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79 Religious Groups Oppose Nuclear Bomb Plant;
Call for Nuclear Disarmament

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(April 30, 2008, WASHINGTON, DC) -- Seventy-nine Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim groups have joined together to reject administration plans to reactivate the U.S. nuclear weapons infrastructure and build new nuclear bomb plant facilities, Faithful Security announced today. In a formal letter to the Energy Department, religious organizations from across the country called instead for the United States to end new nuclear weapons production and commit to multilateral disarmament.

"We call on our political leaders to show the moral and political courage necessary to bring about a shift in our nation's nuclear weapons posture. Today we have a historic opportunity to begin the journey out from under the shadow of nuclear weapons," stressed the religious groups.

The letter was submitted to the Energy Department as part of a public comment period required to assess the environmental impact of Complex Transformation, the proposed plan to rebuild the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. The centerpiece of this proposal is a new nuclear weapons facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, located 25 miles northwest of Santa Fe, NM. The new bomb plant facility would enable the mass production of plutonium pits, the primary detonators in modern nuclear weapons.

The statement's signers expressed concern that the new and upgraded facilities would be used in the development of a new generation of nuclear warheads, despite the moral and legal obligations of the United States to reduce its weapons arsenal.

"Recently there has been tremendous bipartisan momentum for making the world safer by pursuing the elimination of nuclear weapons once and for all," explained Jessica Wilbanks, Advocacy Director for Faithful Security. "Today's statement from faith groups demonstrates a moral consensus for disarmament--and a firm rejection of efforts to build new plutonium pits."

Faithful Security organized the coalition letter in cooperation with The Friends Committee on National Legislation. Read the full text (PDF) of the statement and see a list of signers.

Faithful Security, the National Religious Partnership on the Nuclear Weapons Danger, is a multi-faith coalition dedicated to lifting the moral voice of U.S. religious communities toward a world free of nuclear weapons. Learn more at www.faithfulsecurity.org.

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PRESS CONTACT: Jessica Wilbanks, (575) 758-1206 office, (410) 713-0335 cell, jwilbanksfaithfulsecurity.org

Source: "Faithful Security" <info@faithfulsecurity.org>