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Background on University of California’s Nuclear Labs:
The University of California (UC) has managed the two oldest and largest nuclear weapons labs since their creation nearly 60 years ago. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have been at the forefront of the research and design of all nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal. University employees even created the bombs that dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Over the last five years, the UC has partnered with such multi-national corporations as Bechtel Group and BWXT to continue managing the labs as a limited liability corporation.
Five reasons the UC should sever ties to the labs:
- The UC is implicitly endorsing non-compliance with the UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by participating in the creation of new nuclear weapon technologies.
- The nuclear industry is notorious for its devastating environmental and health impacts.
- Nuclear weapons testing and waste disposal from the labs is a major factor in the ongoing genocide of Native American peoples today. The Nevada Test Site and the proposed waste disposal site at Yucca Mountain are both on Western Shoshone land.
- Bechtel Group, UC’s lab-management partner, has a long history of irresponsible environmental practices and human rights violations. Currently, they are one of the largest profiteers of the Iraq War.
- UC holds no real control over research directions or policy at the labs nor does the funding they receive from the Department of Energy go towards anything but the labs themselves. Their management is in name only and simply acts as a stamp of legitimacy for the nuclear weapons, military-industrial complex.
The Demand:
The University of California must sever its ties with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
The Action:
- 250 UC students and alumni will take a pledge to withhold any post-graduate contributions to their alma mater until it severs ties with the nuclear labs.
- An open letter with all the names of the pledged alumni will be issued to the UC administration and other public officials.
- A press release will also be issued with the letter and pledged names to raise awareness of the issue.
Further Resources:
Fiat Pax: A Resource on Science, Technology, Militarism, and Universities
UCNuclearFree.org
Tri-Valley CAREs
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Western States Legal Foundation
Los Alamos Study Group
