Nuclear weapons

Payments Made Under Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act

05/26/2009 -- WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that it has paid more than $500 million in compensation and medical benefits to 4,798 current and former employees of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant and their survivors under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA).

The EEOICPA was created to assist individuals who became ill as a result of working in the atomic weapons industry. Survivors of such individuals may also be eligible for benefits.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, located in Paducah, Ky., produced more than one million tons of uranium during the plant's Cold War history.    » read more »

May 25, 2009 -- "Today, North Korea said that it has conducted a nuclear test in violation of international law. It appears to also have attempted a short range missile launch. These actions, while not a surprise given its statements and actions to date, are a matter of grave concern to all nations. North Korea's attempts to develop nuclear weapons, as well as its ballistic missile program, constitute a threat to international peace and security.    » read more »

Middle East leaders call on new US administration to push progress on Palestinian-Israeli conflict

Dead Sea, Jordan, 17 May 2009 – Middle East leaders have called on the new US administration to push progress on resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which they said lies at the heart of instability in the region.    » read more »

05/11/2009 -- WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that it has paid more than $400 million in compensation and medical benefits to Colorado residents under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). The act was created to assist those individuals who became ill as a result of working in the atomic weapons industry.

Survivors of such individuals may also be eligible for benefits. Since the implementation of the act, the Labor Department has paid 50,574 claimants more than $4.7 billion in compensation and medical benefits nationwide.    » read more »

April 11, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Barack Obama extended his best wishes to everyone celebrating this week’s Passover and Easter holidays and called on nations around the world to come together to solve the current trials facing the world. On the heels of his weeklong trip overseas, the President said he believes it is important to acknowledge no single nation can solve global problems like a recession, international terrorism, climate change, or nuclear proliferation. But, working with other nations, the United States can lead the way in overcoming these challenges.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, April 11, 2009    » read more »

WASHINGTON (April 8, 2009) -- The Nuclear Weapons Complex Consolidation Policy (NWCC) Network, a collaboration of six national and regional groups, released a study today that provides the roadmap for a large and swift reduction in the nation’s nuclear weapons and the sprawling government complex that develops and produces them. The study outlines the case for a tenfold reduction in the nation’s active nuclear weapons stockpile, to 500 deployed nuclear warheads by 2015, supported by a weapons complex reduced from the current eight sites in seven states to just three sites in two states, Texas and New Mexico.    » read more »

FAS and NRDC Chart Minimal Deterrent Nuclear Mission

WASHINGTON, DC (April 8, 2009) -- In Prague, President Barack Obama called for a world without nuclear weapons. Today, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report calling for fundamental changes to U.S. nuclear war planning, a vital prerequisite if smaller nuclear arsenals are to be achieved.    » read more »

Statement by Kevin Knobloch of the Union of Concerned Scientists

April 7, 2009 -- The Union of Concerned Scientists applauds President Barack Obama's bold new approach to addressing the threat posed by nuclear weapons, as outlined in his groundbreaking speech on Sunday, April 5 in Prague. Although the cold war ended some 20 years ago, Obama is the first U.S. president to commit to making significant changes in U.S. nuclear weapons policy to reflect new global realities. His approach reflects an awareness that nuclear weapons have become a security liability rather than an asset, and that U.S. security requires a change in direction.    » read more »

President Obama Should Reverse Bush Policy on European Deployment

March 4, 2009 -- President Obama is reconsidering the Bush administration's decision to deploy an untested missile defense system in Europe, indicating that he is taking a more realistic, technically grounded approach to missile defense. Given Russia's strong negative reaction to the planned deployment, experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) say it makes sense to reconsider this policy on strategic as well as technical grounds. They say U.S. security would be undermined by deploying an ineffective missile defense system that impedes U.S.-Russian nuclear weapons reductions and collaboration on key security issues.    » read more »

Feb. 27, 2009 - Iran's dramatic launch of a satellite into orbit earlier this month, coinciding with the advent of a new American administration, should help spur greater cooperation with Russia on missile defense, according to a leading U.S. missile defense expert.

In discussions over the years, the Russians have said that a demonstration of this level of capability by Iran would be one of the "key triggers . . . as to when they themselves would begin to get worried about the Iranians," retired Lieutenant General Henry A. Obering, former director of the Missile Defense Agency, told reporters at a February 12 briefing.

But he added that, based on his years of trying to engage the Russians on this issue, he has no illusions that this kind of U.S.-Russian détente will come easily.    » read more »

Trial Will Start Friday in Toledo, OH

August 6, 2008 -- Andrew Siemaszko, a former nuclear safety engineer at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, will go on trial this Friday for allegedly lying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) about conditions leading to a near-disaster at the plant in 2002. NRC documents, however, show that Siemaszko is not to blame. It was FirstEnergy, the plant's owners, which falsified reports to the NRC, not Siemaszko. In fact, Siemaszko was one work shift away from discovering the problem at Davis-Besse while cleaning the reactor head in 2000, but FirstEnergy prevented him from completing his task.    » read more »

Hazardous fuel behavior another setback for troubled energy department program, has implications for other reactors

August, 2008 -- Citing the recent failure of an experimental plutonium fuel assembly test at a South Carolina nuclear plant, two watchdog groups today called on the Department of Energy (DOE) to suspend a risky, multibillion dollar program that would use 37 tons of surplus nuclear weapons plutonium for U.S. nuclear reactor fuel.    » read more »

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va., June 9, 2008 – If it were not for the serious decline in the Air Force’s nuclear mission focus and performance, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today, he would not have felt the need to replace the Air Force leadership.

Gates asked for and received the resignations of Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley on June 6 in the wake of an investigation that found problems with the focus, performance and effective leadership of the service’s nuclear weapons program.

Speaking to airmen and Air Force civilians of Air Combat Command, Gates called the nuclear mission the Air Force’s most sensitive one.    » read more »

6/9/2008 - Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates arrives June 9 to Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. Secretary Gates is visiting Peterson AFB to deliver a speech reinforcing his message that the Air Force must apply more rigor to its responsibilities with nuclear weapons on the heels of the resignation of the Air Force’s top two leaders.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrives at the Peterson air base flight line June 9: U.S. Air Force photo/Duncan Wood

Gen. C. Robert "Bob" Kehler, the commander of Air Force Space Command; Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., the commander of NORAD – U.S. Northern Command; and Col. Jay Raymond, the 21st Space Wing commander; greeted Secretary Gates upon his arrival.

May 27, 2008 -- Washington, DC – Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE) issued the following statement today following Senator McCain’s speech on nuclear security:

Nuclear cruise missile    » read more »