Mr. Bruce Fetzer, Director of Public Relations & Communications
Mailstop 0111
Sandia National Laboratories
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0111

Re: Invitation to take part in a panel discussion on new nuclear weapons, August 4, 2004

Dear Mr. Fetzer,

The Los Alamos Study Group will be hosting a panel discussion on the subject of "Sandia and New Nuclear Weapons" at Woodward Hall at the University of New Mexico on the evening of August 4, 2004 at 7:00 pm. I am sure the public would benefit from Sandia's participation in this panel, and we hope you can come. If you are interested, please call and we can discuss details. One or two people from Sandia would be the right number - one to discuss programs, expected funding profiles, and policy, and one to discuss earth penetrator nuclear phenomenology as it relates to target and collateral damage. I will be talking about expected collateral damage earlier in the day, but if you want to postpone this more technical portion of the discussion to another occasion, when it could be treated in greater detail, that would be fine too.

There will be no classified information presented or requested at this forum, obviously.

In your letter of June 22, you quoted from Dr. Robinson's remarks at the Nuclear Policy Research Institute forum in Washington earlier this year: "We in fact seek the same end goals - a peaceful and free world where the human spirit can create opportunities for all inhabitants of our earth to prosper and fulfill their hopes and dreams." I presume the world Dr. Robinson refers to includes the United States, and the freedom of which he speaks includes the right of Americans to understand fully, within appropriate limits of classification, the nuclear weapons policies made in their name and the effects of the new nuclear weapons Sandia has, among others, proposed, and Congress has now asked Sandia to investigate.

Please let us know as soon as possible if Sandia is interested in participating in this public discussion of its programs.

Sincerely,

Greg Mello, Executive Director

cc: Senator Jeff Bingaman
Rod Geer, SNL