Learn more :: Media Coverage :: Protest opposes nuclear labs

Protest opposes nuclear labs
by Nancy Su, April 9. 2004

Hundreds of protesters are expected to gather today at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to protest the lab's nuclear weapons research.

The University of California runs the Livermore lab, which has been the site of protests for over 20 years.

The Livermore lab in Northern California, together with the UC-managed Los Alamos lab in New Mexico, helped develop some of the nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal.

The labs are now research facilities for homeland security and are doing nuclear research under the Stockpile Stewardship Program.

Since nuclear underground testing was stopped in the early 1990's, the Stockpile Stewardship Program was developed to ensure the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons.

"Nuclear weapons are a strong symbolism of what's wrong with our country. It's domination and control based on the threat of annihilation," said Tara Dorabji, the outreach director of TriValley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, the Livermore watchdog group sponsoring the protest this year.

Protesters accuse the lab of continuing to develop new and modified nuclear weapons.

Each year they gather in front of the lab on Good Friday to begin events with a prayer and speeches. They then march toward the gates of the lab.

Lynda Seaver, a spokeswoman for the Livermore lab, denied that the lab is developing new weapons.

Seaver said the purpose of nuclear research at the lab is to ensure the safety and security of existing weapons, not to develop new ones.

But despite denials of new weapons research, last year Washington set aside $15 million for feasibility studies for the Livermore and Los Alamos labs on the a new bunker-busting bomb.

The Livermore lab has gained attention in recent years because of homeland security issues and the increased importance of nuclear and biological weapons in world affairs.

The Livermore labs have also recently experienced an increase in protesters at the annual demonstrations.

Last August, over 1,000 protesters gathered to mark the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb over Japan and to demonstrate against Livermore's nuclear research and Bush's foreign policy.

The Los Alamos lab was built as part of the Manhattan Project. The lab designed the nuclear weapons that were eventually used to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

At the Good Friday protest last year, about 270 protesters gathered and 73 were arrested for blocking the gate of the lab.

Seaver said the lab will prepare for the demonstration this year by making necessary safeguards to ensure workers can enter and exit the lab.

Carolyn Scarr, a member of the board of directors for the Ecumenical Peace Institute – Clergy and Laity Concerned, said the UC has something to answer for in managing these labs.

"The UC should not only get out of developing weapons, they should do some real research in demobilizing the nuclear stockpile," Scarr said.

Originally published by The Daily Bruin.

Learn more :: Media Coverage :: Protest opposes nuclear labs