2005 CPEO Military List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: 30 Jan 2005 21:06:14 -0000
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] Livermore Labs (CA) plutonium safety
 
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

_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@list.cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org/mailman/listinfo/military
  Prev by Date: [CPEO-MEF] Aerial UXO survey at Fort Ord (CA)
Next by Date: Re: [CPEO-MEF] RAB Rule proposed
  Prev by Thread: [CPEO-MEF] Aerial UXO survey at Fort Ord (CA)
Next by Thread: [CPEO-MEF] Draft Instruction on Operational Range Assessments

CPEO Home
CPEO Lists
Author Index
Date Index
Thread Index