[CPEO-MEF] Groups Protest Plans for New Plutonium Pit Facility

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
Groups Protest Plans for New Plutonium Pit Facility
July 17, 2003

WASHINGTON, DC, July 17, 2003 (ENS) - Anti-nuclear forces today
protested Energy Department plans to build a new Modern Pit Facility,
which would produce cores for nuclear weapons. The groups weighed in
with criticism of the concept at an Energy Department public hearing
Wednesday on the potential impacts of its plan to replace the production
site at Rocky Flats, Colorado - that facility was closed in 1989 for
environmental and safety violations.

Plutonium pits form the explosive core of nearly all nuclear weapons and
critics of the Energy Department's plan say it is part of the Bush
administration's strategy to develop new nuclear weapons, including
"bunker busters" and low yield weapons.

According to the Energy Department, the need for the Modern Pit Facility
is based on classified analyses of long-term pit production
requirements. It calls for a new facility that could produce in excess
of 500 plutonium pits per year.

The Energy Department estimates that the new Modern Pit Facility will
cost $2 billion to $4 billion to construct, with annual operating costs
of some $300 million.

Critics say the costs will run much higher and worry that the plan sends
the wrong signal to the rest of the world as the United States is
engaged in efforts to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. They
add that the plan has not considered the environmental ramification of
such a facility.

This article can be viewed at:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2003/2003-07-17-09.asp#anchor1

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