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Key Facts About Nukes and the UC's Involvement with Them
Updated January 9, 2007
Key facts about nuclear weapons and the University of California’s involvement in their production.
- The U.S. has 9,962 intact nuclear warheads.(1)
- Combined that would yield an explosion equivalent to over 2,510 megatons of TNT(2) — enough to trigger 25 Earth-ending nuclear winters.
- The United States is pursuing plans to build a new class of nuclear weapons. Both of the UC’s nuclear weapons labs designed these new weapons.(3)
- The U.S. has signed and ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which calls for good faith negotiations towards total disarmament of all nuclear weapons.(4)
- This is the only document that allows the U.S. to criticizes potential proliferator such as Iran and new proliferators such as North Korea.
- The U.S. will be unable to effectively criticize other nations so long as it fails to fulfill its own obligations.
- The US has threatened to use nuclear weapons against other countries nearly 40 times since 1946, always as a way to gain control over another country’s resources or help it win wars of aggression.(5, 6)
- The University of California has managed Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since their inception.(7, 8) They currently manage Los Alamos as part of a private limited liability company with Bechtel, BWX Technologies, and Washington Group International.(9)
- The mission of the labs is not science but “national security,” especially nuclear research.(10,11) Projects are only approved if they promote “national security.”
- Much of the research done at the labs is classified.(12)
- Potential benefits and applications in the realms of public health, renewable energy and earthquake detection remain locked away and inaccessible to the public and other researches.
- The UC Regents are an undemocratic, structurally unaccountable decision-making body.(13)
- $2.8 billion of the laboratories budget was for nuclear weapons research and design in 2005-06 Fiscal Year.(14) Roughly the amount the UC received from California’s education budget.(15)
1. R. Norris and H. Kristensen. (2006). U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2006. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, 62(1), 68-71
2.
ibid.
3. (2006, October). “NNSA releases notice of intent for the Complex 2030 environmental impact statement.” Student Operated Press.
4. Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970. (2006, June 1). Wikisource, The Free Library. From http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Nuclear_Non-Proliferation_Treaty&oldid=144643.
5.
Joseph Gerson. (2006, August). The Current Crises, Preventing Nuclear War, and Overcoming the U.S.-Japan Military Alliance. Speech at the World Conference Against A- & H- Bombs Hiroshima. From http://www.afsc.org/newengland/pesp/world-conference-speech-06.htm
6.
(1998, October). A Chronology of Nuclear Threats. From http://www.ieer.org/ensec/no-6/threats.html.
7.
LANL history – timeline. Official LANL website. From http://www.lanl.gov/history/timeline/1940.shtml
8. LLNL history – timeline. Official LLNL website. From http://www.llnl.gov/timeline/50s.html
9.
Los Alamos National Security. (2006, September 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. From http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Los_Alamos_National_Security&oldid=74552514
10.
Our Mission. Official LANL website. From http://www.lanl.gov/natlsecurity/index.shtml
11. LLNL missions. Official LLNL website. From http://www.llnl.gov/llnl/missions/
12. Allison Majure, (2006, November 10). Tech transfer plays pivotal role in economy. LA Monitor. From http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2004/06/28/headline_news/news05.txt
13. California Constitution. Art. IX, Sec. 9
14. (2005, February). Department of Energy FY 2006 Congressional Budget Request. From http://www.mbe.doe.gov/budget/06budget/Content/Labandstate/labtable.pdf.
15. (2005, November). University OF California 2006-07 Budget Presentation. From http://budget.ucop.edu/pres/200607/lchnov2005.pdf.
