[NukeNet] TVC Statement/UC Regents Mtg./Rally 10 AM

[Marylia Kelley]

STATEMENT TO BE DELIVERED IN PERSON TO THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA, 8 AM TOMORROW, MAY 17, AT THE REGENTS' MEETING, MISSION BAY
COMMUNITY CENTER, 1675 OWENS STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94158

NOTE: PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD IS AT 8 AM, A RALLY TO SUPPORT THE HUNGER
STRIKERS IS AT 10 AM, SAME LOCATION --MK

Statement to the Regents of the University of California
May 17, 2007
by
Jedidjah de Vries

I am Jedidjah de Vries, the Outreach Director at Tri-Valley CAREs in
Livermore, CA. Before moving to Livermore several months ago, I graduated
from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

As staff at the Livermore Lab "watchdog" organization and an UC alumnus, I
am here to tell you that you, the Regents of the University, cannot let
yourself be part of the development of a new H-bomb, the so-called
"Reliable Replacement Warhead" program.

The creation of new nuclear bombs:
1. Is unneeded, as evidenced by the JASON report showing that the plutonium
cores of U.S. nuclear weapons will remain reliable for a minimum of 100
years;
2. Increases the risk of global nuclear proliferation and makes us all
less, not more, secure;
3. Violates international law, specifically Article VI of the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty;
4. Endangers the environment by continuing to contaminate sites and nearby
communities, including here in Livermore and at Los Alamos;
5. Diverts hundreds of billions of dollars and the focus of scientists from
solving truly pressing problems such as global climate change and the need
for alternative energy.
6. Is immoral. It is wrong to create weapons that can destroy all of
humanity and our precious planet.

Tri-Valley CAREs and its partners submitted a "GREEN" bid for the Livermore
Lab management contract. We did so to outline a vision - one that would
transform the Livermore Lab into a "World Class Center for Civilian
Science" to focus on socially-beneficial research initiatives. We believe
U.S. national and world security need renewable, non-polluting energy
technologies, not new H-bombs.

Further, the Livermore Lab GREEN management proposal focused on important
employee and community concerns - enhancing "whistle-blower" protection,
worker and community safety, and openness and transparency. We call on you,
the Regents, to demonstrate how you will achieve these important goals.

The University of CA - with Bechtel and other partners - manages the Los
Alamos Lab. Your partnership with Bechtel and others has just won the
contract to manage the Livermore Lab. You have a responsibility, and a
choice. Will you continue to permit your name to be used to silence workers
who have safety concerns? Will you become the manager for a new generation
of weapons of mass destruction in the form of a new H-bomb? Or, will you
become a force for moving Livermore and Los Alamos in a new direction
toward a civilian science future?

I, and the 5,800 members of the Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs, call on
you today to publicly renounce the further development of new nuclear
weapons, specifically the RRW-1 being designed at Livermore Lab. If you do
not do so, then you are deliberately choosing to go down the immoral and
foolish path to dangerous new nuclear weapons.

I am also here today to support the UC student's brave actions to seek
accountability and moral responsibility from their university, and urge you
to support their demands for an end to research on the so-called Reliable
Replacement Warhead at Livermore and an end to preparations for increased
plutonium pit production at Los Alamos to support the RRW.

Do not be silent and lend the imprimatur of academic respectability to the
nuclear weapons enterprise.

I have copies for the Regents of Tri-Valley CAREs' report on the Reliable
Replacement Warhead, "A Slippery Slope to New Nuclear Weapons," copies of 3
editorials opposing the RRW - 2 from Livermore-area newspapers and 1 from
the New York Times - and a copy of the JASON report on plutonium aging.

###

Marylia Kelley,
Executive Director

Tri-Valley CAREs
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA  94551

Ph: (925) 443-7148
Fx: (925) 443-0177
Web: www.trivalleycares.org
Email: marylia at trivalleycares.org or marylia at earthlink.net