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| | | published Tuesday, February 02, 2010 | 721 Views :: 0 Comments |
Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
By Martin Matishak
Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON
-- The Obama administration yesterday unveiled a spending plan that
would increase funding for the U.S. National Nuclear Security
Administration to $11.2 billion in the next fiscal year (see GSN, Jan.
29).
The agency, a semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department, would
receive a 13.4-percent budget increase in fiscal 2011 to maintain the
country's nuclear stockpile and conduct nonproliferation activities
around the globe, according to the White House funding request.
More than $7 billion would be devoted beginning Oct. 1 to "weapons
activities," which ensure the safety and performance of the nation's
atomic stockpile. The amount is a $624 million increase from this year.
Another
$2.7 billion would be funneled to the agency's Defense Nuclear
Nonproliferation program, a hike of 25.8 percent above fiscal 2010.
That effort seeks to secure nuclear materials around the globe that
could be used for weapons and convert them for peaceful purposes.
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| | | published Monday, February 01, 2010 | 854 Views :: 1 Comments |
By JONATHAN S. LANDAY
McClatchy Newspapers
Fri, Jan. 29, 2010
The
Obama administration plans to ask Congress to increase spending on the
U.S. nuclear arsenal by more than $5 billion over the next five years
as part of its strategy to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and
eventually rid the world of them.
The administration argues that
the boost is needed to ensure that U.S. warheads remain secure and work
as designed as the arsenal shrinks and ages nearly 18 years into a
moratorium on underground testing and more than two decades after
large-scale warhead production ended.
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| | | published Wednesday, January 27, 2010 | 1491 Views :: 2 Comments |
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability a national network of organizations working to address issues of nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup
http://www.ananuclear.org
for further information, contact:
Nickolas Roth 914-673-6666
Susan Gordon 505-577-8438
or local contacts listed at end of advisory
for immediate release Wednesday, January 27, 2010
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE U.S. DEPT. OF ENERGY FY 2011
NUCLEAR WEAPONS BUDGET REQUEST
The FY 2011 budget request will be released on Monday, February 1,
2010. The Obama administration has laid out an aggressive
nonproliferation agenda that includes deep reductions in nuclear
stockpiles, ratification of a nuclear test ban, and decreased
prominence for nuclear weapons in US defense policy. Despite this
agenda, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) budget request will ask
Congress to significantly increase nuclear weapons activities,
including funding for construction of new facilities that will expand
U.S. warhead production capacity. The DOE request will not reflect
recent independent scientific conclusions that existing nuclear weapons
can be reliably maintained for decades under current, well-established
programs.
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), a
national network representing communities downwind and downstream from
U.S. nuclear weapons facilities, is concerned that increased funding
for nuclear energy and weapons research and production will rob
precious resources for needed environmental cleanup and clean,
sustainable energy solutions.
Items of interest:
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| | | published Monday, January 25, 2010 | 627 Views :: 0 Comments |
Published on National Catholic Reporter
by Joshua J. McElwee
The
Obama administration is moving ahead with the development of new
nuclear weapons components at three key weapons facilities at the same
time it is conducting a sweeping review of U.S. nuclear weapons
policies that could lead to further slashing the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
For
the moment, U.S. nuclear weapons policies appear to be running in
contrary directions, and while some critics of U.S. nuclear policy are
cautiously optimistic, they are also worried President Obama’s nuclear
disarmament vision is not yet being supported by concrete policy
actions.
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| | | published Thursday, January 14, 2010 | 367 Views :: 0 Comments |
KC breaks silence about environment
http://www.unews.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&uStory_id=9b342a90-2271-4cac-bdaf-484d476624e6
By: Alexia Lang
Posted: 1/11/10
Consider the silence broken in Kansas City.
Several
hundred Kansas Citians gathered Jan. 8-9 at the Reardon Convention
Center in Kansas City, Kan. for the third annual Breaking the Silence
Environmental Conference.
Organized by Building a Sustainable
Earth Community, the theme for the conference this year was how health
and the environment connect.
Richard Mabion, founder of the
conference and popular voice on KKFI, said the conference is about
making connections with other people who are passionate and
knowledgeable.
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| | | published Wednesday, January 06, 2010 | 768 Views :: 0 Comments |
Wall Street Journal Article Makes Ill Advised Recommendations on the Future of Nuclear Weapons
Yesterday,
the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed supporting recommendations
made in a letter sent to the President by 40 Republican Senators and Senator Joe Lieberman. The op-ed supports construction of new
facilities and new warheads. The following is ANA’s analysis of the
letter:
Modernization takes focus away from investments in nuclear weapons complex expertise that actually do need to be made.
- Verification: The national nuclear laboratories can uniquely develop
technologies that will contribute to detecting nuclear tests around the
world and facilitate verification of nuclear weapons reductions under
arms control treaties with Russia.
- Safeguards: The national
laboratories can improve technologies to detect diversion for military
purposes of nuclear power technology or materials in countries without
nuclear weapons.
- Dismantlement: The Labs can increase the rate of
dismantlement (process by which nuclear warheads are removed from the
stockpile, disassembled, and disposed of) to support permanent
reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
- Threat reduction at the
source: Consolidation, reduction and elimination of stockpiles of
nuclear weapon and nuclear weapons-usable materials where these
materials are produced and stored worldwide. Increasing funding for
these efforts advances U.S. ability to reduce and lock down vulnerable
nuclear materials and reduces the risk of nuclear terrorism
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| | | published Monday, December 07, 2009 | 951 Views :: 0 Comments |
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, Federation of American Scientists & the Bipartisan Security Group
Invite you to briefings
The New START Treaty: What Next for the Nuclear Weapons Infrastructure?
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 10:00 am – 11:00 am, Senate Dirksen G11
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 1 pm – 2:00 pm, Rayburn B340
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm, Hans Bethe Center, 322 Fourth St. NE
With
Ambassador Robert Grey
Director, Bipartisan Security Group
Former US Representative to the
Conference on Disarmament from 1998-2001
Ivan Oelrich, Ph. D.
Acting President, Federation of American Scientists
Former Senior Analyst at the Office of Technology Assessment
Ralph Hutchison
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
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| | | published Wednesday, December 02, 2009 | 1010 Views :: 0 Comments |
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.
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| | | published Wednesday, November 18, 2009 | 1116 Views :: 0 Comments |
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.
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| | | published Friday, October 30, 2009 | 1305 Views :: 3 Comments |
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has again urged the
Department of Energy (DOE) to take immediate action to reduce the risk
of a release of plutonium from a fire at Technical Area 55 at Los
Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) following a seismic event.
http://www.dnfsb.gov/pub_docs/recommendations/lanl/rec_2009_02_la.pdf
This is the latest in a series of letters, reports and recommendations
to DOE about the potential consequences of a release of plutonium from
the Technical Area 55 Plutonium Facility following a seismic event
resulting in a fire. The Board stated that the consequences to people
living downwind and downstream of LANL have been underestimated by 100
times.
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