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| | | published Monday, December 21, 2009 | 827 Views :: 0 Comments |
The Modernization of the US Nuclear Weapons Complex in Light of the Renewal of the START Treaty
December 16, 2009
The United States nuclear stockpile of more than 2,000 warheads is
safe, secure and reliable; over the next ten years, the number of
warheads in our deployed stockpile will drop by twenty-five to thirty
percent, and both the US and Russia have indicated these reductions are
only a first step toward deeper reductions. Even so, as long as the US
relies on a nuclear deterrent, the need for confidence in our arsenal
increases as the number of warheads in our arsenal decreases. The
recently released JASON report on Stockpile Stewardship indicates that
the US stockpile is, at present, safe, secure and reliable. That is the
starting point for the discussion about new warhead production
facilities.
The current nuclear weapons complex is comprised of
eight facilities spread across the southern United States, from
Lawrence Livermore in California to Savannah River in South Carolina.
At three of these sites, the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons
wing, the National Nuclear Security Administration, has major new
facilities on the drawing board, and in the budget. These facilities,
if they are built, will expand the United States’ capacity to design
and build new nuclear weapons.
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| | | published Monday, December 07, 2009 | 966 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 Monday, November 09, 2009 | 1288 Views :: 0 Comments |
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.
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| | | published Wednesday, November 04, 2009 | 1708 Views :: 7 Comments |
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
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| | | published Wednesday, October 28, 2009 | 1190 Views :: 4 Comments |
Immediate release
October 27, 2009
DOE ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR NEW BOMB PLANT IN OAK RIDGE, TN
LONG AWAITED DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT
INCLUDES PLAN FOR $3.5 BILLION “URANIUM PROCESSING FACILITY”
TO BUILD THERMONUCLEAR WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
AT Y12 NATIONAL SECURITY COMPLEX
The National Nuclear Security Administration is slated to release the
long-awaited draft of the Y12 Site Wide Environmental Impact Statement
with a Notice of Availability in the Federal Register by October 30,
2009. Copies of the Y12SWEIS were sent to the NNSA’s distribution list
earlier this week and posted on the web at www.y12sweis.com
. Among the alternatives considered in the draft EIS is the siting and
construction of the Uranium Processing Facility, a new facility which
would produce thermonuclear “secondaries” out of highly enriched
uranium, lithium deuteride, beryllium and other materials.*
The New Bomb Plant
The Draft Y12SWEIS embraces a full-scale nuclear weapons production
facility capable of producing 50-80 secondaries a year, or enough
capacity to double the size of the US arsenal every 20 years, and to
maintain an enduring nuclear stockpile. The preferred alternative,
called the “Capability-sized UPF” would lead to an initial increase in
construction employment but the eventual downsizing of nearly half the
Y12 workforce and fails to address increased mission requirements for
dismantlement and disposition of retired nuclear weapons.
for more information: Ralph Hutchison 865 776 5050 | orep@earthlink.net
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| | | published Monday, August 10, 2009 | 1517 Views :: 0 Comments |
It was a relatively solemn ceremony this morning on the front lawn of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge.
Peace
activists gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945,
atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Y-12 produced the highly
enriched uranium that was used in the Little Boy bomb.
Erik Johnson of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance said
removing the peace cranes was of no great concern. "Our prayers have
already been released," Johnson said.
Originally published on Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground: http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/2009/08/hiroshima_aug_6_1945.html#more
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2009 Fact Sheet Nuclear Weapons Forever | |
| | published Monday, February 23, 2009 | 526 Views :: 0 Comments |
Life Extension Program
In the late-1980’s the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Rocky Flats Plant, which produced plutonium pits for nuclear warheads, was shut down after a raid by the FBI. Eventually, the plant was shuttered, disrupting the U.S. capacity for producing new warheads.
Download 2009 Fact Sheet: LEP2 final.pdf
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2009 Fact Sheet Nuclear Weapons Environmental Cleanup | |
| | published Monday, February 23, 2009 | 394 Views :: 0 Comments |
Six decades of U.S. nuclear weapons research, testing, and production activities have left dozens of Department of Energy (DOE) sites polluted with massive amounts of radioactive and hazardous wastes. Most DOE sites are now on the Superfund list of the nation’s most environmentally dangerous facilities. Their contamination threatens millions of people living near the sites or along major waste transportation routes. Some of the nation’s most important water resources are endangered.
Download 2009 Fact Sheet: Cleanup5.1 final.pdf
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2009 Fact Sheet Plutonium Dispoistion Remains in Disarray | |
| | published Monday, February 23, 2009 | 231 Views :: 0 Comments |
After a decade of work on its program to eliminate surplus weapons plutonium, not a single gram has been disposed by the Department of Energy (DOE). By any standard, the program is a failure. Left unchanged and without adequate oversight and budget scrutiny, it will continue to suffer from chronic bad management, escalating costs, and technical uncertainties. Congress and President Obama can put the disposition program onto the safer, less costly plutonium immobilization or “vitrification” track
Download 2009 Fact Sheet: MOX6 final.pdf
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| | | published Tuesday, February 17, 2009 | 1710 Views :: 1 Comments |
Under Life Extension Programs, DOE plans to upgrade every type of nuclear warhead in the planned United States arsenal. Upgrades have already been done on the W87 warhead and are nearing completion on the B61.
Upgrades of the W76 warhead are slated to begin in 2008. Modifications to the W76 are so extensive that it is being given a new number: the W76-1/Mk4A. A new fuse that allows for a ground burst capability and strongly improved accuracy for the reentry vehicle fundamentally change the military application of this Trident submarine warhead—it can now be used on “hard targets.” The Bush Administration recently decided to convert 2,4000 W76 warheads to W76-Is.
Congress refused to fund production of the last two new nuclear warheads proposed by DOE—the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (“Bunker Buster”) and the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). It seems DOE is now making an end run around the Congressional rejection of new nuclear weapons by modifying the W76 through its Life Extension Program.
-From ANA's 2008 DC Days Fact Sheet
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