RMPJC Staff Attend Alliance for Nuclear Accountability Lobby Days in DC
An excerpt from Colorado Daily's Peace Train, by Judith Mohling of RMPJC:
Wise citizen activists from 20 states recently participated in the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability lobby days. Two of us from Boulder were part of the group of about 75 activists from nuclear weapon sites across the U.S. A generous Boulder donor enabled more than 12 young activists to attend because they were awarded scholarships.
We were from communities near nuclear weapons research, production and waste sites, such as: Hanford, in Washington state where there had recently been a tunnel cave-in that had 4000 workers scrambling for safety, Lawrence Livermore labs, in California, Colorado's own Rocky Flats, Los Alamos labs, Sandia and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, a Kansas City plant that manufactures thousands of non-nuclear parts for weapons; Pantex, in Texas, Oak Ridge facilities in Tennessee, and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Each has its toxic, grim history.
We urged policymakers to cut wasteful, dangerous weapons programs and accelerate warhead dismantlement. With accountability and public oversight, taxpayers could save billions that could be redirected to cleaning up the enormous toxic mess at these sites. We would be far more secure than we would be by building new bomb plants or modernizing nuclear weapons which the U.S. government plans now.
