|
By: Jessica Wilbanks, Coordinator for Faithful Security
All around the country, people are speaking out against the administration's latest proposal to make sure that nuclear weapons are around for the foreseeable future.
 MCI Coordinator Patricia Anton speaks in Washington, DC at a Department of Energy public comment session on Complex Transformation.
TAKE ACTION: Send a quick email giving public comment to the Deparment of Energy on the Complex Transformation plan. |
|
Complex Transformation is the Department of Energy’s plan to revamp the nuclear weapons complex and drastically increase the manufacturing capacity for new nuclear warheads, known as plutonium pits. 50,000 people have already submitted comments to the Department of Energy during a public comment period on the plan.
The Department of Energy’s plan has been advanced as the preferred option for structuring the nuclear complex to consolidate nuclear materials in fewer locations and reduce the environmental impact of these materials. While reducing the footprint of nuclear weapons is an important goal, this must be done without including new weapons production capabilities.
In its current state, the plan consists of building a new bomb plant that would produce 80 new plutonium pits, or “triggers” for new nuclear weapons, per year—a level of production that has not been seen in more than 20 years!
At its worst, this proposal shores up the infrastructure for dangerous weapons of mass destruction--weapons that need to be eliminated as soon as possible. |
At its best, it's a jobs program--a way for the administration to keep the labs on life support until a friendlier Congress will fund them.
The Department of Energy has opened up a public comment period to see what you think about their proposal.
Sixteen national religious organizations filed formal comments opposing complex transformation in one of the Department of Energy’s recent public hearings in Washington D.C. Religious leaders instead called for a No Production Alternative, which would place a moratorium on new nuclear warhead designs; limit production capacity for new plutonium pits; scale back the existing Nuclear Weapons Complex; and continue the nuclear testing moratorium. The Muslim-Christian Initiative partners, the Islamic Society of North American and the Churches’ Center for Theology and Public Policy, signed on to the joint religious statement and gave individual verbal statements at the hearing.
Americans of different faiths are coming out strongly in opposition to this plan, and we hope that you will join us by sending a quick email giving your number one reason for opposing a program that would lead to the production of up to eighty new nuclear warheads every year.
Maybe you'll point out that building new nuclear warheads could start another arms race as other nations beef up their own arsenals. Or maybe you're concerned about the environmental hazards of pit production. And if you've been following this issue, you might remember that an independent commission testified that the production of new nuclear warheads is totally unnecessary--the warheads we've got have been proven to be reliable for one hundred years!
Or maybe, in your heart of hearts, you believe that it's wrong for our nation to possess and threaten to use nuclear weapons. As someone who values human life and God's creation, you can't bear the fact that our tax dollars--$150 billion of our tax dollars--could go toward such a terrible purpose.
Don't be silent. Send a quick email to the Department of Energy and tell them why you can't stomach building new nuclear warheads. Faithful Security has drafted some text that you can use, but feel free to write in your own words. The formal comment period ends on April 10, 2008, so send your comments now.
|
