Compiled by leaders of groups from communities located in the shadows of U.S. nuclear weapons sites. The report card grades looks to the future and lays out an agenda for the next administration.
2008 Radioactive Report Card Grade Book
Press Release
| | |
|
|
| | | published Friday, December 11, 2009 | 1229 Views |
Associated Press - December 10, 2009
LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) - A federal report says improper accounting practices at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory have hidden $80 million in additional costs for a new facility dedicated in May.
The National Ignition Facility studies nuclear fusion, which could provide the country with another clean energy source (sic). The October report by the National Nuclear Security Administration says the facility is not contributing its fair share to the overall running of Lawrence lab in accordance with federal accounting standards. That means other departments have been left to pick up the tab, which amounts to about $80 million in this fiscal year alone.
|
| read more.. |
|
| | | published Thursday, December 10, 2009 | 961 Views |
December 10, 2009
Originally Appeared here
LIVERMORE – An internal U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) study details how managers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) shifted costs to understate total spending on the controversial National Ignition Facility (NIF) mega-laser. The previously secret document, released today by the nuclear watchdog group Tri-Valley CAREs, pegs the current hidden costs of NIF at $80 million annually.
"Livermore Lab is systematically disguising the true costs of the NIF," charged Tri-Valley CAREs' executive director, Marylia Kelley. "When calculated over the life of the project, these hidden costs total more than $2 billion." Kelley continued, "This illegal scheme circumvents the United States Congress, which sets NIF's budget each year, and violates our nation's most basic federal contracting laws."
|
| read more.. |
|
| | | published Thursday, December 10, 2009 | 998 Views |
By Arley Hoskin, KC Nursing News
Originally appeared here
December 7, 2009
Most nurses strive to avoid death, but on Wednesday evenings, Ann Suellentrop, RN, dresses as death.
Suellentrop works for Physicians for Social Responsibility, a nonprofit dedicated to the prevention of nuclear weapons production and use.
|
| read more.. |
|
| | | published Thursday, December 03, 2009 | 768 Views |
By Thomas Burr, Salt Lake Tribune
Originally appeared here
December 2, 2009
One hurdle down, opponents of Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions' plan to bring foreign radioactive waste to Utah are now bracing for a tough fight in the Senate over a proposed ban on the stuff.
The U.S. House overwhelmingly passed legislation Wednesday that would bar low-level radioactive waste from being brought from foreign countries into the United States for disposal. The measure is aimed squarely at EnergySolutions' efforts to bring 20,000 tons of Italian waste to Tennessee for processing, then ship some 1,600 tons of radioactive leftovers to the company's Tooele County site for burial.
|
| read more.. |
|
| | | published Wednesday, December 02, 2009 | 1012 Views |
By Nadia Pflaum
A week ago, Sen. Claire McCaskill's Westport
office received a visit fromMaurice Copeland and Ivory Mae Thomas,
retired employees of theHoneywell-operated Kansas City Plant, along
with representatives from PeaceWorks KC and Physicians for Social
Responsibility.
The visit came one week after The Pitch published this feature story
on former Honeywell workers suffering from job-related illnesses.
|
| read more.. |
|
| | | published Thursday, November 19, 2009 | 2197 Views |
New Government Report Challenges Justification for New Warheads and Production Facilities
For Immediate Release:
November 19, 2009
Contact:
Nickolas Roth
914-673-6666
Susan Gordon
505-577-8438
A new government report released today refutes arguments that new nuclear warheads or weapons production facilities are needed.
Since 2005, both Air Force and Department of Energy officials have claimed that new design nuclear warheads were necessary because of diminishing confidence in the nuclear stockpile. At the centerpiece of plans for building new warheads are new weapons production facilities proposed for Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
In the report, the JASONs group, an independent panel of scientists contracted by the government to evaluate issues related to the nuclear stockpile, affirmed that current methods used by DOE were adequate for extending the lifetime of the nuclear stockpile.
It also found no evidence to support claims that changes to the stockpile as a result of refurbishments have increased risks to the reliability of the arsenal.
|
| read more.. |
|
| | | published Wednesday, November 18, 2009 | 1118 Views |
November 17, 2009
GAO: Los Alamos Computer Security Has Weaknesses
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:03 p.m. ET
ALBUQUERQUE,
N.M. (AP) -- Security weaknesses uncovered in Los Alamos National
Laboratory's classified computer network could increase the risk of a
breach of classified information, the U.S. Government Accountability
Office said in a new report.
Among the GAO's findings:
-- The lab failed to mark the
classification level of documents stored on its classified computer
network or keep an inventory of the numbers and types of classified
documents stored there. The report said that increased the risk that
the lab may not be able to detect inappropriate uses.
-- The lab
also cannot effectively monitor the actions of computer users. While it
monitored the network regularly, certain events were not being logged,
which increased the risk that an unauthorized user would not be
detected.
-- Not all users were provided with the necessary specialized security training.
--
Each division at the lab was responsible for securing its own computer
systems that are connected to the classified network, which has
resulted in a patchwork of cyber security practices.
|
| read more.. |
|
| | | published Monday, November 09, 2009 | 1277 Views |
Seventy Nine Truckloads from Huntington’s Nickel Plant Buried
Once Radioactivity Released, You Can’t Put This 'Genie' Back in Bottle; Former Worker Alleges Plutonium Contamination
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Editor’s
Note: Vina Colley, a former worker at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion
Plant, has been one of the most outspoken workers suffering cancer and
other illnesses from their years working at the facility near
Portsmouth, Ohio. Although the interview is in a Q and A format, it
should be noted that Ms. Colley often had to stop speaking to get her
breath. Occasionally, her thoughts were completed by a member of the
clean up panel.
HNN: You worked as an electrician at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant?
VINA COLLEY: As a Second Class Electrician I worked in every building on the plant site and many of the buildings off site.
HNN: Right now, like other employees , you suffer from multiple aliments attributed to your years at the plant.
VINA
COLLEY: I have 57% lung impairment due to the chronic bronchitis. A low
immune system where I had to take gamma glammas? Before. Memory lapses.
Home oxygen. Three tumors, a total hysterectomy and skin cancer.
|
| read more.. |
|
| | | published Friday, November 06, 2009 | 2732 Views |
Sandia Director Makes $1.7 million
By John Fleck
Thursday, 05 November 2009 19:16
Sandia National Laboratories Director Tom Hunter makes $1.7 million per
year, according to data made public this week.
Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio makes $800
thousand per year. The numbers became public this week when the labs reported them as one of
the conditions of accepting money under the federal stimulus program.
The compensation triggered outrage from critics of the nuclear weapons
research centers.
Originally Published in the Albuquerque Journal.
|
| read more.. |
|
| | | published Wednesday, November 04, 2009 | 1696 Views |
The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance today released a "white
paper" that analyzes the missions at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and
proposes that the Oak Ridge plant refocus its efforts entirely on
dismantlement.
"Changes in U.S. policy, concern over nuclear proliferation, and global
realities have created an environment in which the power of arguments
for a new production facility has eroded significantly," the report,
titled The Future of Y-12, says.
Posted by Frank Munger on November 3, 2009 at 7:24 PM
The 9-page report is online at:
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/y12orepa.pdf
|
| read more.. |
|
|
|
|
|