Hundreds of protesters are expected to gather today at the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to protest the lab’s
nuclear weapons research.
The University of California runs the Livermore lab, which has
been the site of protests for over 20 years.
The Livermore lab in Northern California, together with the
UC-managed Los Alamos lab in New Mexico, helped develop some of the
nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal.
The labs are now research facilities for homeland security and
are doing nuclear research under the Stockpile Stewardship
Program.
Since nuclear underground testing was stopped in the early
1990’s, the Stockpile Stewardship Program was developed to
ensure the safety and reliability of the nation’s nuclear
weapons.
“Nuclear weapons are a strong symbolism of what’s
wrong with our country. It’s domination and control based on
the threat of annihilation,” said Tara Dorabji, the outreach
director of TriValley Communities Against a Radioactive
Environment, the Livermore watchdog group sponsoring the protest
this year.
Protesters accuse the lab of continuing to develop new and
modified nuclear weapons.
Each year they gather in front of the lab on Good Friday to
begin events with a prayer and speeches. They then march toward the
gates of the lab.
Lynda Seaver, a spokeswoman for the Livermore lab, denied that
the lab is developing new weapons.
Seaver said the purpose of nuclear research at the lab is to
ensure the safety and security of existing weapons, not to develop
new ones.
But despite denials of new weapons research, last year
Washington set aside $15 million for feasibility studies for the
Livermore and Los Alamos labs on the a new bunker-busting bomb.
The Livermore lab has gained attention in recent years because
of homeland security issues and the increased importance of nuclear
and biological weapons in world affairs.
The Livermore labs have also recently experienced an increase in
protesters at the annual demonstrations.
Last August, over 1,000 protesters gathered to mark the
anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb over Japan and to
demonstrate against Livermore’s nuclear research and
Bush’s foreign policy.
The Los Alamos lab was built as part of the Manhattan Project.
The lab designed the nuclear weapons that were eventually used to
bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
At the Good Friday protest last year, about 270 protesters
gathered and 73 were arrested for blocking the gate of the lab.
Seaver said the lab will prepare for the demonstration this year
by making necessary safeguards to ensure workers can enter and exit
the lab.
Carolyn Scarr, a member of the board of directors for the
Ecumenical Peace Institute ““ Clergy and Laity Concerned, said
the UC has something to answer for in managing these labs.
“The UC should not only get out of developing weapons,
they should do some real research in demobilizing the nuclear
stockpile,” Scarr said.