.S. is presently spending billions of dollars to create “new and modified” nuclear bombs. This event is part of national "Nuclear-Free Future Month". The "Occupy Oakland" bus will bring some participants to the venue from the MacArthur BART station. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is one of two principle U.S. facilities engaged in nuclear weapons R&D.

WHEN: Sunday, August 5, 2012, from 4 PM to 6 PM, with a procession to Livermore Lab following the program. Please note that 4:15 PM local time on August 5 is 8:15 AM August 6 in Hiroshima, the precise moment the first nuclear bomb used in war exploded.

WHERE: A rally will take place at William Payne Park in Livermore, across the street from the Lab at Vasco and Patterson Pass Roads. Following the program, at approximately 6 PM, nuclear disarmament advocates will march to the Livermore Lab. Participants will symbolically “foreclose on the bomb” with art, paper chains, cranes, locks and foreclosure signs. Some may choose to also peaceably risk arrest.

WHO: “Foreclose on the Bomb…” is co-sponsored by more than two-dozen organizations. Featured speakers and performers are:

• Mr. Takashi Tanemori, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, who will discuss his experiences that morning and the aftermath, including his journey from anger to peace.

• Natalia Mironova, Ph.D., a former legislator, and longtime leader of the Movement for Nuclear Safety in Chelyabinsk, Russia, will talk about the emerging dangers of a new U.S. – Russia nuclear arms race and the hurdles to and necessity of nuclear disarmament.

• Michael Eisenscher, a co-founder of U.S. Labor Against the War, will speak to the U.S. military budget and its impact on human needs and working people.

• Tara Dorabji, of the Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs, and Andrew Lichterman, of Oakland’s Western States Legal Foundation, will speak on Livermore Lab and the centrality of nuclear technology in the military-industrial-technology complex, respectively.

• Emma’s Revolution, a popular and topical musical duo will preform, as will Kaylah Marin, Daniel Zwickel, and Taiko drummers.

WHY: August 6th and 9th 2012 will mark the 67th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  This year, commemorative activities will connect the ongoing existential threats posed by nuclear weapons with the negative economic impacts of massive investments in militarism and nuclear technology on basic human needs in a time of global economic and environmental crisis.

CONTACT:

Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs: 925-443-7148; cell on-site: 925-255-3589.

Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation: 510-839-5877; cell on-site: 510-306-0119

###



Key Congressional Appropriations Amendment Passage Supports Needed Nonproliferation Program Over Troubled Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Scheme

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 6, 2012

Key Congressional Appropriations Amendment Passage Supports Needed Nonproliferation Program Over Troubled Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Scheme

Today, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed an amendment offered by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE). Members of the House from both sides of the aisle spoke in favor of Rep. Fortenberry’s amendment, which moved $17 million from the Mixed Oxide Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Program to the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI).  The amendment, which passed by a vote of 328 to 89, was offered to the House Appropriations bill to fund Department of Energy programs.

“The passage of the amendment is a clear indication that congressional oversight of the MOX program is increasing” said Katherine Fuchs, Program director at the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), a national network to which Tri-Valley CAREs has belonged since 1989.

The amendment comes on the heels of an earlier cut of $152 million from the MOX program by the House Appropriations Committee.

“The Global Threat Reduction Initiative is the leading edge of our nation’s ongoing effort to secure loose nuclear materials,” explained Tri-Valley CAREs’ Executive Director, Marylia Kelley.  “Rep. Fortenberry’s amendment brings funding for this critical program up to the President’s requested level for Fiscal Year 2013.”

The MOX program is intended to make 34 metric tons of weapons grade plutonium inaccessible for use in a weapon by blending plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons with depleted uranium for use in commercial nuclear reactor fuel.

Tom Clements, ANA’s Nonproliferation Director, noted, “The MOX program has been plagued by technical, financial, and scheduling problems and no utilities have contracted to use the MOX plutonium fuel.”

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability and Tri-Valley CAREs welcome increased Congressional oversight of the MOX program’s out of control costs.

The Report that accompanies the House Energy and Water Appropriations bill amended this afternoon expresses the committee’s concerns about the program: “There is still no fidelity on the total project costs and timeline to get the MOX facility up and running, and few details have been provided on the long term investments that will be needed to support full operating feedstock requirements.... The Department [of Energy] is now reporting internally that the total project costs could be understated by as much as $600,000,000 to $900,000,000, and that the project will overrun its projected completion date by months if not years. Further, the updated cost estimates provided by the NNSA for the projected annual operating costs of the MOX facility have skyrocketed and are now 2.5 times the projections of just two years ago.”

Speaking for his amendment, Rep. Fortenberry said “We should be proud of our work as a country in our nuclear security efforts, but it is abundantly clear that the mixed oxide fuel program is not the most productive use of our constituents' taxpayer dollars…”

Tri-Valley CAREs is a Livermore, California-based organization of 5,600 members who watchdog the nearby Livermore Lab and the U.S. nuclear weapons complex of which Livermore Lab is a part.

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability is a national network of 35 organizations working to address issues of nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup.

CONTACT:

Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs, [email protected], 925-443-7148

Katherine Fuchs, ANA Program Director, [email protected], 414-324-4228

Tom Clements, ANA Nonproliferation Policy Director, [email protected], 803-834-3084

###



Watchdog Group Blasts House Rules Committee Decision to Prevent Debate and Vote on Crucial Amendment to Restore Nuclear Safety in National Defense Authorization Act

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 17, 2012

House NDAA Will Compromise Nuclear Oversight and Risk Health and Safety
at Livermore Lab and other Nuclear Weapons Sites across the Nation

LIVERMORE – Moments ago, Bay Area Rep. George Miller (D-CA-07)  took to the floor of the House of Representatives to decry the fact that the Miller-Visclosky-Sanchez amendment to restore nuclear safety, which had been offered in a timely manner to the National Defense Authorization Act,  had been prevented by the Rules Committee from being considered. (A link to Rep. George Miller’s press release and his floor statement follow.)

Tri-Valley CAREs responded: “This decision guts nuclear safety. The Miller-Visclosky-Sanchez amendment was absolutely essential to prevent a dangerous rollback of 25 years of safety standards at the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons facilities, including the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory," stated Marylia Kelley, the group’s Executive Director.

Kelley explained, “Today is a sad day for the safety of workers at nuclear weapons facilities and for the American people who live around these sites. Language in the NDAA will weaken the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s ability to provide independent oversight at nuclear weapons facilities.  Moreover, the act’s language also limits the role of the Secretary of Energy in setting safety standards. Instead, the contractor ‘foxes’ would be placed in charge of safety at the nuclear ‘henhouses’. Such ill-advised changes take us back to the days of huge accidents, spills and radioactive releases in Livermore and across the country.”

Tri-Valley CAREs’ staff attorney, Scott Yundt, expressed his concern now that the Miller amendment has been disallowed. Yundt facilitates a support group for Livermore Lab and other nuclear workers made ill by on the job exposures.

“The current language in the NDAA will result in more worker exposures and illnesses,” he charged. “Further, an amendment by Mike Turner (R-OH) that was accepted by the Rules Committee, if adopted, will allow the administrator at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which is part of the DOE, to lower safety protections for workers and the public by substituting a ‘risk-based’ approach in place of more rigorous and prescriptive standards.”

Yundt concluded, “There have been more than 3,000 claims filed by workers at Livermore Lab, or their widows, for illnesses caused by on the job exposures. I am frequently contacted by Livermore Lab workers and others in the weapons complex who have been exposed to toxic and radioactive materials. If anything, current provisions could be made more rigorous. Weakening them will result in even more sick and dying workers at Livermore Lab and other sites.”

(Click here for George Miller's press release.)

(Click here to watch George Miller's floor statement)

CONTACT:

Marylia Kelley, Executive Director, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148

To speak with Rep. George Miller’s office, Aaron Albright, (202) 226-0853

###



Watchdogs Praise Bay Area Congressman George Miller for Nuclear Safety Leadership

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 15, 2012

Key Defense Authorization Amendment Will Preserve Independent Oversight and Protect Lives at Livermore Lab and other Nuclear Weapons Sites across the Nation

LIVERMORE – Today, Bay Area Rep. George Miller (D-CA-07) introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to prevent a dangerous rollback of 25 years of safety standards at the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons facilities, including the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  Tri-Valley CAREs, a Livermore Lab watchdog for nearly 30 years, lauded Miller’s leadership.

“The Miller amendment is critical for worker and community safety,” said Marylia Kelley, a Livermore resident and Tri-Valley CAREs’ Executive Director. “Sweeping changes introduced into the National Defense Authorization Act in committee would overturn the ‘adequate protection standard’ that has governed safety for more than two decades.”

Kelley continued, “Moreover, these changes would weaken the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s ability to provide independent oversight at nuclear weapons facilities.  Instead, the contractor ‘foxes’ would be placed in charge of safety at the nuclear ‘henhouse’. Such ill-advised changes take us back to the days of huge accidents, spills and radioactive releases in Livermore and across the country. The Miller amendment would restore current worker and community protections, which is why my group and others consider its introduction today so important and its passage so essential.”

Before introducing his amendment, Congressman Miller said that the committee’s bill, as currently constituted, “…represents a shift to extensive contractor self-regulation, and all but eliminates the government’s role in protecting workers and the public. Such a model is recklessly inappropriate for an industry that uses ultra-hazardous materials and technologies.”

Joining Rep. Miller in introducing the amendment (#167 as assigned by the Rules Committee) are Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-IN-01) and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA-47). The Rules Committee is scheduled to decide on Wednesday, May 16 which amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act will reach the “floor” for a full House vote, slated to begin as early as Wednesday evening.

Tri-Valley CAREs’ staff attorney, Scott Yundt, expressed hope that the Miller amendment will be adopted. Yundt facilitates a support group for Livermore Lab and other nuclear workers made ill by on the job exposures. “The Miller amendment is absolutely essential,” he said. “There have been more than 3,000 claims filed by workers at Livermore Lab, or their widows, for illnesses caused by on the job exposures.” Yundt continued, “I am frequently contacted by Livermore Lab workers and others in the weapons complex who have been exposed to toxic and radioactive materials. If anything, current provisions could be made more rigorous. Weakening them will result in even more sick and dying workers at Livermore Lab and other sites.” 

CONTACT:

Marylia Kelley, 925-443-7148, [email protected]

To speak with Rep. George Miller’s office, Aaron Albright, (202) 226-0853

###



Formerly Secret Performance Report Reveals Problems with the National Ignition Facility and Security at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 4, 2012

The 2011 Performance Evaluation Report (PER) for Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, the private contractor managing Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, was released yesterday by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in response to a March 28 legal challenge by Nuclear Watch New Mexico. Among other management deficiencies, the Report indicates that Livermore Lab’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) continued to miss milestones and violate accounting practices.

While most of the areas covered by the Report rate performance as excellent, in two cases the Livermore Lab management company was denied full bonus payment based on lesser performance. In the first area, (Program: Performance Objective 4) NIF did not meet all of its promised Fiscal Year 2011 performance milestones (PER pg. 11- 12).  The Report adds that, "the overall number of shots resulting in useful data collection remains below the rate which has previously been communicated to stakeholders as necessary for assuring success of the National Ignition Campaign."

In other words, explained the Livermore-based watchdog group Tri-Valley CAREs Staff Attorney, Scott Yundt “The Performance Evaluation Report shows that NIF is failing to produce the promised results, including actual ignition.”

“The Performance Evaluation Report calls into question the enormous costs of NIF to date, and the value that the American tax payer is getting from this boondoggle,” charged Marylia Kelley, Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs. “With around $7 Billion spent so far, and continued projected costs of nearly $500 million per year for the foreseeable future, it is high time Congress take a hard look at this fiscally irresponsible program and put on the brakes.”

The Report also noted that the accounting for the NIF is an area of concern because of "the Contactor's decision not to consistently apply approved forward pricing rates." (PER pg. 19-20) In other words, Livermore Lab’s management company applies increased pricing rates above what was budgeted for and approved by NNSA. This continues a decade of cost accounting practices at the NIF that have violated the law by allowing the facility to shift its overhead costs to other programs at the Laboratory.

“The Report indentifies Livermore Lab’s management company’s continued favoring of the NIF program over all others at the lab, in violation of cost accounting practices. These violations and huge cost overruns have amounted to a direct lie to congressional appropriators who approve a budget for the NIF,” noted Yundt.

Security also continues to be a concern at LLNL, with the Report noting that in June of 2011, 1,659 rounds of armor piercing ammunition were discovered. An incident analysis was conducted that concluded that Livermore Lab’s management company "needs more formality in the governance of its security operations." (PER pg. 18)

While the Performance Evaluation Report is shaded by the simple fact that the Livermore Lab’s management company is involved in reviewing its own operation, it does illuminate areas of concern. Despite this, Livermore Lab’s management company was awarded over $26 million dollars in bonuses for its overall performance. (88% of the total available bonus). (PER pg. 2)

“Prior to yesterday, the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration had sought to keep this information about management failures and high bonus awards from public view,” Kelly noted. “We are grateful to our colleagues at Nuclear Watch New Mexico for their lawsuit pushing for the release of this information. The ratings and bonuses awarded should be a matter of public record.”

###

A Copy of the Performance Evaluation Report for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is available here. (PDF)

The Performance Evaluation Reports are available at www.nukewatch.org

The Reports for the Sandia Lab and the Pantex Plant are still undergoing review by NNSA and have not yet been released. Nuclear Watch of New Mexico will post them as soon as they are available.
 
The eight NNSA nuclear weapons sites are the Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico: the Sandia National Laboratories in NM and CA; the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in CA; the Nevada National Security Site (formerly the Nevada Test Site); and the four production plants: the Kansas City Plant for nonnuclear components; the Savannah River Site near Aiken, SC for the radioactive gas tritium used to “boost” nuclear weapons; the Y-12 Plant near Oak Ridge, TN, for nuclear weapons secondaries (which put the “H” in H-bomb); and the Pantex Plant for final nuclear weapons assembly near Amarillo, TX.

CONTACT:

Marylia Kelley, Executive Director, Tri-Valley CAREs, 925-443-7148

Scott Yundt, Staff Attorney, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148

Jay Coghlan, Executive Director, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, (505) 989-7342

###



Livermore Nuclear Watchdogs Head to Washington, D.C. to Challenge Nuclear Weapons Projects That Put The Environment and Taxpayer Dollars At Risk

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 15, 2012

Group Will Distribute a Major New Report Proposing Cuts to Weapons Budget

Livermore- Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) will send a delegation to Washington, DC from March 17 through 21 to expose U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) “Nuclear Budget Busters.”  These seven nuclear weapons and nuclear energy projects, including the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will waste billions in taxpayer funds, damage the environment and undermine the nation’s non-proliferation goals.

In approximately 80 meetings, the Tri-Valley CAREs delegation will be working with colleagues from a dozen other states who are participating in the 24th annual Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) "DC Days." The activists expect to meet with Senators and Representatives from California, leaders of congressional committees that oversee nuclear issues, and key federal agency staffers.

ANA is a 25-year old network of several dozen local, regional and national organizations, including Tri-Valley CAREs, who represent the concerns of communities downwind and downstream from U.S. nuclear weapons complex and radioactive waste disposal sites.
Tri-Valley CAREs, the Livermore-based nuclear weapons “watchdog” organization, will bring its detailed knowledge of Livermore Lab, the U.S. nuclear weapons complex and the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) weapons activities to share with decision-makers.

Additionally, Dr. Robert Civiak, former Program Examiner for DOE nuclear security activities at the White House Office of Management and Budget, has prepared a detailed report for the group entitled, “Fewer Warheads, More Spending: An Analysis of the Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Request for Nuclear Weapons Activities.” The report debunks the myths put forth by NNSA to justify the rise in recent and projected spending on our nuclear weapons program and identifies $1.540 billion in potential savings in the NNSA Fiscal Year 2013 nuclear weapons budget. The Tri-Valley CAREs delegation will bring this hot-off-the-press report to DC and advocate for its recommended cuts to members of Congress.

The group’s Staff Attorney, Scott Yundt, noted, “I am looking forward to presenting our group’s new report challenging the NNSA’s rhetoric about why Congress should authorize billions for new nuclear weapons and enormous new weapons complex facilities to produce them. We will use the report to recommend a series of specific cuts to unneeded facilities and ill-advised changes to the stockpile. Overall, we will recommend huge potential savings, including an $84 million in savings at the nearby National Ignition Facility at Livermore Lab.”

Tri-Valley CAREs’ Executive Director, Marylia Kelley, added, “DOE is pursuing many unnecessary projects that will waste taxpayer dollars and fuel proliferation, while also putting the environment and human health of the communities surrounding DOE facilities, like Livermore, at risk. We will point out these concerns and encourage policy-makers to cut programs that fund dangerous new weapons and subsidize nuclear reactor construction. Then, we will urge Congress to use the savings to reduce long-term liabilities by cleaning up the huge toxic and radioactive legacy of nuclear weapons research, design, testing and production.”

Tri-Valley CAREs is a 29-year old group made up of local citizens who monitor activities at Livermore Lab (one of two nuclear warhead design labs in the U.S.) and the nuclear weapons complex. Tri-Valley CAREs’ 2012 DC Days delegation includes longtime Livermore resident and Executive Director, Marylia Kelley, legal intern, Toshimi Barks, and Staff Attorney, Scott Yundt.

###

• a briefing kit including ANA’s “Nuclear Budget Busters” report is available on request

• Tri-Valley CAREs’ latest report, “Fewer Warheads, More Spending: An Analysis of the Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Request for Nuclear Weapons Activities” is also available on our website www.trivalleycares.org. (PDF)

CONTACT:

Scott Yundt, Staff Attorney, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148 (office)

Marylia Kelley, Executive Director, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148 (office)




Nuclear Weapons Budget: Tri-Valley CAREs reacts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 13, 2012

TRI-VALLEY CARES RESPONDS TO THE PRESIDENT'S FISCAL YEAR 2013 BUDGET REQUEST FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS

See below for 7 key items, including 3 that are specific to Livermore Lab...

1. THE TOP LINE for Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration Nuclear Weapons Activities:

The President's budget requests $7.577 Billion for nuclear weapons activities, compared with last year's appropriated level of $7.214 billion, an increase of more than $363 million.

Said Tri-Valley CAREs executive Director, Marylia Kelley, "We find this number excessive and encourage Congress to sharpen its budget ax as the budget request wends its way through the FY13 appropriations process."

2. THE KUDOS: CMRR-NF to Zero

Said Marylia Kelley, "We note with approval that the Obama Administration budget request for Department of Energy nuclear weapons activities zeroes out the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility (CMRR-NF), slated for construction at the Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico.
This facility, intended to enable a four-fold increase in the U.S. production of new plutonium bomb cores, was never needed for maintenance of existing weapons in the U.S. arsenal, and we are glad that Obama's latest budget request reflects that reality. Moreover, the budget request notes that CMRR-NF will be delayed at least 5 years (with no exact date for resumption given). We believe it can and should be canceled outright."

3. NOW THE BAD: UPF more than doubles; from $160 million appropriated for 2012 to $340 million requested for 2013.

"However," Kelley continued, "We oppose the accelerated funding and construction schedule for the Uranium Processing Facility contained in this budget request. Tri-Valley CAREs supports a smaller facility focused on dismantlement of retired secondaries and downblending of highly enriched uranium rather than the currently-missioned UPF, which is focused on increasing U.S. production of nuclear weapons secondaries at a rate of up to 80 each year."

4. THE BAD CONTINUES.

For warhead Life Extensions Programs (LEPs), the budget request is $543 million (an increase of 13% over last year's appropriated level), with the B61-12 requesting a whopping 66% more.

Marylia Kelley said, "Life Extension is a misnomer for a nearly complete rebuild and upgrade to each of DOE's seven nuclear warhead systems. The need for these rebuilds is doubtful considering that these systems are nowhere near the end of their life and the costs continue to skyrocket. In a typical LEP, NNSA makes hundreds of changes to the weapons, adding new components and modifying their military characteristics. The most expensive LEP so far is for the B61-12 family of bombs, for which the NNSA has requested $369 million for FY2013 (an increase of 66% over last year's appropriated level) is especially unnecessary given that the European-based B61s may all be retired before or soon after the LEP is completed.

5. AND, THE WASTEFUL: ICF/NIF holds steady with the request at $460 million for 2013, down a miniscule 3% from the appropriated level.

Kelley stated, "Within the DOE's stockpile stewardship program, one of the biggest boondoggles is the inertial confinement fusion program, intended to produce thermonuclear ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Livermore Lab. Ignition was first promised in 2003, then fiscal year 2010 and now fiscal year 2012. Although it is widely acknowledged within the government and the scientific community that ignition at NIF is highly unlikely to occur in 2012, the fiscal year 2013 budget request continues to throw good money after bad at the effort by dedicating $460 million next year to this failed effort."

6. LIVERMORE CLEANUP: The monies for the Superfund cleanup of contaminated soil and groundwater at Livermore Lab hold steady in the budget request at about $23 million.

Said Kelley, "We note that the Livermore Lab main site and site 300 receive about the same amount of funding in the FY2013 request as has been appropriated in years past. We do see, and applaud, a small increase in the funding that DOE's Environmental Management program is contributing. The funds that come directly from NNSA for cleanup do not appear to be going up, thus keeping the overall cleanup budget at "steady," but barely so. We call on DOE to reprogram monies being wasted elsewhere in the nuclear weapons budget to clean up toxic and radioactive contamination at Livermore Lab. And, we call on Congress to shift monies to this task in FY2013."

7. LIVERMORE'S BIG QUESTION MARK.

Save $52 million? The budget request notes that the Livermore Lab plutonium facility will go from Category 1 to Category 3 (housing less than nuclear bomb usable quantities of plutonium and highly enriched uranium). Is a celebration in order?

Kelley explained, "The budget request states that the Livermore Lab plutonium facility, which has proven vulnerable to attack in mock terrorism drills, will drop from Category 1 to Category 3 in fiscal year 2013, enabling a drop in the request for nuclear security monies of $52 million, or 7.5% complex-wide. The budget request also notes that Livermore Lab has repackaged 91% of the plutonium and highly enriched uranium slated to be de-inventoried, with 84% of it shipped to more secure locations. This is cause for celebration.

"However, the budget request also states that 'in place of the CMRR-Nuclear Facility NNSA has options to share workload between other plutonium-capable facilities at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.' This statement mirrors what sources inside the DOE and other government agencies have told Tri-Valley CAREs. These sources say that the Livermore Lab plutonium facility may receive Category 1 & 2 nuclear bomb usable quantities of plutonium in the form of bomb cores from Los Alamos Lab. We call on DOE to clarify the potential use of the Livermore Lab plutonium facility for continued plutonium bomb activities, and call on Congress to enact language that would specifically prohibit Los Alamos Lab, or any other site, from sending Category 1 & 2 quantities of plutonium to Livermore Lab."

CONTACT:

For more information, contact Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs' executive director, at (925) 443-7148 or [email protected]. Or, call or email Tri-Valley CAREs' staff attorney, Scott Yundt at [email protected].

###



Questions for the U.S. Department of Energy's FY 2013 Nuclear Weapons and Cleanup Budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 10, 2012

The overriding issue for the Monday, Feb. 13 budget release is: "Will the Obama Administration continue to increase funding for unnecessary nuclear programs in light of current fiscal constraints?"

The Livermore, CA-based Tri-Valley CAREs noted that "We do expect the budget request will reveal modest progress toward reducing profligate spending on nuclear weapons. The Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement - Nuclear Facility, intended to increase U.S. capacity to produce plutonium bomb cores four-fold, is rumored to take a major budget hit in the FY13 request, coupled with a decade-long delay in construction." The group also noted, however, that "other ill-conceived nuclear weapons projects are rumored to move 'full steam ahead.'"

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), a national network of communities downwind and downstream from U.S. nuclear facilities, is likewise concerned that out of control spending on nuclear weapons and nuclear facilities will divert resources from legally required environmental cleanup, sustainable energy programs, and critical nonproliferation efforts.

HERE ARE SOME KEY QUESTIONS THAT THE DOE BUDGET SHOULD ADDRESS:

QUESTION: At a time when nuclear stockpiles are being cut, why does the U.S. need expanded production capacity for plutonium pits (the fissile cores or "triggers" of nuclear weapons) and highly enriched uranium (secondaries)?

The Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility would directly support production of plutonium pits, yet the JASONs determined that plutonium pits have a shelf life of 85+ years. If the rumored delay for CMRR-NF is reflected in the FY13 budget request, do the budget expenditures accompanying that delay make sense or are they excessive? Will there be a move to "reopen" the Livermore Lab plutonium facility to weapons usable quantities of fissile material despite its security vulnerabilities? Moreover, the Uranium Processing Facility as planned is oversized and should be redesigned to dismantle warheads and down-blend uranium.

QUESTION: Will funding for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) remain around $400 million even if it fails to achieve ignition in FY12?

What can the administration do to salvage what science they can from the taxpayers' cumulative $7 billion investment in NIF? Will the DOE consider removing the NIF from National Nuclear Security Administration control in favor of housing it in the Office of Science, with a more modest operating budget? Will Congress consider this or other options?

QUESTION: Are Stockpile Stewardship programs funding new capabilities for nuclear weapons?

If the DOE has decided to stay with a tested pit design, then why has the overall cost of the B-61 program increased? Is the DOE still considering a dramatically overhauled design for the W78 that would include interoperability between submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles?

QUESTION: Will the largest share of nonproliferation funding continue to be spent on the Mixed Oxide Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Program?

With huge cost increases, schedule delays, unanswered technical questions, and a lack of customers willing to use MOX, will this program ever be viable? Why are other nonproliferation programs that effectively safeguard highly enriched uranium and prevent fissile materials smuggling facing cuts?

QUESTION: What are the consequences of failing to fund legally mandated nuclear cleanup projects?

Is DOE inviting lawsuits brought by states and citizens left stranded by chronic federal underfunding of cleanup projects mandated by previous legal decisions? Won't delays lead to more contamination, higher costs, and increased health and environmental problems? Won't new weapons production and the MOX program create new waste streams while Cold War nuclear waste still threatens the environment and human health?

DOE's budget request: http://www.cfo.doe.gov/crorg/cf30.htm

CONTACT:

For further information: Tri-Valley CAREs: Marylia Kelley (925) 443-7148
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability: Katherine Fuchs (202) 544-0217

For information about specific DOE nuclear weapons sites and programs, here are some additional contacts:

Tom Carpenter - Hanford and Waste Treatment Plant: (206) 722-4269;
[email protected]

Tom Clements - Savannah River Site, MOX Plant, Reprocessing: (803) 240-7268;
[email protected]

Jay Coghlan - Los Alamos Lab and Life Extension Programs: (505) 989-7342;
[email protected]

Don Hancock - Environmental Management Cleanup Program: (505) 262-1862;
[email protected]

Ralph Hutchison - Oak Ridge Site and Dismantlement: (865) 776-5050;
[email protected]

Scott Yundt - Livermore Lab, NIF and cleanup: (925)-443-7148;
[email protected]

###



Livermore Group Decries 9th Circuit's Decision on Bio-Warfare Research, Vows to Move Forward in the Public Arena to "Protect Health and the Environment"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 7, 2012

On February 7, 2012 the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision denying Tri-Valley CAREs' challenge to a novel, advanced bio-warfare agent research facility, located in the Bay Area at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

Tri-Valley CAREs appealed a lower court decision in 2010 in its litigation, which commenced in 2008 under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The group's lawsuit requested that the District Court compel the DOE to produce a thoroughgoing review of the potential environmental impacts of a terrorist attack on the bio-warfare agent research facility, as had been ordered in 2006 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the group's prior lawsuit against the facility. The group also sought a public hearing on the bio-warfare research conducted there.

The DOE gave LLNL the go-ahead to genetically modify and aerosolize (spray) lethal pathogens, such as live anthrax, plague and botulism at the controversial bio-facility that was the subject of the litigation. The advanced bio-warfare agent research facility has a bio-safety level 3 designation (BSL-3) and is authorized to store and use up to 50 liters of deadly pathogens. Seven million residents live within a 50 mile-radius.

Scott Yundt, Staff Attorney at Tri-Valley CAREs, said, “I am surprised and disappointed that the 9th Circuit Panel did not rule in Tri-Valley CAREs' favor in this instance. In my judgment the DOE has not fully complied with the Ninth Circuit’s 2006 request or NEPA.”

“The big losers today are (1) public health and (2) public participation in government decision making,” said named plaintiff and Tri-Valley CAREs’ Executive Director, Marylia Kelley, “If we had prevailed and an environmental impact statement had been mandated, that would have meant  a full public hearing on the bio-warfare research. Instead, this dangerous research will go forward with no formal mechanism for the public’s voice to be heard. The Court, in effect, silenced the community today.” Kelley continued, “Moreover, we have a moral responsibility as well as a legal one to act to protect worker and community health. Our members are threatened by a release of deadly pathogens. That does not change with the Court’s decision. Therefore, we will continue to vocally challenge the operation of this dangerous facility and the DOE’s planned expansion of its biological weapons agent research. We at Tri-Valley CAREs believe that in depth public scrutiny of this program is key to ensuring its safety.”

Tri-Valley CAREs filed its initial lawsuit against the LLNL bio-warfare agent research facility in 2003 to challenge the DOE's shoddy analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to adequately consider the environmental impacts of major projects before taking further action. The same District Court judge that issued the October 8, 2010 decision had previously also denied all of Tri-Valley CAREs' claims in the 2003 suit.

However, Tri-Valley CAREs appealed that judge's earlier decision and prevailed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals when the 3-member appellate panel ruled in our favor in 2006, stating that the DOE's environmental review inadequately analyzed the threat of terrorism at the facility and the potential impacts associated with a terrorist attack. In a precedent setting ruling, the Ninth Circuit ordered the DOE to revise its prior inadequate review to analyze the threat of a terrorist act at the bio-facility. The Ninth Circuit also specified that DOE should consider whether the potential imacts of a terrorist attack necessitated the preparation of a full Environmental Impact Statement and public hearings. 

In response to Ninth Circuit's order, DOE issued a “Final Revised Environmental Assessment (FREA).” The FREA, like its predecessor docment struck down by the appelate court, again concluded that there would not be a significant impact to the environment in the event of a terrorist attack and that a full Environmental Impact Statement and public hearings were not necessary.

The DOE's FREA alluded to, but failed to explain, the details of a Livermore Lab anthrax shipping accident that resulted from a security breach at LLNL when an unauthorized former employee gained access to, and then, unsupervised, improperly package over 6,400 anthrax samples that were then shipped across the country. In this incident, five workers were exposed and had to be put on the antibiotic "Cipro" because anthrax had spilled inside the packaging.

The details of this incident were withheld from the public until after the FREA had become final, thereby denying the public any opportunity to comment on its relevance to LLNL operating an even more potentially lethal BSL-3.  It was at this point in 2008 that the DOE gave LLNL the go-ahead to operate the new bio-warfare agent research facility, and Tri-Valley CAREs filed its second lawsuit in the District Court asking the judge to uphold the higher, appellate court's 2006 decision.

Despite the anthrax incident and others, the District Court again concluded that the DOE need not undertake additional analysis to meet the standards of NEPA. Tri-Valley CAREs appealed that decision to the Ninth Circuit in 2010. Following oral argument in January, the Ninth Circuit issued a decision today affirming the District Court’s conclusions.

Yundt concluded, "I respectfully disagree with today’s Court of Appeal’s decision. In my view, the cursory review done by DOE here does not meet the 'hard look' standard required by NEPA and thus the potential environmental impacts of a terrorist attack on the bio-warfare research facility continues to go unstudied. Yet, the community will not back down against bringing the dangers of this research into the light and Tri-Valley CAREs will continue to watchdog the continued operation and future expansion of this program to protect public health and the environment as much as possible."

CONTACT:

Scott Yundt, Staff Attorney, Tri-Valley CAREs. (925) 443-7148

Marylia Kelley, Executive Director, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148

###



Blue Ribbon Nuclear Waste Commission Fails to Chart Safe, Publicly Acceptable Nuclear Waste Plan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 26, 2012

The Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future report released today received mixed reviews from groups that monitor sites where large quantities of radioactive waste are stored. The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) and the Livermore, CA-based Tri-Valley CAREs, said major flaws in the report include the Commission’s failure to advocate prompt removal of commercial spent fuel from reactor cooling pools with placement in hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS) to safeguard commercial spent fuel at nuclear power plants.  ANA and hundreds of community   groups had told the Commission that HOSS could protect the heavily reactive material for the decades needed to develop a scientifically sound and publicly acceptable waste disposal program.

“The Commission’s decision to support consolidated interim storage at the expense of HOSS continues decades of policy failure in this area,” explained ANA Director Susan Gordon. “The reality, which the Commission recognizes and the nuclear industry is pursuing, is that reactor sites must store their spent fuel for decades. Instead of pursuing centralized facilities, on-site storage should be improved to protect public health and the environment. Centralized storage would leave thousands of tons of waste at operating power plants. It would also create even more storage sites and endanger millions living along transportation routes. At the same time, it would increase the risk that consolidated fuel will be reprocessed.”

“While there are no magic ‘silver bullets’ for nuclear waste, the Commission is ignoring the obvious, superior solution,” added Marylia Kelley, Executive Director or the Livermore, CA-based Tri-Valley CAREs. “The Commission is simply following in the footsteps of the Department of Energy’s longstanding refusal to fully consider the benefits of Hardened On-Site Storage. HOSS would ensure that wastes are monitored and protected from aircraft crashes, terrorist attacks and other potential calamities. HOSS would secure wastes near sites where it was produced, thereby avoiding unnecessary transport.”

ANA ProgramDirector Katherine Fuchs continued, “Just as power plants must safely store their spent fuel, Department of Energy facilities must safely store high-level waste. The recommendation to send those dangerous materials to a non-existent disposal    site ignores the fact that those wastes are not ready for transportation. Funds should be spent to solidify those wastes and provide robust storage."

“We are disappointed in some Commission recommendations. We are not surprised, however, since none of the commissioners represent communities downstream or downwind of major nuclear weapons sites or nuclear power plants. No one on the commission has even worked with such groups, as we have pointed out since the Commission was formed,” said Don Hancock, Director of Southwest Research and Information Center’s Nuclear Waste Safety Program.

ANA and its member groups do support the Commission’s recommendation not to pursue commercial waste reprocessing. “The Commission understands that reprocessing is prohibitively expensive, creates new waste streams, and poses a nuclear proliferation risk,” said ANA Nonproliferation Policy Director Tom Clements. “In these austere times, the government shouldn't even invest in reprocessing research. Instead it must focus on safer    and more secure storage of spent fuel at existing waste storage facilities.”

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) is a 25 year old national network of three-dozen grassroots and national groups representing the concerns of communities near U.S. nuclear weapons sites that are directly affected by 65 years of nuclear weapons production and waste generation. 

CONTACT:

Bob Schaeffer, Public Policy Communications, 239-395-6773

Katherine Fuchs, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, 202-544-0217, ext. 2503

Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs, 925-443-714

Additional Local Contacts:

Susan Gordon, ANA Director (NM): 505-577-8438

Tom Clements, ANA Nonproliferation Policy Director (SC): 803-240-7268

Don Hancock, Southwest Research and Information Center Nuclear Waste Safety Program Director, (NM): 505-262-1862

Beatrice Brailsford, Snake River Alliance Program Director (ID): 208-233-7212

###



Livermore Lab Watchdog Group Challenges Bio-Warfare Agent Research

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 11, 2012

Charges Failure to Analyze Potential Terrorist Attack, Requests Court Suspend Dangerous Operations

Who: Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)

What: Hearing of Oral Arguments before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

When: Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 9:30 A.M.

Where: James R. Browning US Courthouse - 9th Circuit;

95 Seventh Street; San Francisco, CA

Why: The Livermore, CA-based Tri-Valley CAREs filed an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court challenging the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s (DOE) continued operation of a controversial bio-warfare agent facility at Livermore Lab without proper environmental review.

The bio-warfare agent research facility, a Biosafety Level-3 (BSL-3), houses dangerous experiments with live anthrax, plague, Q fever and dozens of other potentially lethal pathogens. Some of these bio-agents will be aerosolized for use on small animals (up to 100 at a time) to ascertain how effective the agents would be in killing humans.

Further, the Livermore Lab BSL-3 is authorized to conduct experiments with genetically modified bio-agents of potentially novel (and unknown) virulence.

Tri-Valley CAREs has been litigating to halt operations and obtain appropriate environmental review of the facility since 2003.

Tri-Valley CAREs' Staff Attorney, Scott Yundt will present the group's oral argument to the Ninth Circuit Court. He explains, "We are challenging this BSL-3 because the DOE failed to adequately analyze the catastrophic consequences it could have on Lab workers and the surrounding communities."

Yundt continued, "In Tri-Valley CAREs' initial lawsuit against the facility, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered DOE to go back to the drawing board to consider the impacts of a terrorist attack on human and environmental health, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act. As I will explain in oral argument to the Court, the DOE did not comply with the Court's prior Order - or the law."

Tri-Valley CAREs, in its written briefs and upcoming oral argument, is asking the Ninth Circuit Court to compel DOE to undertake an in-depth analysis in a full Environmental Impact Statement with public hearings.

The group will also request that the Ninth Circuit Court suspend operation of the BSL-3 until such time as it can demonstrate compliance with the law.

CONTACT:

Tri-Valley CAREs’ staff attorney, Scott Yundt, at 415-990-2070 (cell) or mail to: [email protected]

###