for further information:
Bob Schaeffer (239) 395-6773 cell (239) 699-0468
March 15 – 19, 2010 (202) 544-0217 x2502

A national network of organizations working to address issues of
nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup

for release at 10:00am, Monday March 15, 2010, 2322 Rayburn News Conference
NUCLEAR WEAPONS WATCHDOGS GIVE PRES. OBAMA MIXED GRADES
ON NEW WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT, WASTE CLEANUP, & REACTOR FUNDING

President Barack Obama today received a mixed report card for his Administration’s first-year policies relating to nuclear weapons production, waste cleanup and reactor funding. Grades presented by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) at a Capitol Hill news conference ranged from an “A” for keeping his campaign promise to terminate the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dump to an “F” for proposing to increase taxpayer subsidies for construction of new nuclear reactors. ANA is a national network of nearly three dozen groups representing the concerns of communities downwind and downstream from U.S. nuclear weapons sites.

for further information:
Bob Schaeffer (239) 395-6773 cell (239) 699-0468
March 15 – 19, 2010 (202) 544-0217 x2502

A national network of organizations working to address issues of
nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup

WHAT: News briefing to release 1st Year Radioactive Report Card on President Obama and his Administration to grade their performance on policies on nuclear weapons production, waste cleanup and reactor funding.

WHEN: Monday, March 15, 2010 - - 10:00am

WHERE: Room 2322 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC

WHO: Leaders of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) a national network of organizations representing the concerns of people living downwind and downstream from U.S. nuclear research, testing, production and waste disposal facilities

- Michele Boyd, Director, Safe Energy Program, Physicians for Social Responsibility -- taxpayer subsidies for new reactors, radioactive waste disposal, and nuclear contamination cleanup

- Ralph Hutchison, Coordinator, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance -- new Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear production plants, the next generation of weapons they may help support, and the implications for U.S. treaty obligations

- Nick Roth, Program Director, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability -- performance of President Obama and his Administration during its first year in office and changes that must be made to improve its grades.

March 3
This piece is available at the Democratic Policy Committee website, here.

There is broad, bipartisan support among political leaders and national security experts for negotiating a follow-on START treaty with Russia. Further mutual reductions in U.S. and Russian Cold War-era nuclear arsenals are considered critical for maintaining strategic stability in our relations, enhancing the global nonproliferation regime, and, in effect, advancing U.S. security. Despite this widespread consensus in favor of a new START, some analysts have advanced unsubstantiated myths, unfounded concerns, and political slogans as negotiators have worked toward a treaty. With the Senate poised to consider the new treaty once finalized in the coming months, it is vital that these misleading and irresponsible claims be debunked, ensuring that the debate is grounded in the facts.