Dear Peace and Environmental Advocates,

With the Senate ready to soon decide funding levels for the next fiscal year, now is the time to contact your Senators and let them know that you oppose further funding for the NIF and that they should too.

If you're not sure who represents your state or how to contact them, the Senate web site will provide you with this information.

Below you'll find a sample letter which includes important talking points about why the NIF is an incredibly bad idea. It's best to send an email or fax right away, and then follow up with a hard copy in the mail. Your voice makes a difference!

[DATE], 2001

Dear Senator          ,

I'm writing to strongly urge you to take a stand and support efforts to reduce funding allocated to the Department of Energy's National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, California.

Here are the facts which have convinced me that this project is an incredibly damaging waste of our taxpayer dollars:

1. Budget estimates keep going up, and up, and up; no one is absolutely sure what it will cost in the end, especially since DOE missed its deadline of June 1 of last year to "re-baseline" the project. All the same, estimated costs to date do not include important project elements such as diagnostics to gather data about the experiments. In addition, a recent GAO report found a "clear pattern of deceit, fraud and abuse by top [Livermore Lab] management officials intent on covering up budget hemorrhages and technical problems."

Why should we believe this organizational culture is going to change and we'll suddenly get accurate information from these same officials? If they've been lying to Congress, shouldn't criminal investigations be initiated?

2. Ongoing development work on new nuclear weapons encourages other nations to follow suit and makes our nuclear arms control efforts hypocritical. Indeed, India cites ongoing work at the NIF as one of the reasons it recently developed and tested atomic weapons. The NIF is clearly in violation of the spirit (if not the letter) of both the Nuclear Nonproliferation and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaties.

How many new nuclear weapons do we need? Can we honestly say that the ones we have now aren't good enough?

3. Livermore Lab officials cite the "important role" NIF will play in "Stockpile Stewardship" to keep our nuclear weapons safe and reliable. However, top scientists expose this as a lie. Edward Teller, known as the father of the hydrogen bomb, when asked about the NIF's utility for this task, replied: "None whatsoever." Los Alamos physicist Rod Schultz wrote in a lab publication that NIF's touted importance to the weapons stockpile does "not reflect the technical judgment of the nuclear weapons design community." Sandia Lab's former vice-president Bob Peurifoy called NIF "worthless" for maintenance of the arsenal. In a separate interview with another newspaper, Livermore weapons scientist Seymour Sack called NIF "worse than worthless" for that task. Ray Kidder, another Livermore Lab physicist, said: "As far as maintaining the stockpile is concerned, [NIF] is not necessary."

Should we believe Livermore Lab officials with a vested interest in continuing the project, or should we believe numerous independent scientists with no stake in the outcome of the project? Also, aren't there better ways - as Dr. Robert Civiak recently outlined in a report for Tri-Valley CAREs (http://www.igc.org/tvc), a local environmental group - of maintaining the safety of our nuclear arsenal?

4. The NIF faces serious technical difficulties that make it unlikely to ever operate as planned. No diagnostic equipment has been designed or foreseen in the budget. Lab scientists have not figured out how to fabricate the target that will be blasted into fusion, nor have they figured out how to load and precisely position this target in the ignition chamber. Additionally, no one has yet figured out how to produce glass in the necessary quantities and purity necessary for the laser optics that are a key component of the system.

Shouldn't these fundamental technical issues be solved before we continue to pour money into a system that might not work?

5. By its very design, the NIF will produce additional radioactive and toxic waste, which is the last thing that the Livermore community needs. Given that Site 300 and the Main Lab in Livermore are already on the Superfund National Priorities list, and that Livermore Lab is slated to receive dozens of pounds of plutonium under DOE reorganization plans, do we really need more hazardous wastes accumulating at the Lab? Especially given the close proximity of the Greenville earthquake fault to the lab?

Some have touted this project as a step along the long path to energy from nuclear fusion, but at what price? What are the real costs to our nonproliferation goals, the health of the Livermore community, and other worthy programs within the Department of Energy? Rather than the pipe dream of nuclear fusion, wouldn't those billions of dollars be better spent on research into non-polluting energy sources such as wind & solar that will bring thousands of quality jobs to Americans?

Senator Tom Harkin has come out recently in favor of reining in the profligate and wasteful spending associated with the NIF. Let me urge you to get in touch with his office and join with him in efforts to stop this damaging boondoggle.

Most Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME HERE]
[ADDRESS]

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