A Safe, Secure and Dwindling Arsenal

From today's New York Times editorial page:

The Obama administration is studying whether to move the nation’s huge nuclear weapons production and maintenance complex from the Energy Department, its host for more than two decades, to the Defense Department. The more important question is how it can best contribute to a safe reduction of the nuclear arsenal.

Amen to that.

A good first step would be Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. For background on the treaty, see the newly-updated Congressional Research Service report, "Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: Background and Current Developments."

But first, shouldn't we get current on our dues?! From the CRS report's executive summary:

U.S. voting rights in the CTBT Organization Preparatory Commission were suspended on January 1, 2009, for not paying enough dues.

Yet another example of lame-duck inaction requiring swift action.

Good news for Hanford Site down-winders

Delightful: Supreme Court rejects Hanford appeal

From the story by Karen Dorn Steele in the December 16, 2008 issue of Spokane's Spokesman Review:

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Hanford’s contractors in the massive downwinders’ lawsuit – raising hopes for a legal settlement for up to 2,000 radiation-exposed people after 18 years of court battles and millions of dollars in litigation costs.

The high court’s one-line denial of the contractors’ appeal was announced today. The contractors, including E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co., General Electric Co. and UNC Nuclear Industries Inc., filed their appeal in August, asking the court to review two recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rulings that sided largely with the downwinders.

“This is very exciting for us,” said Richard Eymann of Spokane, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the long-running case. “With a new administration coming in, we want a serious look at compensation for these people after years of litigation,” he said.

When weapons manufacturers are denied immunity from liability for damage to the environment, and harm to weapons plant neighbors (not to mention noncombatants!), the true cost of war may finally hit their pocketbooks.

For more news about this decommissioned nuclear weapons production facility in Washington State check out Hanford News, published by Kennewick WA's Tri-City Herald.