Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL): 79 Religious Organizations Oppose Energy Department Plan for New Nuclear Bomb Plant
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2008
10:16 AM
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CONTACT: Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
Devin Helfrich (202-903-2520, or Devin@fcnl.org)
or Maureen Brookes (202-903-2530 or Maureen@fcnl.org)
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79 Religious Organizations Oppose Energy Department Plan for New Nuclear Bomb Plant
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WASHINGTON, DC - April 30 - Seventy-nine Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Protestant groups have joined together to reject administration plans to reactivate the U.S. nuclear weapons infrastructure and build new nuclear bomb plant facilities, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers) announced today. In a formal letter to the Energy Department, religious organizations from across the country called instead for the United States to end new nuclear weapons production and commit to multilateral disarmament.
"We call on our political leaders to show the moral and political courage necessary to bring about a shift in our nation’s nuclear weapons posture. Today we have a historic opportunity to begin the journey out from under the shadow of nuclear weapons," stressed the religious groups.
The letter was submitted to the Energy Department as part of a public comment period required to assess the environmental impact of Complex Transformation, the proposed plan to rebuild the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. The centerpiece of this proposal is a new nuclear weapons facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, located 25 miles northwest of Santa Fe, NM. The new bomb plant facility would enable the mass production of plutonium pits, the primary detonators in modern nuclear weapons.
The statement’s signers expressed concern that the new and upgraded facilities would be used in the development of a new generation of nuclear warheads, despite the moral and legal obligations of the United States to reduce its weapons arsenal.
The Friends Committee on National Legislation organized the coalition letter in cooperation with the National Religious Partnership on the Nuclear Weapons Danger. Read the full text of the statement, and see a list of signers: www.fcnl.org/pdfs/nuclear/Religious_Leaders_Statement_to_DOE.pdf (PDF).
More information on Complex Transformation and FCNL’s nuclear program is available at www.fcnl.org/nuclear
For more on the National Religious Partnership on the Nuclear Weapons Danger, see www.faithfulsecurity.org or contact Jessica Wilbanks at 505-758-1206 or jwilbanks@fourthfreedom.org
The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby in Washington, is a non partisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people from every state in the U.S. to advocate for social and economic justice, peace, and good government. For more information: www.fcnl.org
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