[CPEO-MEF] Participate - CUT NIF CALL-IN DAY THIS THURSDAY

[marylia@earthlink.net]

Dear peace and environmental coleagues:

Call your Senators and Representative June 21st and ask them to oppose
funding for the National Ignition Facility, the biggest boondoggle in the
nuclear weapons complex.

You can find the alert (and two PDF versions) on the ANA website at
www.ananuclear.org/NIFalert.html. IT IS ALSO ALSO PASTED IN BELOW...

CUT NIF CALL-IN DAY
Thursday, June 21st

Call your U.S. Senators and Representative to oppose funding for the
National Ignition Facility, the biggest boondoggle in the U.S. nuclear
weapons complex.

Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121


On June 21st, tell your legislators:

Ø       The NIF is plagued by technical problems and is wasting billions of
taxpayer dollars.

Ø       The NIF undermines U.S. obligations under the Non-Proliferation
Treaty and
may provoke nuclear proliferation around the globe.

Ø       The National Ignition Facility is not needed for the safety and
reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Want to do more?

Ø       Share this alert with other groups and local activists

Ø       Organize a call-in campaign for your local group

Ø       Send letters to the editor of your local paper pointing out the NIF’s
nuclear proliferation dangers and its massive waste of taxpayer dollars.

For more information, contact the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability in
Washington, DC at (202) 833-4668 www.ananuclear.org. This action alert is
cosponsored by a wide range of national and grassroots organizations.

Background:
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a massive experimental
laser fusion facility being built with billions of taxpayer dollars at the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California as the centerpiece of
the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Stockpile Stewardship Program, the endeavor
to continue nuclear weapons development even without full-scale nuclear
testing.  The NIF’s goal is to create very brief, contained thermonuclear
explosions.

The DOE claims the NIF is necessary to maintain the safety and reliability
of U.S. nuclear weapons, but the physics experiments planned for the NIF
have nothing to do with safety--preventing accidental explosions or leaks in
nuclear weapons--and very little to do with how reliably the weapons
perform. Safety and reliability are already ensured through ongoing, and
much less expensive, DOE operations.

In truth, the NIF is slated to be used for a wide range of applications from
training nuclear weapons designers to studying the effects of radiation,
heat and blast on weapons components, sensors, communication satellites, and
underground structures.  NIF weapons effect experiments, including
“laser/fireball” tests, may be used in connection with development of
low-yield nuclear weapons and missile defense concepts. The mini-fusion
explosions planned for NIF, and its capacity for new nuclear weapons design,
undermine U.S. obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and
the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and may provoke nuclear proliferation
around the globe.

The NIF has been plagued with technical problems and cost overruns. Over a
billion dollars has already been wasted on the NIF. Further, if completed,
it could cost over $32 billion, according to a new study commissioned by the
Livermore-based group Tri-Valley CAREs (www.igc.org/tvc/). The DOE has
requested $245 million for NIF construction in 2002 and the Congress will
likely be voting on this funding in late June as part of the Energy & Water
Appropriations bills in both the House and the Senate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Bridgman
Program Director
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
1801 18th Street, Suite 9-2
Washington, DC 20009
202-833-4668
202-234-9536 (fax)
jcbridgman@earthlink.net
www.ananuclear.org

Marylia Kelley
Executive Director,
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA 94550
Phone: 1-925-443-7148
Fax: 1-925-443-0177
Web site: http://www.igc.org/tvc


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