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From: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com (abolition-usa-digest) To: abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: abolition-usa-digest V1 #310 Reply-To: abolition-usa-digest Sender: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk abolition-usa-digest Sunday, May 28 2000 Volume 01 : Number 310 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 17:33:23 -0700 From: erippy@jps.net Subject: (abolition-usa) Need help on radiation health science I'm in a (principled) argument (on another list) over the science & politix of health-effects modeling for low-level radiation. I've read (basically) John Gofman's critiques of the A- bomb studies & Benjamin Gould's analysis of Three Mile Island data. But I'll need a lot more, preferably good lit reviews & critiques of 'establishment' science -- also well-documented instances of suppression & denial. Thanks, Ed Rippy - ------------------------------------------------------- Any time religion renders people passive and powerless, it deserves the dishonorable title of 'opiate.' - -- Daisaku Ikeda, 'Peace Through Dialogue: A Time to Talk' - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 09:42:36 -0400 From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews 00/05/28 - Announcements - --=====================_40751320==_.ALT Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sunday, May 28 at 10:30 a.m. - Airs in Washington, DC on Channel 32. "Dark Cloud: Our Strange Love Affair with the Bomb" Airs in NYC on Friday, June 2 on Channel 25 at 7:30 p.m., and on Saturday, June 3 at 7:00 a.m. on Channel 13. This week on America's Defense Monitor: WEBSITE: http://www.cdi.org/adm/1338 Nukes as portable infantry weapons. Nukes for digging tunnels. Nuclear decontamination with a whisk broom. Secret government films of the 1940's, '50s and '60s form the backdrop for this darkly entertaining exploration of America's fascination with the Bomb. At times humorous, strange and disturbing, these films reveal how the culture of nuclear weapons shaped American society during the Cold War, and how the advocates of nuclear culture sought to make atomic weapons a part of everyday life. Show Transcript http://www.cdi.org/adm/1338/transcript.html Related ADM Videos: Can We Learn to Live Without Nuclear Weapons? http://www.cdi.org/adm/1206 Military Leaders for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons http://www.cdi.org/adm/1049 Test Anxiety: Should America Ratify the Test Ban Treaty? http://www.cdi.org/adm/1235 - --- Live Chat Can anyone go on this chat show scheduled for May 31 from 10:30-11:30 a.m., and tell them that nuclear energy isn't the answer to global warming? Alice Slater For more information: http://chat.enn.com/ Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 15:47:45 -0400 From: ASlater <aslater@gracelinks.org> Join a live chat on the environmental benefits of nuclear energy with Maureen Koetz, director of environmental policy for the Nuclear Energy Institute. This chat is scheduled for May 31 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. ET. Join a live chat on June 2 at 8 p.m. ET with Mike Pelly, a proponent of green fuel oils and energy independence. Currently he is promoting a biodiesel that people can refine on their own. Join a live chat with Dr. Luis Baptista, chairman and curator at the Department of Ornithology and Mammalogy, California Academy of Sciences. The chat is June 15 from 9-10 p.m. ET. Baptista is an authority on birds, particularly about how their singing traditions are learned and what the songs mean. For more information about these chats, please contact David Skillman at mailto:dskillman@enn.com. - ---- A crucial Senate vote on reducing the threat of accidental nuclear war is coming up the week of June 5th and we need your help! From: IRARR84@aol.com Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 14:55:46 EDT Senator Robert Kerrey (D-NE)is offering an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that would allow the President to take nuclear weapons off alert status and to significantly reduce U.S. nuclear forces -- so long as Russia also takes these steps. Passage of this amendment would allow the US to get rid of Cold War weapons we no longer need or want and save taxpayers billions of dollars currently wasted on unnecessary weapons. Please call your Senators at 202-224-3121 and ask them to support the Kerrey amendment to allow the President to reduce U.S. strategic nuclear forces below START I levels, and to take nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert. Please forward this message on to friends and family and help spread the word! With your help we can reduce the threat of accidental nuclear war and reduce nuclear weapons world-wide. THANK YOU! - --- Priority One Alert - Call until end of Memorial Day Recess (June 5). Senate vote on Kerrey (Neb.) amendment expected week of June 5th!! From: "Jim Bridgman" <jbridgman@peace-action.org> Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 11:53:14 -0400 The following message is baesd on discussion from yesterday's Nuclear Weapons Working Group meeting here in Washington, DC and a previous email from Daryl Kimball, Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers[mailto:dkimball@clw.org] As soon as June 6th , the Senate may debate Sen. Bob Kerrey's (NE) amendment offered to the fiscal 2001 Defense Authorization bill that would allow the President to reduce U.S. strategic nuclear force levels below START I levels (approx. 6000) and take weapons off combat status (i.e. de-alert). Under current law <http://www.clw.org/coalition/xcutfy99.htm>, such actions are prohibited until and unless START II is implemented -- an unlikely near-term prospect. This restriction exists despite the Russian Duma's ratification of START II because of several related protocols that need to be approved (see CRND's Stuck at First START factsheet at bottom for more info). TARGET LIST: Bayh, Byrd, Graham (FL), Lincoln, Chafee, Jeffords, Snowe, Collins, Hagel, Domenici, Warner, Fitzgerald, McCain, Specter, Santorum, Gordon Smith, Thomas, Lugar (call Lugar at district office only please). If your Senator is not on this list, please feel free to call anyway!!! RAP for Republicans: With G.W. Bush's speech this week supporting reductions and de-alerting, you should tell GOP Senators, "A vote against Kerrey's amendment is a vote against George Bush!" The House rules committee ruled the counterpart amendment sponsored by Allen (D-ME), McGovern (D-MA) and Gendjenson (D-CT), out of order, making the vote on the Senate amendment even more crucial (so it can go on to conference committee). This year's Allen-McGovern-Gendjenson & Kerrey amendments are somewhat different than the approach that Senator Kerrey pursued last year on the floor and by Allen and Spratt in HASC this year, which was simply striking the restriction on cuts below START I before START II implementation. Kerrey's 1999 floor amendment was defeated 56-44. This vote is on the Peace Action Education Fund 1999 Voting Record at http://www.peace-action.org/99votingrecord.pdf. You can also see <http://www.clw.org/coalition/kerreydebate052699.htm> for the floor debate and roll call vote. For further information see the following items, below: * PSR Action Legislative Alert w/capacity for e-mail letters to Congress <http://www.psr.org/> * "Stuck at First START: U.S. Forced to Maintain its Nuclear Arsenal While Russia's Declines," Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers ISSUE BRIEF, May 15, 2000 <http://www.clw.org/coalition/briefv4n6.htm> - ---- NEW DATES FOR LOS ALAMOS RETREAT The Los Alamos retreat will now be be held from September 5-8, 2000. The Ponderosa Campground will still be available on Sept. 9 for those who are staying over until that morning. Please let me know if you plan to attend. Best regards, Vilma Ruiz <vruiz@lasg.org> - ---- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 04:35:21 -0400 (EDT) I'd suggest that anyone that's been exposed/poisoned by DU or for that matter ANY human being that wants to be healthy, either by preventing disease & enhancing immunity or mitigating or reversing any disease or injury they have, educate themselves as to the validity of alternative natural therapies most of which are backed up by hard science. This includes DU exposure. Please see the web site of Gary Null at: http://www.garynull.com Null has worked with Gulf War vets who've been poisoned by DU & other agents and has produced a documentry on it, contact info for interested parties is listed at the web site. He's also worked with many GW Vets & had much success in restoration of health IF the person chooses to remain on the protocol. Mainstream pharmeceutical, allopathic "health" practice is NO WHERE near as successsful in treating any disease there is- immune suppression which is strongly related to cancer, arthritis, lupus, AIDS, heart disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, DU exposure- as are many alternative, natural homeopathic approaches. The heart of the problem and the reason for the existence, much less massive institionalized practice of allopathic[drug based] approaches is two fold. One obviously is huge $, the other closed minds and a medical school education which is funded by over 60% by the pharmeceutical industry. Please read & study this web site, get the video & educate yourself via other sources- DO NOT trust maninstream MDs or other "health" practitioners who are illiterate when it comes to what constitutes health & how one goes about restoring it or preventing disease. Once learned, the fundamentals are amazingly simple. People just have to know & do them. Another good site is either of the following 2: http://www.preventcancer.org or http://www.preventcancer.com The book "The Politics of Cancer" by Dr Samuel Epstein, is avalable in bookstores & via http://www.amazon.com is a great place to start educating oneself as to the nature, economically & ideologically of the medical-industrial complex. Again, the site is: http://www.garynull.com - -Bill Smirnow - ---- Two Puerto Rico websites: http://www.micronetix.net/virus/facts.htm -- Vieques Libre http://www.viequesvive.com/ -- Vieques Vive - ---- Price-Anderson Act ruling 1978 DUKE POWER CO. v. CAROLINA ENV. STUDY GROUP, 438 U.S. 59 (1978) APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA No. 77-262. Argued March 20, 1978 Decided June 26, 1978 * http://caselaw.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&linkurl=<%LINKUR L%>&graphurl=<%GRAPHURL%>&court=US&case=/us/438/59.html ___________________________________________________ Today's Newspapers: http://prop1.org/nucnews/links.htm NucNews Archives: http://prop1.org/nucnews/briefslv.htm Subscribe to NucNews: prop1@prop1.org (NucNews-Subscribe) Submit URL/Article: prop1@prop1.org (NucNews-Editor) About NucNews: http://prop1.org/nucnews/nucnews.htm NucNews - E-Mailed: http://www.onelist.com/archive/NucNews Excellent e-mail news resources: DOE Watch - doewatch@onelist.com - http://members.aol.com/doewatch Downwinders - downwinders@onelist.com - http://downwinders@onelist.com EnviroNews - environews@envirolink.org - http://www.envirolink.org/environews Planet Ark/Reuters - anna@planetark.org - http://www.planetark.org/news/ Radbull (Radiation Bulletin) radbull@dax.energy-net.org Distributed without payment for research and educational purposes only, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107. - --=====================_40751320==_.ALT Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" <html> Sunday, May 28 at 10:30 a.m. - Airs in Washington, DC on Channel 32. "Dark Cloud: Our Strange Love Affair with the Bomb" Airs in NYC on Friday, June 2 on Channel 25 at 7:30 p.m., and on Saturday, June 3 at 7:00 a.m. on Channel 13. This week on America's Defense Monitor: WEBSITE: <a href="http://www.cdi.org/adm/1338" eudora="autourl">http://www.cdi.org/adm/1338</a> Nukes as portable infantry weapons. Nukes for digging tunnels. Nuclear decontamination with a whisk broom. Secret government films of the 1940's, '50s and '60s form the backdrop for this darkly entertaining exploration of America's fascination with the Bomb. At times humorous, strange and disturbing, these films reveal how the culture of nuclear weapons shaped American society during the Cold War, and how the advocates of nuclear culture sought to make atomic weapons a part of everyday life. Show Transcript <a href="http://www.cdi.org/adm/1338/transcript.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.cdi.org/adm/1338/transcript.html</a> Related ADM Videos: Can We Learn to Live Without Nuclear Weapons? <a href="http://www.cdi.org/adm/1206" eudora="autourl">http://www.cdi.org/adm/1206</a> Military Leaders for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons <a href="http://www.cdi.org/adm/1049" eudora="autourl">http://www.cdi.org/adm/1049</a> Test Anxiety: Should America Ratify the Test Ban Treaty? <a href="http://www.cdi.org/adm/1235" eudora="autourl">http://www.cdi.org/adm/1235</a> - --- Live Chat Can anyone go on this chat show scheduled for May 31 from 10:30-11:30 a.m., and tell them that nuclear energy isn't the answer to global warming? Alice Slater For more information: <a href="http://chat.enn.com/" eudora="autourl">http://chat.enn.com/</a> Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 15:47:45 -0400 From: ASlater <aslater@gracelinks.org> Join a live chat on the environmental benefits of nuclear energy with Maureen Koetz, director of environmental policy for the Nuclear Energy Institute. This chat is scheduled for May 31 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. ET. Join a live chat on June 2 at 8 p.m. ET with Mike Pelly, a proponent of green fuel oils and energy independence. Currently he is promoting a biodiesel that people can refine on their own. Join a live chat with Dr. Luis Baptista, chairman and curator at the Department of Ornithology and Mammalogy, California Academy of Sciences. The chat is June 15 from 9-10 p.m. ET. Baptista is an authority on birds, particularly about how their singing traditions are learned and what the songs mean. For more information about these chats, please contact David Skillman at <a href="mailto:dskillman@enn.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:dskillman@enn.com</a>. - ---- A crucial Senate vote on reducing the threat of accidental nuclear war is coming up the week of June 5th and we need your help! From: IRARR84@aol.com Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 14:55:46 EDT Senator Robert Kerrey (D-NE)is offering an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that would allow the President to take nuclear weapons off alert status and to significantly reduce U.S. nuclear forces -- so long as Russia also takes these steps. Passage of this amendment would allow the US to get rid of Cold War weapons we no longer need or want and save taxpayers billions of dollars currently wasted on unnecessary weapons. Please call your Senators at 202-224-3121 and ask them to support the Kerrey amendment to allow the President to reduce U.S. strategic nuclear forces below START I levels, and to take nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert. Please forward this message on to friends and family and help spread the word! With your help we can reduce the threat of accidental nuclear war and reduce nuclear weapons world-wide. THANK YOU! --- Priority One Alert - Call until end of Memorial Day Recess (June 5). Senate vote on Kerrey (Neb.) amendment expected week of June 5th!! From: "Jim Bridgman" <jbridgman@peace-action.org> Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 11:53:14 -0400 The following message is baesd on discussion from yesterday's Nuclear Weapons Working Group meeting here in Washington, DC and a previous email from Daryl Kimball, Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers[mailto:dkimball@clw.org] As soon as June 6th , the Senate may debate Sen. Bob Kerrey's (NE) amendment offered to the fiscal 2001 Defense Authorization bill that would allow the President to reduce U.S. strategic nuclear force levels below START I levels (approx. 6000) and take weapons off combat status (i.e. de-alert). Under current law <<a href="http://www.clw.org/coalition/xcutfy99.htm" eudora="autourl">http://www.clw.org/coalition/xcutfy99.htm</a>>, such actions are prohibited until and unless START II is implemented -- an unlikely near-term prospect. This restriction exists despite the Russian Duma's ratification of START II because of several related protocols that need to be approved (see CRND's Stuck at First START factsheet at bottom for more info). TARGET LIST: Bayh, Byrd, Graham (FL), Lincoln, Chafee, Jeffords, Snowe, Collins, Hagel, Domenici, Warner, Fitzgerald, McCain, Specter, Santorum, Gordon Smith, Thomas, Lugar (call Lugar at district office only please). If your Senator is not on this list, please feel free to call anyway!!! RAP for Republicans: With G.W. Bush's speech this week supporting reductions and de-alerting, you should tell GOP Senators, "A vote against Kerrey's amendment is a vote against George Bush!" The House rules committee ruled the counterpart amendment sponsored by Allen (D-ME), McGovern (D-MA) and Gendjenson (D-CT), out of order, making the vote on the Senate amendment even more crucial (so it can go on to conference committee). This year's Allen-McGovern-Gendjenson & Kerrey amendments are somewhat different than the approach that Senator Kerrey pursued last year on the floor and by Allen and Spratt in HASC this year, which was simply striking the restriction on cuts below START I before START II implementation. Kerrey's 1999 floor amendment was defeated 56-44. This vote is on the Peace Action Education Fund 1999 Voting Record at <a href="http://www.peace-action.org/99votingrecord.pdf" eudora="autourl">http://www.peace-action.org/99votingrecord.pdf</a>. You can also see <<a href="http://www.clw.org/coalition/kerreydebate052699.htm" eudora="autourl">http://www.clw.org/coalition/kerreydebate052699.htm</a>> for the floor debate and roll call vote. For further information see the following items, below: * PSR Action Legislative Alert w/capacity for e-mail letters to Congress <<a href="http://www.psr.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.psr.org/</a>> * "Stuck at First START: U.S. Forced to Maintain its Nuclear Arsenal While Russia's Declines," Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers ISSUE BRIEF, May 15, 2000 <<a href="http://www.clw.org/coalition/briefv4n6.htm" eudora="autourl">http://www.clw.org/coalition/briefv4n6.htm</a>> - ---- NEW DATES FOR LOS ALAMOS RETREAT The Los Alamos retreat will now be be held from September 5-8, 2000. The Ponderosa Campground will still be available on Sept. 9 for those who are staying over until that morning. Please let me know if you plan to attend. Best regards, Vilma Ruiz <vruiz@lasg.org> - ---- From: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 04:35:21 -0400 (EDT) I'd suggest that anyone that's been exposed/poisoned by DU or for that matter ANY human being that wants to be healthy, either by preventing disease & enhancing immunity or mitigating or reversing any disease or injury they have, educate themselves as to the validity of alternative natural therapies most of which are backed up by hard science. This includes DU exposure. Please see the web site of Gary Null at: <a href="http://www.garynull.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.garynull.com</a> Null has worked with Gulf War vets who've been poisoned by DU & other agents and has produced a documentry on it, contact info for interested parties is listed at the web site. He's also worked with many GW Vets & had much success in restoration of health IF the person chooses to remain on the protocol. Mainstream pharmeceutical, allopathic "health" practice is NO WHERE near as successsful in treating any disease there is- immune suppression which is strongly related to cancer, arthritis, lupus, AIDS, heart disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, DU exposure- as are many alternative, natural homeopathic approaches. The heart of the problem and the reason for the existence, much less massive institionalized practice of allopathic[drug based] approaches is two fold. One obviously is huge $, the other closed minds and a medical school education which is funded by over 60% by the pharmeceutical industry. Please read & study this web site, get the video & educate yourself via other sources- DO NOT trust maninstream MDs or other "health" practitioners who are illiterate when it comes to what constitutes health & how one goes about restoring it or preventing disease. Once learned, the fundamentals are amazingly simple. People just have to know & do them. Another good site is either of the following 2: <a href="http://www.preventcancer.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.preventcancer.org</a> or <a href="http://www.preventcancer.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.preventcancer.com</a> The book "The Politics of Cancer" by Dr Samuel Epstein, is avalable in bookstores & via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.amazon.com</a> is a great place to start educating oneself as to the nature, economically & ideologically of the medical-industrial complex. Again, the site is: <a href="http://www.garynull.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.garynull.com </a>-Bill Smirnow - ---- Two Puerto Rico websites: <a href="http://www.micronetix.net/virus/facts.htm" eudora="autourl">http://www.micronetix.net/virus/facts.htm</a> -- Vieques Libre <a href="http://www.viequesvive.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.viequesvive.com/</a> -- Vieques Vive - ---- Price-Anderson Act ruling 1978 DUKE POWER CO. v. CAROLINA ENV. STUDY GROUP, 438 U.S. 59 (1978) APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA No. 77-262. Argued March 20, 1978 Decided June 26, 1978 * <a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&linkurl" eudora="autourl">http://caselaw.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&linkurl</a>=<%LINKURL%>&graphurl=<%GRAPHURL%>&court=US&case=/us/438/59.html ___________________________________________________ Today's Newspapers: <a href="http://prop1.org/nucnews/links.htm" eudora="autourl">http://prop1.org/nucnews/links.htm</a> NucNews Archives: <a href="http://prop1.org/nucnews/briefslv.htm" eudora="autourl">http://prop1.org/nucnews/briefslv.htm</a> Subscribe to NucNews: prop1@prop1.org (NucNews-Subscribe) Submit URL/Article: prop1@prop1.org (NucNews-Editor) About NucNews: <a href="http://prop1.org/nucnews/nucnews.htm" eudora="autourl">http://prop1.org/nucnews/nucnews.htm</a> NucNews - E-Mailed: <a href="http://www.onelist.com/archive/NucNews" eudora="autourl">http://www.onelist.com/archive/NucNews</a> Excellent e-mail news resources: DOE Watch - doewatch@onelist.com - <a href="http://members.aol.com/doewatch" eudora="autourl">http://members.aol.com/doewatch</a> Downwinders - downwinders@onelist.com - <a href="http://downwinders@onelist.com/" eudora="autourl">http://downwinders@onelist.com</a> EnviroNews - environews@envirolink.org - <a href="http://www.envirolink.org/environews" eudora="autourl">http://www.envirolink.org/environews</a> Planet Ark/Reuters - anna@planetark.org - <a href="http://www.planetark.org/news/" eudora="autourl">http://www.planetark.org/news/</a> Radbull (Radiation Bulletin) radbull@dax.energy-net.org Distributed without payment for research and educational purposes only, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107. </html> - --=====================_40751320==_.ALT-- - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 10:12:56 -0700 (PDT) From: marylia@earthlink.net (marylia) Subject: (abolition-usa) 2 NIF articles Greetings NIF foes: The other day I posted Tri-Valley CAREs' media advisory regarding the Sandia Lab position paper stating that the National Ignition Facility mega-laser at Livermore Lab should be cut in size and budget. Since then, there has been a flurry of activity, including a sharp rebuke from Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and a next day "mea culpa" statement from Sandia about making its position public -- but, very importantly, not in any way backing off from the substance of the position. There have been a number of good stories in the press, including in the New York Times, the "trade" papers, the New Mexico papers and the Livermore, California area papers. For some articles, I don't have electronic files, and for others the e-files are a formatting disaster zone with as many weird symbols as there are words. Also, I don't want to burden the list serve with too many articles. So I have chosen two -- one from Energy Daily and one from the Alburquerque Tribune to post to you all. I think that you will enjoy reading them, and together, they will give you a pretty good idea of what's going on. Peace, Marylia Read on... NIF story #1, this one from Washington, DC... Sandia Crosses Richardson, Urges NIF Cut BY GEORGE LOBSENZ Energy Daily In a stunning statement of dissent, a top official at Sandia National Laboratories called for scaling down the National Ignition Facility, saying its massive cost overruns threaten to take funding away from other key Energy Department nuclear weapons programs. The statement by Tom Hunter, Sandia's senior vice president for defense programs, directly challenged Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's decision to proceed with the so-called NIF facility as currently planned-despite a near doubling of the project's official cost estimate, from $1.2 billion to $2.1 billion. Hunter's remarks also represented an unprecedented public break with a sister weapons laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which is building NIF. But while DOE's three nuclear weapons laboratories traditionally have avoided criticizing each other, the Sandia statement shows the depth of concern at Sandia, Los Alamos National Laboratory and even at Lawrence Livermore that the department will be forced to cannibalize other weapons and science research programs in order to fund NIF. In particular, Hunter said NIF threatened to bleed other lab programs needed for DOE's stockpile stewardship program, under which the department is developing computer-based programs to verify the reliability and safety of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal now that the nation has stopped underground bomb testing. "We emphasize that science-based stockpile stewardship was based on a number of important investments at the laboratories," Hunter said. "These investments include a balanced approach to major facilities that allows for the work of each of the laboratories to be performed. "The apparent delay and significant increase in cost for the NIF is sufficient that it will disrupt the investment needed to be made at other laboratories, and perhaps at the production plants, by several years. This causes us to question what is a reasonable additional investment in the NIF." Hunter said a smaller NIF would provide more certainty about cost, schedule and performance of the huge laser facility, which is aimed at helping researchers learn more about the physics of nuclear bomb explosions. "[W]e believe that a facility less than full-scale, i.e., less than the 192 laser beams, should be established at a new baseline," he said. "This facility of new scope should be assessed and a reasonable cost should be established. The project should then be managed toward that new cost baseline. "After the facility has operated for a number of years, we should then consider the expansion of the facility to full-scale, in light of other important investments that need to be made around the [nuclear weapons] complex...." Among other needed projects, he said, were advanced radiography and hydro-dynamic facilities-which also are used to assess warhead performance-as well as Sandia's new MESA microelectronics facility, aimed at improving warhead circuitry. In sum, Hunter said: "We need an approach that addresses bringing the entire capability and infrastructure of the complex to the desired level of readiness." The exact circumstances of Hunter's statement remained unclear, with some sources saying Sandia released it after being queried about the lab's statements to the General Accounting Office, which is conducting a review of the NIF project for Congress. Sandia officials Thursday issued a statement apologizing for the "inadvertent" release of Hunter's statement-but not disavowing it. Not surprisingly, Hunter's remarks brought a blistering response from Richardson. "This statement is totally out of line and inconsistent with the nation's stockpile stewardship policies and the critical role that NIF will play, which was recently reaffirmed by the three lab directors in a white paper," Richardson said in a statement. "Needless to say, Mr. Hunter's view will be totally disregarded and it is the type of lab divisiveness that is extremely unhelpful." Richardson last year was outraged when he learned of NIF's cost overruns and technical problems, saying Livermore officials had essentially lied to him about the project's status. But after internal DOE reviewers declared the project's scientific underpinnings sound, he announced he would allocate an additional $95 million in fiscal year 2001 to get NIF back on track. He also recommitted DOE to building all 192 lasers-despite ongoing technical problems with high-tech optical devices needed to make the facility work correctly. The facility-which had been scheduled for startup in 2002 and full operation by 2004-is now slated to begin operations in 2004, with full operation by 2008. But NIF critics outside DOE maintain the problems have only begin for NIF, and that current cost estimates and schedules are almost certainly way too optimistic. Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs, a Livermore watchdog group, said the project already cost much more than the advertised $2.1 billion. She said the ongoing GAO review already had identified another $1.5 billion that would be needed for research and development work needed to assure NIF could be operated effectively. Kelley also questioned why Richardson did not considering scaling down NIF, saying DOE scientists at Sandia and other DOE labs have suggested that a facility with only 48 lasers could still meet DOE's weapons program needs. And the concerns about other weapons programs being bled to support NIF also have been voiced on Capitol Hill. In a report accompanying its defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2001, the House Armed Services Committee provided Richardson's request for an extra $95 million for NIF, but expressed concern about DOE's proposals for offsetting other programs to pay for NIF. "[T]he committee believes that the sources for the additional NIF funds identified in the secretary's recommendation will detract from activities that are key to sustaining the safety, reliability and effectiveness of the nuclear stockpile and that lower priority funding should be identified for realignment," said the panel, which added that it would work with DOE to find other programs to cut. Kelley maintained science research programs would be targeted for NIF funds, and said some DOE scientists believe an astrophysics program at Livermore was canceled so its funding could be transferred to NIF. NIF story #2, this one from New Mexico... Sandia labs 'regrets' its NIF project assessment By Lawrence Spohn Albuquerque Tribune reporter Sandia National Laboratories went from superhero to wimp in 24 hours in the eyes of critics of a multibillion-dollar laser project. After being verbally hammered by Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, the Albuquerque labs issued a statement "of regret" Thursday for revealing its assessment of the over-budget and delayed national fusion laser at a sibling lab in California. Sandia believes the multibillion-dollar National Ignition Facility at Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., should be reduced in size, scope and budget because of its impact on other vital nuclear-weapons missions. But Sandia President Paul Robison on Thursday called the public release of Sandia's "internal" position paper "inadvertent." He said Sandia regrets it got out. However, nothing in his one-page statement countered Sandia's analysis of NIF. Tom Hunter, Sandia's senior vice president for defense programs, said: "It is not our role to take a formal public position on this issue, nor to second guess the Department of Energy." DOE operates the nation's three nuclear-weapons labs, Sandia and Los Alamos in New Mexico, and Livermore in California. "Public divisiveness between the laboratories is not helpful in finding good solutions," Hunter said, "and is counter to the approach we try to take in dealing with these important national issues." While NIF critics had praised Sandia's independence Wednesday, the lab was called on the carpet by Richardson, who called its assessment of NIF "totally out of line and inconsistent with the nation's (nuclear-weapons) stockpile stewardship policies." Richardson's own NIF plan, announced earlier this month, is to complete the troubled laser that has been under construction since 1997 at Livermore, where lab officials acknowledged last fall that the project was hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and some 18 months behind schedule. Livermore public affairs official Susan Houghton said Thursday that NIF's original $1.2 billion budget will need an additional $1 billion to complete, and it will be delayed until about 2008. But critics contend that NIF has ballooned into a $10 billion boondoggle -- the ultimate cost to taxpayers for completing it. That amount, critics contend, will be needed to pay for conducting research to fix NIF's extensive and unique technical deficiencies, and for operating it for experiments designed to simulate nuclear-weapons explosions. Even then, they claim, it will fail. In a terse statement issued after Sandia's analysis was reported in The Tribune on Wednesday, Richardson, a former New Mexico congressman, blasted Sandia and especially Hunter, who had prepared the assessment. Richardson said Sandia's "view will be totally disregarded" in the process of salvaging NIF. But longtime NIF critic, Marylia Kelly said she hopes that it's Richardson who Congress disregards in dealing with NIF and Livermore lab, a facility she sees as a spoiled child. "They're like children in a candy store who want it all, and I mean everything, no matter what it costs," said Kelly, who is director of the Livermore citizens watchdog group Tri-Valley Cares. She said if Richardson can't be the responsible parent acting in the interests of taxpayers footing the bill, Congress needs to step in and reign the project in. Kelly's organization favors canceling NIF, saying it's too costly and serves "no national-security role." The Energy Department and Livermore contend NIF is crucial to maintaining the nation's nuclear arsenal, and the directors of the three national labs issued a white paper last month re-validating the project's potential scientific role. But Kelly; Tom Cochran, a nuclear-weapons analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C.; and Leo Mascheroni, a former Los Alamos Lab fusion scientist, are among NIF critics calling for full congressional hearings. "This is a $3.6 billion monkey on the taxpayers' backs," Mascheroni said Thursday. "It has an incredible history of mismanagement, waste, lies and fraud that needs to be exposed." He said Richardson himself likely is not aware of most of it. Kelly said the important thing about the Sandia assessment is "that horse is out of the barn. They can't take it back, and it's about time somebody stood up and told the truth about NIF. "I was heartened by Sandia's courage and independence (Wednesday)," she said, "but today I am disheartened by their backing off of issuing it. But the content remains, and that's what's important for the public and Congress to look at." - ------------------------------- PS -- if you have electronic files of any NIF articles I may not have seen, please send them to me. Thanks! - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 10:22:45 -0700 (PDT) From: marylia@earthlink.net (marylia) Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Need help on radiation health science We have in our TVC library (and perhaps it is available closer to you somewhere) Karl Morgan's book, One Man's Walk Through the Atomic Age (or whatever the EXACT title is). In it he describes his experiences with the AEC and Oak Ridge lab and in so doing provides a critique of mainstream science regarding health effects and discusses suppression and denial (as you call them). the book is easy reading and may help you in your email discussion. Peace, Marylia >I'm in a (principled) argument (on another list) >over the science & politix of health-effects >modeling for low-level radiation. I've read >(basically) John Gofman's critiques of the A- >bomb studies & Benjamin Gould's analysis of >Three Mile Island data. But I'll need a lot more, >preferably good lit reviews & critiques of >'establishment' science -- also well-documented >instances of suppression & denial. > >Thanks, > >Ed Rippy > > >------------------------------------------------------- >Any time religion renders people passive and powerless, >it deserves the dishonorable title of 'opiate.' > >-- Daisaku Ikeda, 'Peace Through Dialogue: A Time to Talk' > >- > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. 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. - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #310 *********************************** - To unsubscribe to $LIST, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe $LIST" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.