Byline: JEANNE GREEN
Guess what? War is peace!
Money for nuclear nonproliferation is going for new nuclear weapons production in New Mexico, even while money for health, education and citizens' welfare is frozen. Obama's proposal to spend $7 billion dollars over the next 5 years for the U.S. nuclear arsenal (quadrupling money for new production facilities) was greeted with cheers by our Congressional delegation.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman is 'pleased that the funding demonstrates Obama's commitment to nuclear non-proliferation' even while the budget contains a nearly 19 percent increase in funding for nuclear weapons activities at LANL and Sandia, a $1.3 billion increase over 2010.
Sen. Tom Udall says, 'the administration's recommendations are a good start for New Mexico and the nation.'
And Rep. Ben Ray Lujan says, 'We must keep the scientific knowledge for nuclear weapons alive.'
Exactly how does boosting taxpayer funding for new nuclear bomb production equate with non-proliferation? And just what segment of their constituency are our congressman and two senators serving -- Bechtel Corp. that runs LANL, or our ordinary citizens deprived of needed services by this nuclear boondoggle?
LANL's proposed nuclear bomb factory -- the second phase of the Chemical and Metallurgical Research Replacement Project -- is expected to cost $4 billion.
That $4 billion could instead provide New Mexicans with:
n renewable electricity for 4,145,197 homes; or
n health care for 1,707,575 children; or
n 102,564 elementary school teaching positions; or
n four-year scholarships for 211,506 UNM students.
An even more onerous expense is the cost in ill health for New Mexican families. Already over 1,400 unmediated toxic dumpsites at LANL are known to be discharging toxins into our waterways and airways.
An independent coalition is suing LANL over violations of the Clean Water Act. Hexavalent chromium has been found in the Los Alamos regional aquifer. (Remember Erin Brockovich?) PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls banned in the '70s) are now found in fish in the Rio Grande.
In LANL waters, PCBs are up to 25,000 times above New Mexico water quality standards protective of human health. Perchlorate contaminates Mortendad Canyon. Selenium, mercury and many radionuclides have been found in water, air, soil, attic dust and food as farflung as Llano, Picuris Peak and Cochiti.
Taos may be upstream from LANL, but we are downwind, as was graphically illustrated by the toxic plume from the Los Alamos Cerro Grande fire of 2000. Airborne donations from LANL bring us increased cancers, thyroid disease, kidney and liver damage, birth defects and on and on.
Why should we New Mexicans be 'collateral damage' for a privatized, profiteering nuclear industry that is obsolete and abhorrent?
Nuclear weapons do not keep us safe from terrorists or nations. Increased nuclear bomb production makes weapons-grade material more available to terrorists.
We are already seeing an upsurge in nations seeking nuclear weapons. There are about 24,000 nuclear warheads in the world, more than 95 percent owned by the U.S. and Russia. About 12,000 are operationally deployed and 3,500 on hair-trigger alert.
Nine nations now have nuclear weapons -- China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the U.S. and the U.K. Over 40 other countries have the technological capability to become nuclear states.
Even a small nuclear exchange could create a 'nuclear winter,' a world food collapse, and possibly the end of life on earth.
The new nuclear bomb factory (Chemical and Metallurgical Research Replacement Project) runs counter to our local and national security in countless ways. In forthcoming pieces these related topics will be covered:
n The Jason report -- so called 'stockpile modernization' and why nuclear weapons are now obsolete.
n The LAHDRA Report: A 10-year LANL document retrieval report shows that LANL emitted more airborne plutonium than all other U.S. plutonium processing facilities combined.
n Earthquake dangers: A recent independent Safety Board urgently recommends immediate corrective action regarding potential fatal public doses from earthquake-induced plutonium fires.
n Irresponsible stewardship: LANL fined nearly $1 million for ineffective groundwater monitoring; Sandia's 898th munitions squadron decertified for inadequate protection of the 2,000 nuclear bombs stored in Albuquerque.
n Upcoming international treaties
In Berlin last summer Obama said: 'This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.' Now he promotes more funding for new nukes.
New Mexico has the only operating plutonium pit manufacturing facility in the U. S. If our legislators fund the Chemical and Metallurgical Research Replacement Project, nuclear proliferation is the result and New Mexico is the ultimate national sacrifice zone.
Jeanne Green is a Taos County resident.
