Under Life Extension Programs, DOE plans to upgrade every type of nuclear warhead in the planned United States arsenal.

Under Life Extension Programs, DOE plans to upgrade every type of nuclear warhead in the planned United States arsenal. Upgrades have already been done on the W87 warhead and are nearing completion on the B61.

Download complete Fact Sheet Below.

ANA RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Increase funding and augment capacity for dismantlement of warheads.
2. Halt the W76 Life Extension Program until a Nuclear Posture Review is completed.

Anti-Nuclear Group Blasts NNSA Weapons Replacement Program

Anti-Nuclear Group Blasts NNSA Weapons Replacement Program
published Monday, April 14, 2008

Barnwell Victory Sweet, But Worse Waste May Be Coming

Tom Clements Op Ed

*originally published in Post and Courier, July 12, 2008

Cold War-Era Uranium Processing Plant Transformed into Wildlife Haven (Aug 16, 2008)

SITE OF FORMER OHIO URANIUM PLANT TURNS TO NATURE
Associated Press, Saturday, August 16, 2008
by Lisa Cornwell

A site once home to a Cold War-era uranium processing plant and the focus of a contentious struggle to clean up toxic waste has re-emerged as a haven for wildlife and a memorial to those who worked to make the area safe.

The Fernald Preserve and its visitors center make their public debut Wednesday at the former site of the government facility that processed uranium metal for nuclear weapons from 1952 to 1989.

Shrouded in secrecy for years, the site gained national notoriety in the 1980s with media reports on site emissions and residents' concerns over radioactive contamination of air, soil and groundwater.

A corrugated metal warehouse was transformed into an environmentally friendly visitors' center that traces the site's history from its years as a Native American habitat to the present. Some exhibits highlight the plant's workers, known as "Cold War warriors" for their contribution to the nation's defense.

The preserve is not a recreational area. There are no bike trails or picnic areas, but visitors can walk nature trails, viewing wild ducks and geese gliding along marshy ponds surrounded by prairie grass and wildflowers.

"We are using native plants and grasses identified in an 1819 land survey to return the site to the way it was then - a haven for birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and insects," said Sue Walpole, community relations manager for S.M. Stoller Corp., Legacy Management's contractor.

The center doesn't attempt to hide the plant's tumultuous history, however. Newspaper and TV reports chronicling the public outcry and ensuing lawsuits are part of exhibits on display.

"We tried to show everything, warts and all," said Jane Powell, site manager for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Legacy Management, which operates the site.

The $4.4 billion site cleanup was officially completed in January 2007. The visitor's center and preserve, which cost $7 million, are the first developed under Legacy Management, which is responsible for more than 60 other waste sites around the country, Powell said.

"It's amazing and very emotional for me," said Lisa Crawford, a founder of the citizens group that lobbied for cleanup for more than 20 years. "I'm not afraid here now, and there was a time when I was very afraid."

More than 4.7 million tons of low-level waste remain at Fernald in a fenced-off 110-acre pile encased in thick liners and caps made of synthetic material, clay, rock and clean soil. The 65-foot-high, grass-covered mound snaking along an edge of the preserve is about the length of two Empire State Buildings laid end-to-end.

The rest of the radioactive waste -- more than 1 million tons of it-- was shipped to storage and disposal sites in Nevada, Utah and Texas.

Officials say the site has met cleanup standards established by federal and state regulators. Fernald groundwater will be pumped and treated for 8 to 10 years until the drinking water standard is met.

"I think Fernald is a good model for other sites," said Susan Gordon, director of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a national network of organizations concerned with nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup issues. "A plan was developed that the community was comfortable with and that didn't push all of the waste into someone else's backyard, but that recognized the need for monitoring the site in the future."

Powell, of the Energy Department, worked at Fernald when the plant was still operating. "Sometimes I look out my office windows, and I can almost see the ghosts of the workers and buildings that were here for so many years," she said. "It's often hard to believe that we've come this far."

Grassroots group to DOE: Shame on you

Grassroots group to DOE: Shame on you

published Monday, April 14, 2008

Grassroots group to DOE: Shame on you

Monday, April 14, 2008
Dayton Daily News
By Jessica Wehrman | Monday, April 14, 2008, 01:39 PM

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability - a network of organizations that opposes new nuclear weapons production and advocates a speedier cleanup - took the Department of Energy to task Monday, saying that when it sped up cleanup of the former Mound, Fernald and Rocky Flats nuclear sites, it broke a promise to spend extra money on cleanup of other former nuclear sites.

In 1998, according to Gerry Pollett, executive director of Heart of America Northwest Seattle, the energy department cut a deal with other nuclear sites to concentrate on the trio of sites - two in Ohio, one in Colorado - in exchange for the promise of additional federal expenditures when those sites were clean. Instead, he said, the Department of Energy spent that money on new nuclear proposals and “decelerated” cleanup of the other sites after they’d finished work on the three sites.

That decision helped to score the department an “F” on funding environmental obligations, according to the ANA.

The group is heavily critical of the Bush administration’s nuclear policies, including the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, which Congress de-funded last year.
But it’s not critical of all Republicans: Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield, along with Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., the ranking member and chair of the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, will receive an award for their work bucking the administration’s nuke policies Tuesday night.

“They exhibited extraordinary leadership in challenging the DOE’s budget,” said Susan Gordon, director of the Alliance.

HANFORD: Alliance criticizes DOE nuclear cleanup budget

HANFORD: Alliance criticizes DOE nuclear cleanup budget
Published Monday, April 14, 2008
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability gave the Department of Energy a failing grade Monday for its budget proposals for environmental cleanup at Hanford and other nuclear sites. The alliance, which includes Heart of America Northwest, held a news conference in Washington, D.C.

“DOE is simply not up to the task of running the nation’s largest cleanup program,” Gerald Pollet, executive director of Heart of America, said in a statement.

DOE’s budget request for cleanup at Hanford and other sites is $1.5 billion short of meeting environmental obligations and will result in greater risk to water, worker safety and public health, he said.

DOE sets a budget amount and then gives its request to Congress, which sets the annual budget.

Marylia Kelley, Executive Director, Tri-Valley Cares, Livermore, CA testifies before the House Armed Services Subcommittee

Kelley testifies before the House Armed Services Committee
July 14, 2008

Download Marylia Kelley's Full Testimony before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, regarding modernization of the nuclear weapons complex.

Senator Diane Feinstein Honored For Nuclear Policy Legislation

Senator Diane Feinstein Honored For Nuclear Policy Legislation
published Friday, May 30, 2008