TVC Administrator's blog
Date: January 16, 2012
By: Derek Sands
Published in: Platts Inside Energy
www.trivalleycares.org/new/PLATTsArticle.pdf
Date: January 19, 2012
Published in: The Oakland Tribune
By: Stephan Kelly
http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreviewonline/letterstotheeditor/ci_19768934
U.S. needs to reduce its nuclear arsenal
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I thought about the powerful things the civil rights leader had to say about war and this nation's priorities.
In 1967, he said, "The best brains in the highly developed nations of the world are devoted to military technology. The fact that most of the time human beings put the truth about the nature and risks of nuclear war out of their minds because it is too painful and therefore not 'acceptable,' does not alter the nature and risks of such war."
Date: Thursday, January 12, 2012
By Fiona Smith Daily Journal Staff Writer
Published in: The Daily Journal
http://www.trivalleycares.org/new/Daily Journal Article.pdf
A community group concerned over the operation of a bioweapon research facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory sought to convince the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday that the high security facility has failed to adequately look at the risks posed by a terrorist attack.
Nonprofit Tri-Valley Cares is fighting the Energy Department, claiming it glossed over the threat of deadly pathogens such as anthrax and plague escaping from the lab in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA.
Date: January 12, 2012
Published in: The San Francisco Chronicle
By: Bob Egelko
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2...
An opponent of the new biological weapons research center at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory told a federal appeals court Wednesday that government officials approved the project without fully considering the consequences of a possible terrorist attack or disclosing the details of a past release of anthrax.
Research at the center is intended to help the government detect biological pathogens such as anthrax, plague, brucellosis and Q fever. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the facility in 2006, saying the Department of Energy's environmental assessment had failed to study the possibility that terrorists could cause a release of deadly organisms.
The department took another look and found no significant danger from terrorism, a conclusion accepted by a federal judge who allowed the center to open in February 2009. But a lawyer for opponents argued Wednesday that the new review was perfunctory and violated the court's 2006 order.
Date: January 12, 2012
Published in: Bay Area Newsgroup Papers (Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, Valley Times, San Jose Mercury News)
By: Suzanne Bohan
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_19721957?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com
A Lawrence Livermore Laboratory watchdog group argued in a San Francisco federal court Wednesday for a halt to biological weapons research until its danger to residents is more thoroughly examined.
Inside a high-security building at the national lab, researchers are working with microbes such as anthrax, plague, Q fever and other deadly pathogens to better understand how they infect people and to develop technologies for detecting them.
"And this will all be done a half a mile away from densely populated areas in Livermore," said Scott Yundt, a lawyer with Tri-Valley CAREs.
Yundt argued strenuously before the three-judge panel in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that risks to the environment and human health were not adequately analyzed before the facility opened in 2008.
Date: January 12, 2012
Published in: The Daily Californian
By: Jonathan Tam
http://www.dailycal.org/2012/01/11/organization-br...
SAN FRANCISCO – A local community organization presented its case against the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in federal court Wednesday morning, alleging that the lab handled potentially lethal chemicals without proper environmental review.The organization, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, challenged the U.S. Department of Energy, which funds the lab, on its methods of dealing with potential terrorist or accidental situations if lethal pathogens such as anthrax were released from the lab facility. The case was presented before a panel of judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, who promised an expedient decision due to the case’s importance.
The lab, which is one of three department labs that the University of California is involved with managing, researches science and technology to solve national security issues.
Date Printed: Janurary 5, 2012
Printed in: The Independent
By: Jo Ann Frisch
The so-called Super Committee failed to reach a deal on deficit reduction. This has triggered “sequestration” which means automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion split evenly between defense and civilian programs over the next ten years.
However, the GOP, in particular, wants to nullify the effects of “sequestration” on the pentagon budget. These are the very same people who got us in this spending mess in the first place. We have spent $3.7 trillion on their wars over the past ten years, which has driven the deficit to all-time highs. Thankfully, President Obama has steadfastly stated he will veto any effort to reduce the defense cuts.
Part of the solution to our budget problems can be achieved by also cutting the nuclear weapons budget which has continued to increase in spite of the end of the cold war two decades ago. Up to $700 billion is proposed to be spent on nuclear weapons and related programs over the next ten years. Urge your Congress people to support cutting this grossly inflated nuclear weapons budget.
The Independent Newspaper
Mailbox/Opinion, December 29, 2011
Eliminating NNSA
Beverly King
Livermore
The semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was carved out of the US Department of Energy (DOE) in 2000 in response to perceived national security needs, primarily related to nuclear research labs including our local Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. NNSA has added costs and often duplicated existing DOE functions at its sites. A recent DOE Special Report called "Management Challenges at the DOE," questions how effective, serviceable and needed the semi-autonomous NNSA is.
The answer is obvious to me. In these times of needed budget cuts, reducing or even eliminating NNSA would create much need savings. It would also reduce bureaucracy and cut red tape. Duplicating operations does not increase security, but it does double costs which we cannot afford.
The Independent Newspaper
Mailbox/Opinion, December 22, 2011
Nuclear Costs
Loulena Miles
Livermore
A recent analysis by San Francisco-based Ploughshares Fund sparked needed debate about the true cost of nuclear weapons.
Ploughshares calculated that we are poised to spend around $700 billion on nuclear weapons and related programs in the coming decade.
Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, James Miller, jumped in to argue that the cost of cleaning up the contamination associated with nuclear weapons shouldn't be included in the estimate.
Cleanup cannot be separated from the programs that created the mess. To pretend otherwise is to grossly underestimate how much nuclear weapons cost the U.S. taxpayer.
Moroever, other expenses were underrepresented in Ploughshares' estimate - including compensation for atomic workers who contracted life threatening diseases working with bomb materials.
Date: 12-04-11
By Kevin Fagan
Published In: The San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2...
Former Berkeley police Sgt. Don Cameron remembers the days when cops and protesters often had a tacit understanding.
The protesters rallied, made their point - but then, after police warned them to leave or be arrested, those who didn't want to go to jail departed and the rest submitted nonviolently to handcuffs.