ACTIVISTS: CMRR EXAMPLE FOR ELIMINATION OF DOE CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Activists claimed success yesterday in the Administration’s deferment of the Chemistry Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and said the fate of the facility would be a model for the elimination of other large Department of Energy construction projects. At a Capitol Hill briefing, members of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a coalition of advocacy groups, declared a “major victory” in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s recent decision to suspend work for five years on the facility. “The CMRR is an interesting case study,” Bob Schaeffer of ANA said, noting that at a briefing last year that the group named elimination of the project a priority. “People went back and did their political work at home and did their scientific work, and our allies on the Hill did their work and it’s gone,” Schaeffer said. “One down, several to go.”