Tri-Valley CAREs works to strengthen global security by stopping the development of new nuclear weapons in the US and by promoting the elimination of nuclear weapons globally. Tri-Valley CAREs monitors nuclear weapons and environmental clean-up activities throughout the US nuclear weapons complex, with a special focus on the Lawrence Livermore Lab and surrounding communities.
LIVERMORE NUCLEAR WATCHDOG GROUP HEADS TO WASHINGTON, DC TO CHALLENGE U.S. ENERGY DEPT. NUCLEAR WEAPONS BUDGET, PROGRAMS
Mar30
Release Date:
03-30-11
Group Will Distribute New Report Detailing Cuts to Weapons Budget
LIVERMORE - Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) will send a delegation to Washington, DC from April 3 through 6 to expose high-risk U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons and nuclear energy projects that will waste billions of taxpayer dollars, damage the environment, threaten human health and undermine the nation’s non-proliferation goals. While in DC, the group will meet with many leading members of Congress, key committee staff, and agency officials with responsibility for nuclear policy and budgets to press for new funding priorities. In conducting approximately 100 meetings, the Tri-Valley CAREs delegation will be working with colleagues from a dozen other states who are also participating in the 23rd annual Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) "DC Days."
Tri-Valley CAREs, a Livermore-based nuclear weapons “watchdog” organization since 1983, will bring its detailed knowledge of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the U.S. nuclear weapons complex and the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) weapons activities to share with decision-makers. The Tri-Valley CAREs delegation will also bring its hot-off-the-press report, “The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request for Nuclear Weapons Activities: Recommendations for Saving and Redirecting Funds.”
This new analysis was prepared by Dr. Robert Civiak, former Program Examiner for DOE nuclear security activities at the White House Office of Management and Budget. The report identifies $1.150 billion in potential savings in the NNSA Fiscal Year 2012 nuclear weapons budget. The group will recommend these cuts to Congress.
Additionally, Tri-Valley CAREs, an ANA member group since 1989, will help release a new Alliance for Nuclear Accountability publication covering nuclear weapons, waste and power. The aim of the “high-risk” report is to illuminate steps Congress and DOE can take this year to bring the U.S. into compliance with international treaties, decrease the effects of the nuclear weapons complex on the environment, protect human health and avoid wasting taxpayer funds. This report will be released at a press conference in DC on April 4. (Contact information for press conference is at the end of this release.)
Tri-Valley CAREs’ Executive Director, Marylia Kelley, noted, “Despite tight budget constraints and President Obama’s commitment to a nuclear weapons free world, 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 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.”
The group’s Staff Attorney, Scott Yundt, added, “I am looking forward to presenting our group’s detailed analysis of the nuclear weapons activities budget to Congress. We will recommend a series of specific cuts to unneeded new weapons complex facilities and ill-advised changes to the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Overall, we will recommend more than a billion dollars in budget cuts, including projects at Livermore Lab.”
Tri-Valley CAREs is a 28-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’ 2011 DC Days delegation includes longtime Livermore resident and 2011 Board President, Janis Kate Turner, attorney and board member, Loulena Miles, legal intern, Nick Chan, Staff Attorney, Scott Yundt, and Executive Director, Marylia Kelley.
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability is a 25-year old network of several dozen local, regional and national organizations representing the concerns of communities downwind and downstream from U.S. nuclear weapons production and radioactive waste disposal sites.
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-- To download Tri-Valley CAREs’ new report, “The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request for Nuclear Weapons Activities: Recommendations for Saving and Redirecting Funds,” prepared by Dr. Robert Civiak, go to http://www.trivalleycares.org/new/reports/FY2012%20BUDGET%20ANALYSIS-%20Civiak%20Report.pdf For additional information and to arrange interviews, call (925) 443-7148 or email marylia@trivalleycares.org, scott@trivalleycares.org.
-- The ANA briefing kit on DOE’s High Risk Projects and other current nuclear issues is available on request from bobschaeffer@earthlink.net or sgordon@ananuclear.org.