Action Alert #27: Public review of programs and facilities, Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories, August 4, 5 & 7
July 1, 2004

Dear friends --

On August 4, 5 and 7, 2004 the Los Alamos Study Group will lead a citizens’ fact-finding inspection and review of activities at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL).

The inspections will focus on two key aspects of the U.S. nuclear weapons program:

* The on-going acquisition of large-scale manufacturing capacity for key new weapons components at Los Alamos, specifically plutonium weapon cores or “pits,” and

* The development of new “bunker buster” and other new nuclear weapons.

Since SNL has so far rejected our requests to enter into public discussion about its role in the development of new nuclear weapons, the SNL inspection will be entirely "virtual."

Inspection events will begin on Wednesday, August 4 at Woodward Hall of the University of New Mexico, when an all-day multi-media educational seminar will provide an overview of the U.S. nuclear weapons program and Sandia's role in it. In the afternoon, we will be focusing on the proposed new "bunker-buster" weapons and other controversial features of current U.S. nuclear weapons policy. There also will be a press conference at which visiting weapons inspectors will present their own observations and findings. At 7:00 pm at the same location, there will be a public discussion of the same issues.

The August 4 events are open to the public. There is no charge.

On Thursday August 5, visiting weapons inspectors will tour Los Alamos National Laboratory (this portion of the inspection is not open to the public). The day will conclude with a public discussion of current nuclear weapons issues affecting LANL at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos at 6:00 pm, which is open to the
public at no charge.

On Saturday, August 7, interested members of the public will participate in an on-site teach-in and discussion in Los Alamos National Laboratory. Travel will be by bus to and within Los Alamos National Laboratory, departing from
Albuquerque at 6:45 am and from Santa Fe at 8:00 am, returning at 5:00 pm and 6:15 pm respectively. This portion of the inspection will cost $25 including a sack lunch. Seats on the buses are available on a first-come, first-serve basis and must be reserved in advance.

Further information and updates about these inspections are posted at www.lasg.org/inspections.htm, or call us at 505-265-1200.

If you would like to help us support these inspections financially and have not already done so, please consider a donation to the Study Group. All donations will be matched 1:1 by generous donors and so will go twice as far in providing sound public education and policy intervention on nuclear weapons issues.

An important event not organized by the Study Group but occurring in the same timeframe is the public talk in Santa Fe by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton on Aug. 5 at 6:00 pm at the Santa Maria de la Paz Parish Hall, 11 College Way (just off Richards Avenue near the Santa Fe Community College), and the walk, prayer, and vigil for peace beginning at 7:00 am in Los Alamos on the morning of August 6. We encourage people of all faiths to attend these important and inspiring events, in which nuclear weapons issues will be placed within an ethical framework based on justice and genuine human security and peace. For further details, see http://www.paxchristinewmexico.org/Archdiocese/august6flyer.html.

We look forward to seeing many of you at these events!

Greg Mello, for the Study Group

P.S. The next citizen inspection will be held during the week of November 7, 2004.