Tri-Valley CAREs
Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
for immediate release, August 16th, 2001
Billboard Unveiling For Campaign To Urge Livermore Lab Scientists To Quit Work On The National Ignition Facility And Other Nuclear Weapons Projects
WHAT: Tri-Valley CAREs has purchased space on the only billboard in the City of Livermore to appeal to scientists and engineers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), asking them to forswear work on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) mega-laser and other nuclear weapons programs.
WHEN: 11 AM, Monday, August 20, 2001, for an "unveiling" and press conference.
WHERE: At the 24-foot billboard, corner of Portola Ave. and Murrieta Blvd., Livermore (at the Portola Ave. on-ramp to I-580).
WHO: Speakers include
Issac Trotts, former LLNL Computer Scientist in the Stockpile Stewardship program, on the broad-based campaign, of which the billboard is a key element, urging scientists and engineers to renounce work on nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Trotts has been speaking to young scientists in colleges and Universities on the nuclear weapons applications of NIF and the Stockpile Stewardship program since leaving his position at LLNL earlier this year.
Dr. Andreas Toupadakis, former nuclear chemist in the LLNL Stockpile Stewardship program, on the responsibility of scientists to refuse to work on nuclear weapons. Dr. Toupadakis left LLNL's weapons program last year for reasons of conscience.
Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs, the Livermore-based Lab "watchdog" organization, on why the group purchased the billboard and what else is planned for 2002 in the group's campaign to reach LLNL workers.
Also present and available for interviews will be physicist Marion Fulk, LLNL retired, Tri-Valley CAREs' Ann Seitz, who helped design the billboard, Don King, Martha Priebat and other community representatives.
WHY: The new billboard, a lighted, high-quality vinyl creation in brilliant reds and yellows, will be seen by 24,100 drivers each day, including many of the Livermore Laboratory staff who live in town or commute home to other communities in the Tri-Valley or East Bay. The billboard artistically features part of the target chamber of the National Ignition Facility and invites the viewer to ponder NIF's relationship to advancing nuclear weapons science. Concludes the billboard, "Your Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste."
The international Scientists and Engineers Pledge to Renounce Weapons of Mass Destruction, recently launched by Tri-Valley CAREs and three colleague organizations, and other relevant materials about NIF, Stockpile Stewardship and nuclear weapons are available on Tri-Valley CAREs' web site, which is listed on the billboard (www.igc.org/tvc) along with the group's phone number.
The new Livermore billboard is similar to one placed by the Los Alamos Study Group near the Los Alamos weapons lab in New Mexico, and is part of a coordinated campaign.
Tri-Valley CAREs will be creating postcards using the new billboard image, and will be corresponding in 2002 with all 8,000 Livermore Lab employees.