Reading Room


Stop New Nuclear Warheads

July, 16, 2020
Source: The Independent

President Trump’s administration plans to spend $1.4 billion in 2021 to jump start production of new plutonium cores, or pits, for nuclear weapons. Trump’s plan would cost taxpayers more than $43 billion over three decades and involve nine locations, including Livermore.

Presently, 20 plutonium pits are authorized for manufacture annually at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The government plans to increase that number to more than 30 pits. It also plans to repurpose a failed nuclear fuel facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina for the production of more than 50 pits per year. This is a fourfold increase overall.

This would violate the law because the government refuses to prepare a full programmatic environmental review before moving forward. Instead, only a standalone impact statement for the Savannah River Site is being done, leaving out significant risks from nuclear transportation, disposal, multi-site operations, and more.

Moreover, better alternatives are not being studied. Stop the nuclear insanity! Contact trivalleycares.org.

Patricia Moore,

Livermore

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