NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9561

Text File | 1992-12-22 | 5.8 KB | 125 lines

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From: [e-mail] (Nigel Allen)
Subject: Next DOE Secretary must redirect U.S. nuclear weapons complex
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Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 01:05:11 GMT
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Here is a press release from Fenton Commnications.

 Arms Control and Environmental Groups Say Next Energy Secretary Must
Be Prepared To Redirect U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex
 To: National Desk
 Contact: Peter L. Kelley of Fenton Communications, 202-745-0707

   WASHINGTON, Dec. 21  -- Arms control and environmental
groups say President-elect Bill Clinton's choice for
Energy Secretary must be prepared for a major challenge in
redirecting U.S. nuclear weapons policy -- away from atomic bomb
production, toward environmental cleanup and halting the spread of
nuclear weapons.
   "The top priority of the next Secretary of Energy will be to
protect the nation's environment, health, and safety from the legacy
of the nuclear age," said Daryl Kimball, associate director for
policy at Physicians for Social Responsibility.
   The groups warned, however, that the nuclear weapons labs,
production facilities, and their private contractors can be expected
to exert strong pressure on the new secretary -- as the pro-nuclear
weapons lobby did on Bush appointee Adm. James D. Watkins.  They had
advised the Clinton transition team to examine carefully whether
candidates for Energy Secretary showed the vigilance and commitment
needed to end nuclear weapons production and change U.S. policies.
   For example, the watchdog groups said they would call on the next
Energy Secretary to halt DOE plans to resume exploding U.S. nuclear
weapons under the Nevada desert to test them, and to abandon programs
at DOE's national laboratories to develop new "mini-nukes" for use in
the Thrid World.
   The groups said the secretary should permanently transfer the
government's problem-plauged plutonium bomb-trigger factory at Rocky
Flats, Colo., from defense production to environmental cleanup, shift
its resources into transition for the affected workers, and address
other long-term problems at nuclear weapons plants in Ohio, Texas,
Washington, and South Carolina.
   "The next Energy Secretary must be prepared to take the Department
of Energy into the post-Cold War era," said John Isaacs, president of
Council for a Lviable World.
   Representatives of the arms control and environmental groups said
they would be available for detailed comment on Clinton's choice (see
attached list of home and work telephone numbers). They pointed out
that:
    -- Nuclear weapons and nuclear cleanup account for two-thirds of
DOE's total fiscal 1993 budget of $18.8 billion, including $7.3
billion to make nuclear weapons and $5.5 billion to clean up old
nuclear sites.
   -- The United States as of December 1992 still has roughly 11,000
nuclear weapons in its operational stockpile, including some 8,500
strategic warheads and 2,400 bombs and sea-launched cruise missiles,
according to Robert S. Norris, senior analyst of the Natural
Resources Defense Council.  Another 7,000 await dismantlement under
arms control agreements and unilateral initiatives.
   -- U.S. nuclear testing in underground blasts in Nevada could
resume as early as as July 1, after a nine-month moratorium dictated
by Congress, unless DOE changes its policy.  The administration must
report to Congress by March 1 on its plans for future tests and
strategy for achieving a test ban by 1996, and the Bush
administration may attempt to make this report before leaving office.
   -- President-elect Clinton in his campaign said: "I think it's
time for a nuclear test ban treaty, and I think the United States
should take the lead on that" (NBC "Today" show interview, 6/9/92);
advocated "major cuts in research and development for new nuclear
bombs" (Arms Control Today magazine inverview, 3/92 issue); and
supported expanding the national labs, but redirecting their efforts
to commercially usable technologies and reordering their "priorities
of the Cold War" (remarks at Sandia National Laboratories, 9/18/92).

   Contact list for journalists on Clinton's appointment of Energy
Secretary:

   -- John Isaacs, president and Bruce Peabody, legislative
representative, Council for a Livable World, 202-543-4100 (w),
202-387-6474 (h, Isaacs)

   -- Melinda Kassen, senior attorney, in Boulder Colo.,
Environmental Defense Fund, Rocky Mountain Office 303-440-4901 (w),
303-939-9546 (h)

   -- Tom Zamora-Collina, senior research analyst, Friends of the
Earth, 202-547-5909 (w)

   -- Stephen Schwartz, Washington representative and Bob Schaefer,
in Cambridge, Mass., Military Production Network, 202-544-8166 (w,
Schwartz), 703-522-8238 (h, Schwartz), 617-489-0461 (Schaeffer,
h & w)

   -- Jim Werner, senior environmental engineer, Tom Cochran, Chris
Paine, and Robert S. Norris, Natural Resources Defense Council,
202-783-7800 (w), 703-532-1044 (h, Cochran)

   -- Paul Leventhal, president, and Steve Dolley, research director,
Nuclear Control Institute, 202-822-8444 (w), 301-657-8171 (h,
Leventhal), 202-543-3569 (h, Dolley)

   -- Daryl Kimball, associate director for policy, Physicians for
Social Responsibility, 202-785-3777 (w) or 202-483-1994 (h)

   -- Burton Glass, legislative director, SANE/FREEZE: Campaign for
Global Security 202-862-9740 (w), 202-338-2714 (h)

   -- Howard Ris, executive director, in Cambridge, Mass., Union of
Concerned Scientists, 617-547-5552 (w)

   -- Bobbie Wrenn Banks, president, in Atlanta, Ga., Women's Action
for New Directions, 404-371-0852 (w & h).

 -30-
--
Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario    [e-mail]