Watchdog group: Budget gives to nukes, takes from cleanup

In a budget of $3.8 trillion it can be hard to see the importance of a few million dollars here or there. Yet, sometimes, where those few supposedly insiginificant millions are spent can tell the whole story.

With the combination of an increase in spending for nuclear weapons production estimated at around $625 million from last year and a proposed decrease in funding for environmental cleanup at nuclear weapons sites, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) says President Obama’s new budget tells a story of misdirection regarding nuclear weapons policy.

“The threats from nuclear weapons include the environmental and health damage to U.S. communities that hosted weapons production facilities over the past 65 years,” said ANA program director Nick Roth in a press statement released Monday. “Yet the budget for the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management budget was reduced nearly $80 million.”

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability is a national network of three-dozen grassroots and national groups representing the concerns of communities near U.S. nuclear weapons sites that are directly affected by 65 years of nuclear weapons production and waste contamination.

You can find the entire press statement regarding the President’s new budget proposal and its impact on nuclear weapons production here.