[CPEO-MEF] New NIF billboard to debut Mon/media adv.

[marylia@earthlink.net]

for more information, contact:
Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148

media advisory
MONDAY, AUGUST 20, BILLBOARD UNVEILING FOR CAMPAIGN TO URGE LIVERMORE LAB
SCIENTISTS TO QUIT WORK ON THE NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY AND OTHER NUCLEAR
WEAPONS PROJECTS

WHAT:           Tri-Valley CAREs has purchased space on the only billboard
in the City of Livermore to appeal to scientists and engineers at the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), asking them to forswear work
on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) mega-laser and other nuclear
weapons programs.

WHEN:           11 AM, Monday, August 20, 2001, for an "unveiling" and
press conference.

WHERE:          At the 24-foot billboard, corner of Portola Ave. and
Murrieta Blvd., Livermore (at the Portola Ave. on ramp to I-580).

WHO:            Speakers include

                * Issac Trotts, former LLNL Computer Scientist in the
Stockpile Stewardship program, on the broad-based campaign, of which the
billboard is a key element, urging scientists and engineers to renounce
work on nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Trotts has been
speaking to young scientists in colleges and Universities on the nuclear
weapons applications of NIF and the Stockpile Stewardship program since
leaving his position at LLNL earlier this year.

                * Dr. Andreas Toupadakis, former nuclear chemist in the
LLNL Stockpile Stewardship program, on the responsibility of scientists to
refuse to work on nuclear weapons. Dr. Toupadakis left LLNL's weapons
program last year for reasons of conscience.

                * Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs,
the Livermore-based Lab "watchdog" organization, on why the group purchased
the billboard and what else is planned for 2002 in the group's campaign to
reach LLNL workers.

                * Also present and available for interviews will be
physicist Marion Fulk, LLNL retired, Tri-Valley CAREs' Ann Seitz, who
helped design the billboard, Don King, Martha Priebat and other community
representatives.

WHY:            The new billboard, a lighted, high-quality vinyl creation
in brilliant reds and yellows, will be seen by 24,100 drivers each day,
including many of the Livermore Laboratory staff who live in town or
commute home to other communities in the Tri-Valley or East Bay. The
billboard artistically features part of the target chamber of the National
Ignition Facility and invites the viewer to ponder NIF's relationship to
advancing nuclear weapons science. Concludes the billboard, "Your Mind Is A
Terrible Thing To Waste."

The international Scientists and Engineers Pledge to Renounce Weapons of
Mass Destruction, recently launched by Tri-Valley CAREs and three colleague
organizations, and other relevant materials about NIF, Stockpile
Stewardship and nuclear weapons are available on Tri-Valley CAREs' web
site, which is listed on the billboard (www.igc.org/tvc) along with the
group's phone number.

The new Livermore billboard is similar to one placed by the Los Alamos
Study Group near the Los Alamos weapons lab in New Mexico, and is part of a
coordinated campaign.

Tri-Valley CAREs will be creating postcards using the new billboard image,
and will be corresponding in 2002 with all 8,000 Livermore Lab employees.

--end--

Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94550

<http://www.igc.org/tvc/> - is our web site, please visit us there!

(925) 443-7148 - is our phone
(925) 443-0177 - is our fax

Working for peace, justice and a healthy environment since 1983, Tri-Valley
CAREs has been a member of the nation-wide Alliance for Nuclear
Accountability in the U.S. since 1989, and is a co-founding member of the
Abolition 2000 global network for the elimination of nuclear weapons, the
U.S. Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and the Back From the Brink
campaign to get nuclear weapons taken off hair-trigger alert.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~