Tri-Valley CAREs

Tri-Valley CAREs delegation (Pictured below from Left to Right, Marylia Kelley, Scott Yundt and Gail Rieger) to the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability's 2014 DC Days has just returned home after conducting scores of meetings with Members of Congress, their staff and top Administration officials. In DC, we were joined by dozens of teams whose members live around the nation's other nuclear weapons sites.

DC Days began with an all-day training on Sunday, May 18th. Over the next few days nearly 100 pre-scheduled meetings were conducted in key offices all over the capitol. Your Tri-Valley CAREs delegation participated in more than half of them, and served as the "team leaders" for numerous meetings.

We educated decision-makers about plutonium bomb core transport, the National Ignition Facility's pending use of plutonium and other issues facing the communities around Livermore Lab. Further, we focused on the imperative to reduce U.S. nuclear weapons spending, increase toxic and radioactive waste cleanup, and strengthen safety and oversight at Livermore and other sites around the country.

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) kicked off DC Days by releasing a new report for Congress and others, Billion Dollar Boondoggles, which was written by our Executive Director, Marylia Kelley, along with experts from other ANA member groups. The national alliance also honored leaders on nuclear issues at an evening awards ceremony; including Rep. Earl Blumenauer for introducing the REIN-IN Act to cut nuclear weapons spending and safety expert Donna Bushe for blowing the whistle on design flaws at the Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford, WA.

It was an exhausting week full of many meetings, yet truly uplifting too. To hear more about DC Days, including our "talking points," the progress we made and information we gathered, please join us at our special June 19, 2014 Tri-Valley CAREs meeting at 7:30 PM in the Livermore Library, 1188 South Livermore Avenue in Community Room A.