WATCH: Major Action Against DOE's Plutonium Pit Plans
Dear friend,
Since 2019, advocacy groups have called on the U.S. government to fully examine the environmental, health and safety impacts of its plan to more than quadruple the production of plutonium pits, which are the triggers of nuclear bombs, in New Mexico and here in South Carolina. The government, however, has refused to consider the far-reaching impacts of this significant expansion of our nuclear weapon stockpile.
On Tuesday at noon, Your Lawyers for the Wild Side will launch a legal challenge on behalf of these groups to demand that the government take a “hard look” at this plan, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
SCELP and our partners will hold a press conference that will be simultaneously live streamedon our Facebook page - and we hope you tune in when we make this major announcement.
WHO:
- Tom Clements, director of Savannah River Site Watch
- Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico
- Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
- Leslie Lenhardt, attorney at South Carolina Environmental Law Project
- Queen Quet, the chieftess and head of state for the Gullah/Geechee Nation and the founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition
- Dr. Frank von Hippel, senior research physicist and Professor of Public and International Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University
BACKGROUND: To date, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration have failed to undertake a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement of their proposal to produce at least 80 plutonium pits per year by 2030, including 30 or more at the Los Alamos National Lab and 50 or more at the Savannah River Site. This cross-country plan would create massive quantities of dangerous and radioactive material, put hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on the line, risk a new nuclear arms race and violate the nation’s foundational environmental law. Learn more here.
