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Complex 2030: the U.S. plan to rebuild the nuclear weapons complex


Complex 2030 information/resources

Additional WSLF nuclear weapons information

Unofficial Referendum on the Future of Nuclear Weapons::get your ballot and vote

 

Complex 2030: Nukes Forever!

“Complex 2030” is the latest euphemism assigned to the United States nuclear weapons research and manufacturing complex of the future. The United States plans to spend $150 billion over the next 25 years to replace its entire nuclear arsenal with new “Reliable Replacement Warheads” by the year 2030, and to establish the capability to produce new nuclear weapons designs. Complex 2030 means “Nukes Forever!”

On October 19, 2006, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency within the Department of Energy (DOE), announced its intention to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Complex 2030 - the latest in a long string of DOE proposals to provide environmental compliance cover for the endless refurbishment of the nuclear weapons complex. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the initial phase of this process provides for public input into the “scope” of the environmental review, which must, by law, analyze “reasonable alternatives.” Scoping meetings on Complex 2030 were held at a dozen locations around the United States, in communities near nuclear weapons facilities and in Washington, DC.

According to the Notice of Intent, published in the Federal Register, the EIS will “analyze the environmental impacts from the continued transformation of the United States' nuclear weapons complex by implementing NNSA's vision of the complex as it would exist in 2030... as well as alternatives.” The NNSA's preferred option includes establishment of a new bomb plant with the capacity to produce at least 125 plutonium “pits” - the cores of nuclear weapons - each year, as well as new construction or facility upgrades at all eight of its major sites currently operating. Under the so-called “No Action” alternative, NNSA would continue to operate the current nuclear weapons complex, adding greater weapons production capabilities at some of its sites. The third NNSA option, misleading called “Reduced Operations,” is similar to the first, except that instead of building a new plutonium facility, pit production would remain at the Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico, with output increased to 50 pits per year. All of these options would result in an increase over current nuclear weapons production capabilities. In the meantime, with or without Complex 2030, individual nuclear weapons research and production facilities are being modernized or built at nuclear weapons labs and factories across the country, and the nuclear weapons juggernaut is forging ahead.

The only good thing about Complex 2030 is that it's visible. The proposed project is tantamount to a U.S. declaration of “nukes forever,” and a repudiation of its obligation under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to end the arms race “at an early date” and to negotiate “in good faith” the elimination of its nuclear arsenal.

Indefinite maintenance of a huge, sophisticated nuclear arsenal, by the only country that has so far used nuclear weapons, is an unreasonable, unacceptable, and unlawful alternative. The only reasonable alternative is nuclear abolition. The United States, in compliance with its obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, should commit to the elimination of nuclear weapons no later than 2030, by initiating negotiations leading to conclusion of a verifiable treaty, under strict and effective international control.

Once the scope of the EIS is determined, the NNSA will release a draft study, currently anticipated in July 2007. A public comment period of at least 45 days will follow, with more public hearings. The final EIS is expected in May 2008, and the NNSA could reach a formal Record of Decision to implement Complex 2030 as early as June 2008.

Help turn the Complex 2030 EIS process into a national referendum on the future of nuclear weapons!

Cast your “vote” for the elimination of nuclear weapons by printing out, filling in and mailing copies of the unofficial “ballot” to the Department of Energy, your two Senators and your Representative. The official public comment period on scoping ends January 17, 2007, but there's no time limit on contacting your elected representatives.
For a printer friendly pdf of the Unofficial National Referendum on the Future of Nuclear Weapons ballot, click here

Background information and instructions for using the ballot (3 pp. html)

Action alert to distribute with the ballot (1 p. pdf)

February 2008 Bombplex Organizing meetings flyer (pdf)      Bombplex Environmental Impact Statement hearings flyer (pdf)
Mail your signed ballots to:

Theodore A. Wyka
Complex 2030 SEIS Document Manager
Office of Transformation
U.S. Department of Energy, NA-10.1
1000 Independence Avenue SW
Washington, DC 20585
 
Senator___________________________
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Representative_____________________
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Western States Legal Foundation Complex 2030 resources

Jacqueline Cabasso, "Complex 2030: U.S. Plans for 'Nukes Forever,'" International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation (INESAP) Bulletin No. 27, December 2006

Western States Legal Foundation Statement on Complex 2030, December 12, 2006

Unofficial Ballot, National Referendum on the Future of Nuclear Weapons

Action Alert: Cast Your “Vote” For the Abolition Nuclear Weapons!

Additional information/resources:

Department of Energy official Complex 2030 website

Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, The Bombplex: A Return to Industrial Production of Nuclear Weapons

Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, Complex 2030 and the National Environmental Policy Act

Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Bombplex 2030 Talking Points

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Bombplex 2030: Nuclear Proliferation Steps into High Gear with the Announcement of Complex 2030

See also generally, Stop the Bombplex: Clean Up, Don't Build Up!, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability

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