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April 11, 2012

Bulletin #147: “Twilight of the nuclear gods:” talk tomorrow (4/12/12) in Albuquerque

Dear friends –

1.  Tomorrow, Thursday, 4/12/12, the Study Group will host a public meeting at the Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center (202 Harvard SE) at 7:00 pm. 

At this meeting Peter Neils, Greg, and Trish will provide a brief history of, and an update on, the proposed plutonium warhead core (“pit”) factory annex at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), now indefinitely deferred. 

Students, parents, and college teachers may be interested in our summer internship program, offered for academic credit at UNM.   We will describe this tomorrow night as well.  (Details will be posted on our web site in a day or two.) 

As we'll discuss, we have entered a new period in nuclear history, what might be called the “twilight of the nuclear gods.”  Fewer warhead projects are going to be completed.  Those which are completed will cost more and do less.  More warheads will be retired, and more delivery systems will not be replaced.  On the civilian side, much the same phenomenon is occurring. 

One of our biggest challenges is fully understand and accept these new realities and what they mean for us as a society, and advance the public debate.  There are now new opportunities, challenges, and pitfalls – and this our subject for tomorrow night. 

And, there will be free pizza (if you get there soon enough)! 

2.  Recent press releases and (finally) the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) FY2011 contractor performance evaluation reports.  

• NNSA Releases Evaluation of LANL Performance, press release, Apr 4, 2012
• Performance Evaluation Reports (PERs) for NNSA’s warhead sites.  LANL PERs (2005-2011) are here.    
• LANL doth protest too much: need for employment reduction exaggerated, press release, Mar 23, 2012

We look forward to seeing some of you tomorrow evening!  

Greg and Trish