[CPEO-MEF] Livermore Labs (CA) plutonium safety

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Submitted by Marylia Kelley <marylia@earthlink.net>
Subject: Safety Problems Shut Down Livermore Plutonium Facility

Dear colleagues:

The following article [excerpted and linked below] contains a lot of 
Livermore Lab spin. But, all the spin in the world won't erase the facts.

Livermore Lab's plutonium facility is shutting down for at least the 
third time in recent years due to on-going safety problems. Note that 
three separate federal agencies, including the Defense Nuclear 
Facilities Safety Board, have filed reports citing a variety of safety 
problems in the Lab's plutonium facility. It's not one thing, it's a bunch.

Note, too,  Livermore Lab's admission that nuclear weapons programs take 
priority over safety. In the late 1980s, the Dept. of Energy and 
Livermore Lab said that production used to take priority over safety, 
but that it wouldn't in the future. Well, it's the future now and here 
is evidence that bomb development still takes priority over safety.

This shut down comes at a time, too, when Livermore Lab is proposing to 
MORE THAN DOUBLE the plutonium storage limit in this very facility, 
increasing it from 1,540 pounds to 3,300 pounds.

I have typed in a link that will lead you to a simple letter you can 
send the Dept. of Energy and elected officials asking them to reduce -- 
not increase -- plutonium at Livermore Lab. Thanks for you attention -- 
and for your help!

TO SEND A LETTER TO THE DEPT. OF ENERGY AND ELECTED OFFICIALS ASKING 
THEM TO DECREASE -- NOT INCREASE -- PLUTONIUM ACTIVITIES AT LIVERMORE 
LAB, GO TO EITHER:

1. http://capwiz.com/wagingpeace/mail/oneclick/_compose/?alertid=6718276

2. www.californiapeaceaction.org/?a=37

Thanks.
Peace,
Marylia

Marylia Kelley
Executive Director
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94551

<http://www.trivalleycares.org> - is our web site address. Please visit 
us there!


***

Experts use time to solve problems, make sure lab remains safe

By Ian Hoffman
Inside Bay Area/Tri-Valley Herald (CA)
January 29, 2005

Executives at Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons laboratory have shut 
down work at the lab's plutonium facility so managers can attend to an 
accumulation of safety problems raised in three recent federal reports.

Sizing up those problems for the sprawling, fortress-like facility known 
as Superblock and devising millions of dollars in fixes are expected to 
halt day-to-day work with plutonium and uranium for several weeks.

But the chief of the lab's weapons program said there was little 
alternative. No accident or government order triggered the shutdown. 
Rather, the same experienced managers who ensure ordinary plutonium 
operations are safe are needed for a comprehensive safety review of 
Superblock, one of only two comprehensive plutonium-handling labs in the 
nation.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.insidebayarea.com/searchresults/ci_2543728


--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org

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