Send this story Print this story

Adjust text size

Forum aims to stop plutonium shipping
Environmental, legal, nuclear experts to speak

by Dolores Fox Ciardelli

Environmental, legal and nuclear experts from California and New Mexico will speak at a community forum Wednesday evening about the plan to ship plutonium bomb cores across three western states from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore.

"The U.S. Department of Energy has not conducted any environmental impact statement or review of the safety hazards and potentially catastrophic consequences of its proposal," said a press release from Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment), which is sponsoring the event. "The California and New Mexico experts will outline viable alternatives that will provide more safety at both facilities and all of the communities in between."

The community forum, "Livermore Lab at the Crossroad," will take place from 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 30, at the Livermore Library, 1188 S. Livermore Ave.

Presenters will include:

* Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico.

* Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs.

* Peter Strauss, an environmental scientist under contract with Tri-Valley CAREs since 1991.

* Scott Yundt, staff attorney at Tri-Valley CAREs.

"The forum will also address the Superfund cleanup of leaking toxic and radioactive wastes at Livermore Lab and the contrasting futures that cleanup and bomb testing offer to the community," the release said.