Groups Object To Use Of Plutonium At The National Ignition Facility

On behalf of NRDC and Tri-Valley CAREs, we have objected to plans for using plutonium in experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a Rose Bowl-sized laser facility at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Livermore, California.  We have urged that the plutonium experiments not move forward until environmental and non-proliferation concerns are addressed by the Department of Energy (DOE), which oversees the facility.  These include the risks for worker or public exposure to radioactive material, the likelihood that these experiments may undermine the moratorium on nuclear testing, and the implications of contaminating the facility with plutonium for the potential to use the NIF for non-weapons research in the future.  Our letters to the agency are here.