[CPEO-MEF] CUT NIF - URGENT ACTION ALERT

[marylia@earthlink.net]

So, here's the story in a nutshell, read below to find out more . . 

DEBATE ON SENATE ENERGY AND WATER APPROPRIATION BEGINS NOW SENATOR HARKIN
TO OFFER AMENDMENT TO CUT NIF CONSTRUCTION $ VOTE TO OCCUR WED/ THURS of
THIS WEEK YOUR URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED - CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW URGE THEM
TO SUPPORT SENATOR HARKIN'S  EFFORT TO CUT NIF CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD IS (202)
224-3121 THE BASIC TALKING POINTS ON NIF (THIS SHOULD BE A FAMILIAR TUNE BY
NOW) PLUS NEW DEVELOPMENTS MAKE THE CASE EVEN STRONGER-GAO REPORT/ LABS
CALL FOR RETHINKING NIF -CLEANUP $$ MAY BE AT GREATER RISK
THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP --Well, it is once again very exciting here in
Washington DC, Congress is back and as you've probably been hearing on the
news, they are very anxious to get through their spending bills. Debate has
begun on the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Bill (you'll recall the
House passed their version in the end of June.)

SENATOR HARKIN TO OFFER AMENDMENT TO CUT NIF CONSTRUCTION $ Senator Harkin
plans to bring up an amendment to cut this year's NIF construction funds of
$74.1 million. Currently the effort is simply to cut the money.  (In other
words the proposed amendment will not also shift the funds to anything else.)

VOTE TO OCCUR WED/ THURS of THIS WEEK
The Senate schedule is always difficult to predict. Harkin's Office is
guessing that the amendment will be voted on this Thursday. It is possible,
however, that the vote could occur tomorrow (Wednesday).

YOUR URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED -CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW URGE THEM TO SUPPORT
SENATOR HARKIN'S  EFFORT TO CUT NIF CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD IS (202) 224-3121
Yes, I am once again put in the position of asking for your urgent response
on this. Senator Harkin has been weighing options, and has just decided
which kind of amendment he would offer.

THE BASIC TALKING POINTS ON NIF (THIS SHOULD BE A FAMILIAR TUNE BY NOW)

(In general, it would be good to emphasize the cost overruns and technical
problems with all Senators, and to highlight the non-proliferation
problems, NIF's weapons design mission and the related CTBT concerns with
Democratic, and pro-arms control Senators. Also make sure your Senators
know that the rising money needed for this boondoggle over the years to
come is likely to threaten cleanup funds at Livermore Lab and DOE sites
across the country.)

What is NIF? - A large 192 laser beam facility being built in Livermore,
CA. Its stated purpose is to simulate conditions in the later stages of a
nuclear weapons explosion by fusing atoms to get thermonuclear ignition.

NIF is the most expensive project in DOE's Stockpile Stewardship nuclear
weapons program, and its revealed massive cost overruns are siphoning
enormous amounts of money from other DOE programs. (When NIF was originally
envisioned in 1990 its estimated cost was $400 million.  In 1997 it was
proposed to Congress at $1.2 Billion. Now GAO estimates are $4 billion, and
independent analysts find life-cycle costs likely to be approximately $10
billion.)

NIF is experiencing ongoing technical problems that have not been resolved,
including:  problems with optics, target material, diagnostics etc. It is
not even clear whether "ignition" can be achieved at the National IGNITION
Facility.

Other Laboratories and lab scientists have questioned the value of
proceeding with the current NIF. Most significantly, Sandia Laboratory
released an official position paper calling for NIF to be scaled back in
both size and budget.

Despite NIF proponents claims that NIF is essential to maintain the safety
and reliability of the current U.S. arsenal in the absence of nuclear test
explosions, many nuclear weapons experts (including Edward Teller, fatherof
the Hydrogen Bomb and founder of Livermore labs) have concurred that NIF
has almost no relevance to this task.

Instead, the NIF undermines arms control and nonproliferation goals, by
enhancing the capability for design of new nuclear weapons and modification
of existing nuclear weapons.

In stark contrast to NIF advocates who state that NIF is a necessary
trade-off that supports the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, NIF's capability
to alter current codes and support new nuclear weapons design is likely to
erode confidence that the nuclear arsenal can be certified safe and
reliable without full-scale nuclear weapons test explosions.

After major management and technical problems and cost over-runs were
revealed last year, Congress (Energy and Water Appropriations  Report FY
2000)  requested that DOE provide a re-baselining for the NIF. This report
was requested by June 1, 2000. DOE was unable to comply with that deadline.
Instead they have asked for an extension to Mid-September -AFTER the money
will already be appropriated for FY2001.

NOW is the time to hit the pause button and cut construction funds for NIF
this year. Congress should demand that DOE carefully answer basic questions
about NIFs purpose, its chances of fulfilling its described mission, and
the unresolved technical problems that continue to plague NIF. An honest
debate about the NIF is long overdue.

PLUS NEW DEVELOPMENTS MAKE THE CASE EVEN STRONGER
There has been a great deal of news to undermine NIF in the last couple of
months. The problems is that Congress has been out on vacation, and so most
Senators won't know this stuff . . .You need to tell them...

-GAO REPORT/ LABS CALL FOR RETHINKING NIF

The long-awaited GAO Report was released in August -and I know you've seen
many of the press reports. The GAO is quite scathing in its critique of NIF
and has also surfaced opposition from scientists at the other labs, who are
calling for a scaled-back NIF.

One quote from GAO Report that makes it clear:
"DOE and Lawrence Livermore now estimate that NIF will eventually cost
about $3.3 billion and will be completed by 2008 . . .  However, based on
our analysis of figures from DOE and Lawrence Livermore, we estimate that
NIF's cost is closer to $4 billion because DOE's estimate does not include
all research and development costs from other program areas that are needed
to support NIF. Furthermore,since significant research and development
activities to support NIF remain to be completed and technical
uncertainties persist the cost of NIF could grow even higher and the
completion could take even longer." (page 4)

-CLEANUP $$ MAY BE AT GREATER RISK

As the "costs grow even higher" where do we think the money will come
from?? Currently DOE has a late "reprogramming request" that would take $95
million from other Stockpile Stewardship Programs - but of course many in
Congress don't want money taken from other weapons programs. In fact
Senator Kyl (R-AZ) has offered another plan - in his amendment to the
Defense Authorization Bill contains a provision that would take $75 million
from the Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Budget -cleanup money.

 (This provision was adopted to the Senate version of the Defense
Authorization Bill - as a non-controversial amendment with no debate or
opposition. There is still a chance to have the provision taken out in the
Defense Authorization Conference happening right now - stay tuned for more
on this, but focus now on the Appropriations effort.)

You can bet that in years to come the ever expanding NIF bloat will
threaten cleanup funds more than weapons research or production funding.
Make sure that Senators from your states know that they need to act now to
protect money for their sites.

THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP --
Thanks to your help over the past years, along with NIF's failures, we now
have an opportunity to really make a difference on this. Please call me
with questions, for assistance, and ESPECIALLY to let me know what you're
hearing from your Senators.


for more information call:
Kathy Crandall
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
1801 18th Street NW , 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 833-4668
Fax:      (202) 234-9536
Web:    www.ananuclear.org

Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94550

<http://www.igc.org/tvc/> - is our web site, please visit us there!

(925) 443-7148 - is our phone
(925) 443-0177 - is our fax

Working for peace, justice and a healthy environment since 1983, Tri-Valley
CAREs has been a member of the nation-wide Alliance for Nuclear
Accountability in the U.S. since 1989, and is a co-founding member of the
Abolition 2000 global network for the elimination of nuclear weapons, the
U.S. Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and the Back From the Brink
campaign to get nuclear weapons taken off hair-trigger alert.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can find archived listserve messages on the CPEO website at 

http://www.cpeo.org/lists/index.html.

If this email has been forwarded to you and you'd like to subscribe, please send a message to: 

cpeo-military-subscribe@igc.topica.com
___________________________________________________________
T O P I C A  The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics