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Livermore National Lab
Related Resources (government documents and letters)
POGO Files
POGO letter to DOE Secretary Steven Chu regarding an award given to an overbudget and overschedule National Ignition Facility (NIF) project In its first letter to DOE Secretary Steven Chu, POGO asked the Secretary to rescind a “Project Management Excellence” award that Secretary Chu recently gave to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) project because the NIF project is more than 600 percent over budget and at least 8 years behind schedule. POGO also informed the Secretary that a decade ago, then-newly confirmed Secretary Bill Richardson similarly applauded the NIF project only to learn later that he had been misled: the NIF construction was far over budget and at least one year behind schedule.
May 6, 2009
In the Midst of Nuclear Weapons Site Security Test Failures, DOE Adopts New Test and Security Requirements
August 8, 2008
Livermore Mock Terrorists Exercise Ends in Debacle: TIME Magazine Reports Massive Security Failures
May 13, 2008
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex: Livermore Homes and Plutonium Make Bad Neighbors Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore Lab), a nuclear weapons facility located in the greater metropolis of San Francisco, CA, poses the most significant security threat of any such facility in the U.S. Roughly seven million people live within a 50 mile radius of the Livermore Lab, which has approximately one ton of weapons-grade and weapons-quantity of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, DOE's most dangerous and expensive-to-guard special nuclear material (SNM). If terrorists gained access to this material, they could detonate them, devastating the San Francisco Bay Area and inland regions—the key agricultural areas of California . POGO has learned that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has given Livermore Lab a waiver so that it does not have to meet the current security requirements devised by the intelligence community. While NNSA pledges to remove the material from Livermore Lab by the end of 2012, POGO has determined that the material can safely be removed by early 2009, saving taxpayers a $160 million in security costs and eliminating a homeland security vulnerability that puts the surrounding population needlessly at risk.
March 17, 2008
POGO audio file of the Press Briefing on the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex: Livermore Homes and Plutonium Make Bad Neighbors POGO’s executive director Danielle Brian joins POGO investigators Peter Stockton and Ingrid Drake in highlighting the main points of POGO's newest investigation into the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex: Livermore Homes and Plutonium Make Bad Neighbors. The POGO staff is joined by Marylia Kelley, executive director of the Livermore-based watchdog group Tri-Valley CAREs.
March 17, 2008
Related Resources
POGO in the News
Committee Approves Bill to Protect UC Whistleblowers, , The California Chronicle, June 25, 2009
DoE Raps Nuke Lab Operators On Errant Classified E-Mails, By George Lobsenz, Defense Daily, June 13, 2008
"Red Team" Penetrates Nuke Lab's Security, Reaches "Superblock", by Tom Burghardt, Global Research, May 21, 2008
Nuclear lab fails terrorist exercise, By Bill Gertz, Washington Times, May 15, 2008
Security Flaws Exposed at Nuke Lab, By Adam Zagorin, TIME Magazine, May 12, 2008
Rep Ellen Tauscher Comments On POGO Report Detailing Nuclear Clean-Up At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, , States News Service, March 19, 2008
Watchdog wants plutonium out of Livermore Lab by 2009, By Betsy Mason, Inside Bay Area, March 19, 2008
Group cites dangers of Livermore Lab, , Ventura County Star, March 18, 2008
Group urges 2009 removal of plutonium, By Betsy Mason, Contra Costa Times, March 18, 2008
Major cuts planned at nuclear labs; Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos among sites destined for new role as nation reduces its stockpile of nuclear weapons, By David Perlman, The San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 2008
Livermore Lab Got Security Waiver—POGO, By George Lobsenz, The Energy Daily, March 18, 2008
Removal of nuclear materials sought, , Inside Energy/Extra, March 17, 2008
Group calls for more plutonium removal from Livermore lab, , The Associated Press, March 17, 2008
University of California, Bechtel awarded Lawrence Livermore lab management contract , By Erica Werner, Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News, May 8, 2007
Not short on cache, By Frank Munger, Knoxnews.com, May 7, 2007
Lab's plutonium to move by 2014, By Betsy Mason, San Jose Mercury News, April 6, 2006
Livermore Lab unveils big gun to scare off terrorists, By Ian Hoffman, Inside Bay Area, February 3, 2006
Feds Consider Shuttering Livermore Plutonium Facility, By Ian Hoffinan, The Oakland Tribune, September 7, 2005
Livermore lab security criticized, By Betsy Mason, Contra Costa Times, September 3, 2005
Remove plutonium from lab, task force says, By Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer, San Francisco Chronicle, July 15, 2005
Livermore; Remove plutonium from lab, task force says, By Keay Davidson, San Francisco Chronicle, July 15, 2005
It's time for the Kotla vs. lab case to end , , The Oakland Tribune, March 27, 2005
Jury Awards Whistleblower $2.1 Million, By Ian Hoffman, San Ramon Valley Herald, March 24, 2005
Livermore Lab seen as vulnerable, By Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2004
