Cut the Nuclear Pork Action Week
Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering the budget for next year, and, while it imposes a spending freeze for most domestic programs, somehow there’s money to spare when it comes to nuclear weapons pork. The budget request for nuclear bomb activities next year is $7 billion, which is a 14% increase over last year’s budget for the same programs, and a whopping 40% over the $5 billion (in 2011 dollars) spent on average each year for these activities during the Cold War era.
This is outrageous, unnecessary, dangerous — and expensive.
Worse, the budget has hundreds of millions in nuclear pork for new bomb plants that would enable the U.S. to increase its capacity to create new nuclear weapons in the future. For example, the budget proposes funding a new plutonium facility in New Mexico to enable a huge increase in the production of plutonium pits, which are the radioactive cores of nuclear weapons. This piece of toxic nuclear pork will cost taxpayers $225 million in the coming year, and about $4 billion by the time construction is complete. Moreover, the costs to non-proliferation and disarmament goals are incalculable.
Further, the budget request includes $252 million for a study in 2011 to upgrade the B61 nuclear bomb, which the U.S. has deployed in Europe. While Congress considers whether to spend our money on plans to “modify” and “life-extend’ this nuke, Germany, Poland and others are pressing for its removal from Europe.
You have a crucial role to play because your Senators and Representative will be voting on the nuclear weapons budget. Please call your Members of Congress through the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Be sure to make your voice heard between May 31 and June 4, 2010. This is a national week of action on the nuclear weapons budget, called “Cut the Nuclear Pork.” Your action to stop nuclear weapons will be made even more effective this week by the corresponding actions of your friends, neighbors and colleagues who will also be responding to this alert.
Last year, emails and calls from people like you created the grassroots pressure that successfully eliminated pork for nuclear weapons from the economic stimulus bill. We can do it again and, this time, reduce the 2011 nuclear weapons budget.
Please call or email now and ask YOUR elected officials to cut the nuclear weapons budget and to fund other, urgent priorities instead.
Thank you for speaking out and making your voice heard.
For years I have never understood having this ridiculous arsenal of weapons when, if we ever used them, it would mean we’d all be annihilated. It’s insane. Stop the madness now!
The entire nuclear industry , from mining, processing, transport, use, and attempts to sequester toxic waste, is deadly poisonous.
The Dine or Navajo people, along with countless individuals of other living beings, die from the ground- and surface-water pollution which occurs in the mining.
The processing and use involves consistent leakage and purposeful release of radioactive materials into environments. There is no safe dose of radioactive exposure.
The farce of designing and selecting long-term storage of waste has been pointed out for years:
When Yucca Mountain was selected it was done without study of ANY other area, due to the NIMBY policies of states who actually use the toxic nuclear power technologies. While modern ideas of how to isolate highly radioactive materials may work for thousands of years (although hydroligic studies of Yucca Mt. show that corrosion at far faster rates than originally claimed, will occur), it is thoughtless, selfish, and monstrous of humans to exclusively consider only their own safety. Thousands or tens, or millions of years hence, ALL life that becomes exposed to radioactivity, suffers.
Of course, the theft or damage of ANY nuclear power or weapon site or device, remain a threat to ALL life exposed to such an action, not just transient human governments or societies.
I urge everyone to think in larger terms than their own small concerns, and use every effort to cause abandonment of mining, processing, and use of radioactive sources of power or weaponry.
Just because we can invent such things does NOT mean we should. It is unfortunate that humans seek to associate themselves with social power. Other social species have evolved other ways and we need to study better solutions demonstrated by some of these others.
Too many years, too much effort and billions of dollars spent making, storing, dismantling, and trying to discard the deadly toxic poisons and weapons that never should have been made in the first place and most definitely should never be used!
That money, effort and time could go to help more important issues in this country such as hunger, homelessness, unemployment, education, health care, social security, senior care, pollution clean up, environmental protection, renewable energy, animal welfare, peace action between all nations, etc, etc, etc…
If Germany, Poland, and others are going to lobby for the removal of the B61 from Europe, they might as well lobby for the US bases sitting in their countries as well. Lord knows we could use the money elsewhere at the moment.