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February 17, 2012

Bulletin #145: Study Group meetings in Albuquerque (Tues), Santa Fe (Wed) and Taos (Thurs), Feb. 21, 22, 23

Dear friends –

We are of course very pleased that the Administration, in all its voices, has decided to defer and defund the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility (CMRR-NF).  Congress will have the last word but it remains virtually impossible to build CMRR-NF and the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) in Tennessee at the same time, and some sort of UPF will be built first.   

I have been working in Washington this week and so am hearing, up close and personal, a lot of heavy complaining about CMRR-NF’s deferral, from nuclear ideologues in Congress and elsewhere.  Some of these parties are making noise not so much to reinstate CMRR-NF, which they must know is very close to an impossible quest, but to renegotiate political deals for nuclear weapons,contracts, and partisan political advantage. 

Thus we have work to do to protect, solidify, and extend the Pentagon/NNSA/Department of Energy (DOE)/National Security Council CMRR decision. 

As mentioned in the last bulletin, the deferral decision undercuts NNSA’s legal positions and representations in court.  How those cases come out could have a large bearing on what NNSA can do next. 

We hope to report to you on all this and more in public meetings this coming week!

• On Tuesday, February 21, at the Albuquerque Mennonite Church,  1300 Girard Blvd, NE in Albuquerque, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. 
• On Wednesday, February 22, at the Cloud Cliff Bakery, 1805 2nd Street in Santa Fe, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. 
• On Thursday, February 23, at the Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, 118 Cruz Alta Road in Taos, also at 6:30 to 8:30 pm. 

Preventing the construction of a large plutonium pit manufacturing complex at Los Alamos has taken most of our time and energy for the past two years.  But we work on much more than pits, CMRR-NF, and related issues.  At the above meetings I hope we will have time to unpack some of the possibilities that lie just ahead. 

These meetings will not just be informational.  We are going to ask you to help us raise money to "finish the job" on CMRR-NF, and take the next steps.  We haven’t scrimped in this work and we hope you will help us finish it and extend it to the obvious next steps.  With your help we’ve planted a crop and we need your help to harvest it. 

I am looking forward to seeing some of you next week.  Please come if you can.

Greg, Trish, and the rest of the Study Group