NUCLEAR ABOLITION SUMMIT

BREAKING THE NUCLEAR CHAIN
University of Nevada at Las Vegas, April 1-4, 1996

c/o Citizen Alert 4633 Paradise Rd. Suite B, Las Vegas, NV 89109
Phone: (702) 796-3835 * Fax: (702)796-4886
No Mining! No Testing! No Production! No Ddumping! No Nukes!

PROTESTERS OPEN NUCLEAR ABOLITION SUMMIT WITH
"NUCLEAR FOOLS DAY" MARCH ALONG VEGAS STRIP

CALL FOR HALT TO NUCLEAR WASTE SHIPMENTS AND
CANCELLATION OF DOE'S "SUBCRITICAL TESTS"

Las Vegas (NV) -- Anti-nuclear activists and organizers from across the United States and abroad launched the week long Nuclear Abolition Summit yesterday with a "Nuclear Fools Day" parade through Las Vegas and a demonstration at the Department of Energy's Nevada Operations Office. Donning radiation suits, masks, and hauling foaming mock radioactive waste barrels, activists will protest the dangerous transport of nuclear waste through Las Vegas and the "subcritical" nuclear tests scheduled to begin at the Nevada Test Site this June.

Department of Energy (DOE) officials say they have transported over 960 shipments of nuclear waste through Las Vegas to Area 5 of the Nevada Test Site. Further, the DOE plans roughly 15,000 waste shipments over the next 30 years, in addition to waste shipments slated for the proposed high-level waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

"Millions of people come to Vegas every year to gamble with their money, but the Department of Energy is out here gambling with our lives," said Reinard Knutsen, local nuclear Abolition Summit organizer. "An accident with one of these shipments would shut down this town from the Luxor to the Golden Nugget. It would be a disaster for Nevada's economy as well as its environment."

The Summit will bring together international antinuclear activistsfocusing on all phases of the nuclear chain, from uranium minimg to the dimping of nuclear waste. Subcritical experiments rank among the top of the activists' concerns because the test could undermine international efforts to wrap up negotions on a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by June 30. The DOE, which proposed the experiments, says they are needed to assess the effects of age on the plutonium in U.S. nuclear weapons and to maintain a state of readiness at the test site. But Summit organizers cautioned that the timing of the experiments and the impression they create will cause problems at the Geneva-based test ban talks.

"At the very moment our negotiators will be trying to seal the deal on a test ban in Geneva, our weaponeers will be honing their nuclear expertise at our test site in Nevada. The timing couldn't be worse," said Bruce Hall, Greenpeace's Nuclear Disarmament Campaigner. "These subcritical experiments, along with sizable investments in new nuclear weapons research facilities, raise the concern that the U.S. weapons labs are trying to evade the disarmament goals of this treaty."


INITIAL ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS:
Alliance of Atomic Veterans
American Friends Service Committee
BAN Waste Coalition
Bay Area Action
Center for Energy Research
Citizen Alert
CTB Clearinghouse
Economist Allied for Arms Reduction
Gray Panthers
Grandmothers for Peace (Northland Chapter)
Greenpeace
Hawaii Coalition Against Nuclear Testing
Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Community
Idaho Citizens Action Network
Manhattan Project II
National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans
Nukewatch
Peace Action
Peace Action Education Fund
Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma
Proposition One
San Francisco Area Physicians for Social Responsibility
Sane/Freeze Hawaii
Seeds of Peace
Shundahai Network
Southeast Center for Ecological Awareness
Students and Teachers Against Nuclear Dumping
Unity Foundation
War Resisters League
Western Shoshone National Council
Western States Legal Foundation
Wetlands Preserve Environmental Center
Women's International League of Peace and Freedom
Women Strike for Peace


Invitation - Proposal - Shundahai Committment - Schedule
Proposition One --- Peace Park --- Current Events