NUCLEAR ABOLITION SUMMIT
BREAKING THE NUCLEAR CHAIN
University of Nevada at Las Vegas, April 1-4, 1996
c/o Citizen Alert 4633 Paradise Rd. Suite B, Las Vegas, NV 89109
Phone: (702) 796-3835 * Fax: (702)796-4886
No Mining! No Testing! No Production! No Ddumping! No Nukes!
For Immediate Release
March 26, 1996
Contact: (702) 796-3835
ANTI-NUCLEAR STRATEGY MEETING
NEXT WEEK IN LAS VEGAS
NUCLEAR WASTE TRANSPORT, SUBCRITICAL
NUCLEAR TESTS TOP ISSUES LIST
Las Vegas (NV) -- Organizers and activists from a wide range of nuclear issues converge on Las Vegas and the Nevada Test Site for a week of conferences, demonstrations and nonviolent direct action. The Nuclear abolition summit, to be held at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, April 1-4, 1996, will bring together international antinuclear activists focusing on all phases of the nuclear chain, from mining to dumping: The Summit's goal is to strategize and develop a cohesive plan to oppose moves by the nuclear industry on many fronts, including planned "subcritical" nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site, continued uranium mining, and the transportation and dumping of nuclear waste using unsound designs in unsafe locations throughout the world, many times on traditional indigenous lands.
"No Mining! No Testing! No Production! No Dumping! No Nukes! is the rallying cry of the participants. The Nuclear Abolition Summit is one in a series of meetings of the international Abolition 2000 Network, whose member groups represent tens of millions of people on six continents calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons and a timebound framework for such disarmament to be negotiated by the year 2000.
Among the Summit's most pressing issues are the upcoming plans by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to conduct underground "subcritical" nuclear tests. Although the DOE claims that these test, so-called hydrodynamic experiments, are allowed under the Nuclear Testing Moratorium Act, opponents of the tests (scheduled to begin June 18, 1996) foresee the dangers these tests pose both to the recently extended Non-Proliferation Treaty and to current negotiations for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. "These upcoming tests are offensive and contrary to nuclear disarmament, which is US law as stated in Article 6 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. They are expensive, deadly and will only lead to more nuclear waste in Nevada. The DOE claims these aren't nuclear tests but they are continuing to develop nuclear weapons through underground experiments at the Nevada Test Site. It sounds like a nuclear test to me" declared Summit organizer Stephanie Fraser. She added, "We must make the connections between the civilian adn military uses of radionuclides, only in this way will true nuclear disarmament occur."
Some of the issues to be addressed:
- Cost of continued reliance on nuclearism: environmental, political, and social costs and consequences
- The deadly connections between civilian and military uses of nuclear materials.
- Global organizing for true security, and disarmament
- Planned "subcritical" nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site
- Presidential politics, nuclear weapons and the 21st century
- Halting all production of nuclear materials for civilian and military use
- Sustainable energy options, sane nuclear waste policies.
- Human costs of 50 years of Mutual Assured Destruction
Events during the Week:
4/1 - Rally, Nuclear Fools Parade and Demonstration -- A march from the University of Nevada Las Vegas to the Department of Energy's Nevada Operations Office to demand "Shut the Nevada Test Site down."
4/1-3 The Nuclear Abolition Summit plenaries, panels, working groups and discussions. Specific times, panelists and locations available upon request.
4/3 - Free Evening Concert -- Music, thanks and celebration for the gains made toward disarmament.
4/4-7 Healing Global Wounds -- A spiritual and political gathering of activists at the entrance to the Nevada Test Site (65 miles northwest of Las Vegas) will be held with workshops and discussions on the effects reliance on nuclearism have had on Native and ruralcommunities around the world, especially onthe Western Shoshone people on whose land almost 1000 nuclear bombs were exploded.
4/8 - Nuclear Abolition Day of Action -- Nonviolent direct action to close the Nevada Test Site down with a larger call for all nuclear testing sites to be closed permanently.
INITIAL ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS:
Alliance of Atomic Veterans
American Friends Service Committee
BAN Waste Coalition
Bay Area Action
Center for Energy Research
Citizen Alert
CTB Clearinghouse
Economist Allied for Arms Reduction
Gray Panthers
Grandmothers for Peace (Northland Chapter)
Greenpeace
Hawaii Coalition Against Nuclear Testing
Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Community
Manhattan Project II
National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans
Nukewatch
Peace Action
Peace Action Education Fund
Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma
Proposition One
San Francisco Area Physicians for Social Responsibility
Sane/Freeze Hawaii
Seeds of Peace
Shundahai Network
Southeast Center for Ecological Awareness
Students and Teachers Against Nuclear Dumping
Unity Foundation
War Resisters League
Western Shoshone National Council
Western States Legal Foundation
Wetlands Preserve Environmental Center
Women's International League of Peace and Freedom
Women Strike for Peace
Invitation - Proposal - Shundahai Committment - Schedule
Proposition One --- Peace Park --- Current Events