July 28th, 2011 by Katie Heald from Groundswell Blog, from Peace Action West » Nuclear Weapons
August 6th is the 66th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It is only by remembering the past that we can ensure our mistakes are never repeated.
Join me on Saturday, August 6th to remember the victims of nuclear weapons, and call attention to the danger nuclear material poses to our planet. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Arjun Makhijani, is a world-renowned nuclear expert who will draw the deep connections between nuclear weapons and nuclear power in light of this year’s tragic events at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Also, we’ll have live music, Taiko drummers and a live video chat with bomb survivors from Japan.
The event will be held outside of Livermore Laboratory, one of the two labs responsible for designing and developing nuclear warheads.
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July 18th, 2011 by Leonard Eiger from The Nuclear Abolitionist
Friends,
July 16th marked the day 66 years ago when the United States let the nuclear genie out of the lamp.
On July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 AM at the Alamogordo Test Range, on the Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) desert, in the test named Trinity, the experimental device known as the “Gadget” was detonated, creating a light “brighter than a thousand suns.” A mere 6 kilogram (13.2 pound) sphere of plutonium, compressed to supercriticality by the surrounding high explosives, created an explosion equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT (20 Kilotons).
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July 16th, 2011 by Leonard Eiger from The Nuclear Abolitionist
By William Hartung – July 13, 2011Originally published by TalkingPointsMemo
As President Obama and Republicans in Congress go down to the wire in negotiations over a package of budget cuts that would clear the way for raising the debt ceiling, we shouldn’t lose sight of one key source of reductions: military spending. Although it was not mentioned in the President’s press conference earlier this week, there has been a press report suggesting that the budget negotiators may have considered
cuts of up to $700 billion over ten years — a healthy sum if it represents real reductions, not funny money projections based on misleading estimating techniques.
As Joseph Cirincione of the Ploughshares Fund has demonstrated in a piece that ran today on the web site of the Atlantic magazine, one area ripe for cuts is the nuclear weapons budget. Current projections call for the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade on maintaining and upgrading the U.S. nuclear arsenal, including everything from new nuclear weapons factories to new bombers and ballistic missile submarines.
July 13th, 2011 by Leonard Eiger from The Nuclear Abolitionist
Friends,
In a time of endless war and nuclear weapons it is easy to become despondent about the future, yet there is always hope. That hope lies in people who can see inside the madness, understand it and refuse to accept the darkness. It also requires a different way of seeing. Jonathan Reed, in his palindrome “Lost Generation,” did just that.
Lawyer, international humanitarian law expert and creative spirit Anabel Dwyer was inspired by Jonathan’s palindrome to write one of her own that speaks to us with a message of hope about nuclear weapons. After all that is what we are – people of hope.
Peace,
Leonard
**************
A Nuclear Generation Palindrome
by Anabel Dwyer 6/28/11 with thanks to Jonathan Reed’s “Lost Generation.”
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July 1st, 2011 by Leonard Eiger from The Nuclear Abolitionist
By Desmond Tutu
Eliminating nuclear weapons is the democratic wish of the world’s people. Yet no nuclear-armed country currently appears to be preparing for a future without these terrifying devices. In fact, all are squandering billions of dollars on modernization of their nuclear forces, making a mockery of United Nations disarmament pledges. If we allow this madness to continue, the eventual use of these instruments of terror seems all but inevitable.
The nuclear power crisis at Japan’s Fukushima power plant has served as a dreadful reminder that events thought unlikely can and do happen. It has taken a tragedy of great proportions to prompt some leaders to act to avoid similar calamities at nuclear reactors elsewhere in the world. But it must not take another Hiroshima or Nagasaki – or an even greater disaster – before they finally wake up and recognize the urgent necessity of nuclear disarmament.
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