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University
of California
and the development of WMDs
LANL
and LLNL Today
UC
President Robert Dynes
Shuffling
the Nuclear
Weapons Complex:
Rethinking the UC's management,
media scrutiny, and laboratory objectives.
Salaries
of UC Employees

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UC Manages Armageddon:
The University of California
and Nuclear Weapons.
LANL and LLNL Today
Today, the three laboratories (including Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory)
have a combined UC workforce of 18,000 and operate on federally
financed
budgets totaling nearly $4 billion.2 Along with nuclear weapons
research,
LANL and LLNL conduct civilian studies as well, such as energy,
space,
and medical research. The vast amount of funding, however, given
by the
Department of Energy to the UC for managment of the labs is used
for
weapons research. In 2002, LANL recieved 1.2 billion dollars for
research
and development of nuclear weapons, which was 80% of its entire
DOE funding
for that year.(5)
The budget for 2004 from the DOE for ìtotal weapons activitiesî
will
be 6.4 billion dollars, an increase of 9% from 2003. 7 This is
30% of
the entire annual DOE budget of $21 billion. The $6.4 billion is
distributed
by the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration,
primarily
to the three national nuclear labs in the United States: LANL,
LLNL,
and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico which is managed by
the
Lockheed Martin Corporation. The Los Alamos Laboratory will
recieve 1.3
billion dollars for weapons research, Lawrence Livermore will
receive
1.2 billion. (6) That means that this year, of the $4 billion
dollar
combined budget the University of California manages for the
labs, $2.5
billion, or 63% will be used for nuclear weapons research.
The $2.5 billion is spent on various nuclear weapons programs,
including
the Stockpile Stewardship Program, which provides for upgrades
of every
nuclear weapon the US has, and the development of new nuclear
weapons,
under the guise of stabilizing an already existing arsenal of
weaponry.
The goal of the SSP is to enhance the capabilities of the US
nuclear
weapons stockpile. "In that pursuit, NNSA is modifying,
altering,
refurbishing, performing life extensions on, and replacing life
components
in all of the weapons in the stockpile."(6) Though a huge
portion
of the DOEís budget is devoted to these weapons "improvement"
programs,
the budget contains very little information about them.
Also being researched by University of California employees is
the Robust
Nuclear Earth Penetrator, with a $45 million budget over three
years
for design and theoretical framework. Construction of the RNEP
is set
to begin in the spring or summer of 2003 at LANL, and it will be
the
first new nuclear weapon to be added to the US arsenal since
1989. It
has been touted as a more "useable" nuclear weapon, its
objective
to burrow hundreds of feet below the ground before detonation in
a ìbunker-bustingî technique.
Not only does preliminary research prove the RNEP ineffective,
but it
shows that if used in an urban setting, the radiation emitted,
though
underground, would be enough to kill 50,000 people in the first
24 hours.
Bush Administration rhetoric has been heavily saturated with
threats
of first-strike nuclear use, and the development of a new
nuclear weapon
designed for battlefield use has disastrous consequences in the
international
arms control regime.
The University of California is responsible for environmental
destruction
through the development of these weapons. 47,500 barrels of
toxic waste
from the UC Lawrence Livermore Lab has been dumped off the coast
of San
Franciscoís Farrellon Islands, the largest fishery on the west
coast. The University also cheats local schools out of much
needed tax
revenue. Both LANL and LLNL pay no state taxes. In New Mexico,
LANL would
pay an estimated 60 million dollars in state tax, half of which
would
go to the educational system, however their work is considered
ìnonprofit
and educationalî by virtue of the fact that it is managed by the
University of California.(7)
The research of weapons of mass destruction including the RNEP,
the
management of the Stockpile Stewardship Program, and the
disposal of
nuclear waste, are all fundamental responsibilities of the
University
of California as lab managers. Under the guise of fundamental
scientific
research, backed by one of the nationís most respected
institutes
of higher learning, laboratory scientists and bureaucrats are
able to
continue their legacy of building weapons of mass destruction by
abusing
the reputation of this university, its faculty, and its
students.
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