Nuclear Weapons: The American Friends Service Committee Local Hazard/Global Threat (AFSC) and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) are joint sponsors of a national effort, the Colorado is not the only place in the U.S. Rocky Flats/ Nuclear Weapons Facilities Project, where communities are endangered by the ROCKY FLATS/ based in Denver, Colorado and Nyack, New York. research, production, transport or deployment of The Project is engaged in a variety of activities nuclear weapons and weapons systems. Millions NUCLEAR WEAPONS and organizing strategies described in this of Americans experience the arms race as some­ brochure, with the common purpose of building a thing concrete and close to home (see map). FACILITIES PROJECT constituency for disarmament and end ing all More than 30 campaigns across the country are nuclear threats . working to build a constituency for disarmament through organizing around these facilities. The AFSC/FOR Project is coordinating a nationwide Task Force with the aim of making the nuclear weapons complex more visible both at the local level and in Washington, D.C. We have convened three national conferences and have sponsored Congressional briefings on the hazards of weapons production and first-strike policy. Along with the Task Force, the Project is publishing a report to document the Department of Energy weapons complex and is planning demonstrations at facilities around the nation in April 1981. In December 1980, the Project co­ hosted a conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, to lay the groundwork for a campaign to stop all Radiation: The Human Cost Clara Harding and Martha Harding Ails with photos of Joe nuclear testing. Harding "Survivors of former Paducah Enrichment Plant Thousands of Americans have been exposed to Worker." radiation during the 35 years of the U.S. nuclear weapons and nuclear power programs. Many are now suffering and dying from cancer and other 1 diseases. The Citizens' Hearings for Radiation "Our nuclear program was built -------------------ROCKY FLATS/NUCLEAR WEAPONS FACILITIES PROJECT I Victims held in Washington, DC on April11-14, 1980, provided a national forum to dramatize the in the name of national security­ I "Rocky Flats is the place human costs of this technology. protecting the lives of Americans. D Please send me more information on:. .. ... •.................. .. 1 where the next war­ Testimony was presented by individuals from One can't help but wonder, ··· ······ ··· ····· ······ ········ ···· ····················· ······· ··· ·· I more than 40 states: nuclear shipyard workers, the last war-will begin. Native American uranium miners, veterans who was protected D Enclosed is my tax-deductible contribution payable to I exposed to atomic bomb tests, widows of AFSC or FOR of$ ...... ....... .... .. .. ...... , earmarked for the It is the trigger and at whose expense?" Rocky Flats Project. I nuclear plant workers, and victims of fallout. not only of nuclear weapons, Their testimony was augmented by scientific and REP. PAT SCHROEDER (CO) I Sponsor, Citizens' Hearings Name ............... ... ..... .. ... ..... .... ,........... .... .... ... ... .. ..... I but of the end medical experts. A Citizens' Panel included for Radiation Victims Robert J. Lifton of Yale University, Karl Z. Address.. ......... ....... ... ... .. ........ .... ............. .... .. .. ........... of civilization." I Morgan of Georgia Technological Institute, and ·· ····· ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ····· ······ ······ ··· ··· ··· ·· ·· ····· ·· ·· ····· ··· · I BARRY COMMONER Everett Mendelsohn of Harvard University. They at Rocky Flats rally we are continuing the struggle for recognition April 19, 1980 responded to the testimony with a series of I recommendations that were delivered to the and compensation for radiation victims. This is AFSC FOR I White House. especially crucial at a time when our nation is 1660 Lafayette St., Suite D Box 271 I The American Friends Service Committee and about to embark upon a renewed escalation of Denver, CO 80218 Nyack, NY 10960 Fellowship of Reconciliation Nuclear Weapons nuclear weapons and nuclear power develop­ (303) 832-4508 (91 4) 358-4601 I Facilities Project convened a broad coalition of ment. As Lifton, who authored a study of I organizations and individuals to sponsor this Hiroshima victims, said to those who testified: NWF Project/Midwest I historic event. Through local and regional "Our survival may depend on your telling the tale 2206 Fox Ave. hearings and a national letter-writing campaign, and our hearing it." Madison, WI 53711 I (608) 257-8649 I COVER PHOTO by V1cky Ree""'s I The Arms Race, Science and the Future "We must admit that we are intoxicated Scientists have special responsibilities and with our science and technology opportunities to speak out for peace and (and) deeply committed disarmament. In July 1979, the AFSC/FOR Project sponsored a "Plowshare" coffeehouse at to a Faustian bargain the World Council of Churches Conference at the which is rapidly Massachusetts Institute on "Faith, Science, and the Future." Since then, we have expanded our killing us spiritually efforts to reach out into the mainstream of the and will soon kill scientific community and to forge working us all physically." alliances with those who are trying to prevent the next technological escalation of the arms race. JOSEPH WEIZENBAUM, MIT In January 1980, the Project helped to secure at the WCC Conference passage of a resolution on disarmament at the July, 1979 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A day-long sym­ Disarming the Nuclear Trigger posium on the arms race was part of the "This country is in the early years conference. The Project staff coordinated a The Radiation Victims Hearings grew out of of the most expensive military campaign to support passage of the resolution, more than six years of work by the AFSC/ FOR boom in history. The expansion which established a working committee on peace Project, focusing on the local and global hazards and disarmament issues. The resolution specifi­ of nuclear weapons production and U.S. strategic in military science and technology cally called for "the development of plans for the policy. Based in Denver, Colorado, a broad is the most ominous component step-by-step conversion . of facilities for nuclear weapons production, research, and campaign is under way to close and convert the of a defense budget that is Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, which testing into science and technology facilities for fabricates the plutonium "triggers" (nuclear ex­ dense with the ghosts peaceful uses." Besides ongoing work, we plosive components) for every warhead in the of past and future wars." helped to plan a series of symposia and public U.S. arsenal. The plant also does research and meetings on disarmament at the AAAS gathering builds components for new warheads and EMMA ROTHSCHILD, MIT in Toronto in January 1981. in The N.Y. Review of Books weapons systems, such as the neutron bomb and MX missile. Rocky Flats has been the site of numerous accidents and regular radioactive releases . A Department of Energy report in 1979 showed higher plutonium emissions from Rocky Flats than anywhere else in the world. Health studies three years , with thousands of people taking Nuclear Weapons have found high cancer rates and possible part. In conjunction with the Interfaith Center on Facilities U.S.A. genetic defects among people living downwind Corporate Responsibility, we have filed share­ Research and Development from the plant. holders' resolutions and organized vigils at the * Manufacturer annual business meetings of Rockwell Inter­ + Testing Sites Rocky Flats has become a national symbol of • Storage/Stockpiles the threat of nuclear war-both immediate and national, corporate managers of the plant. We ® Military Reactors have done extensive public education and work * Waste long-term. The AFSC/ FOR Project has as its ..,. Fuel Processing goals the closing and conversion of Rocky Flats with policymakers in Colorado and in Washing­ • Uranium Mine/Mill to peaceful , non-nuclear uses, along with a total ton, D.C. Currently, the Project is coordinating a freeze on the production and deployment of any campaign to initiate the conversion planning at new weapons. To advance these goals, the the state and local level, and to pressure federal Project has helped to sponsor and initiate authorities to set a time-line to phase Rocky demonstrations at Rocky Flats over the past Flats out of operation. .