New Nuclear Danger

Boeing, Lockheed Martin, TRW (now Northrop Grumman), and Raytheon, the four companies with the majority of missile defense contracts, spent over 40 million dollars on lobbying expenses and campaign contributions from 1998 to 2001 alone ¹ to guarantee that mega-billion-dollar Pentagon contracts for Star Wars and other weapons systems will keep coming. Missile defense spending is expected to surpass 8 billion dollars in the 2003 fiscal year, with costs of deployment over the next decade projected at 200 billion dollars—a bonanza for Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. Northrop Grumman acquired TRW in 2002 to reap TRW’s lucrative Star Wars contracts. With firms like Boeing having a staff of 250,000 worldwide and Lockheed Martin operating plants in all fifty U.S. states, the weapons industry has tremendous political influence in Washington, D.C. The defense industry contributed over 15 million dollars in the 2002 election cycle alone. Median CEO salaries at the largest thirty-seven weapons contractors rose by a staggering 79% between 2001 and 2002, according to a study by United for a Fair Economy.

The U.S. was by far the top global weapons seller in 2002, with 45% of the world market, according to a congressional report, “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1995-2002.” Earning 13.3 billion dollars in its 2002 arms deals, the U.S. was particularly dominant in sales to so-called “developing” nations. To read about the new campaign by Amnesty International and Oxfam against the world arms trade, visit www.controlarms.org. For data on companies selling weapons around the world, see the Federation of American Scientists Arms Sales Monitoring Project website: www.fas.org/asmp.

Lockheed Martin Corporation

2000-02 Pentagon contract awards: $47,156,000,000
2002 lobbying expenditures (inclusive of non-military products and services):
$6,260,000
2000-02 campaign contributions: $4,165,682

Headquarters:
Lockheed Martin Corporation
6801 Rockledge Drive
Bethesda, MD 20817
(301) 897-6000
www.lockheedmartin.com

Primary locations for missile-defense work:
Space Systems, Missiles & Space Operations
1111 Lockheed Martin Way
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
(408) 742-7151

Space Systems, Astronautics Operations
12999 Deer Creek Canyon Road
Littleton, CO 80127-5146
(303) 977-3000

Also doing missile-defense work at Eagan, MN site.

Notes: Lockheed Martin is the world’s biggest weapons maker. In 2002, the company received 17 billion dollars in Pentagon contracts and another 2 billion dollars from the department of energy for nuclear-weapons projects. Lockheed Martin and Boeing are by far the largest overseas arms dealers, with Lockheed’s most profitable export the F-16 combat plane. Lockheed Martin develops many components for missile defense. In Sunnyvale, California, the company builds the Trident II Submarine-Launched Ballistic missile, a multiple-warhead missile deployed on the Trident submarine, and the only long-range U.S. nuclear missile presently manufactured. The firm was awarded a 589-million-dollar contract in 1999 for twelve more D5 nuclear missiles for Trident submarines. The government previously bought 372 D5s at nearly 60 million dollars each. Each Trident submarine can destroy an entire continent with nuclear weapons.

Lockheed Martin designs and makes nuclear warheads as the prime contractor for Sandia National Laboratories. At the Nevada Test Site, Lockheed Martin conducts “subcritical testing” of new nuclear-weapons designs. Through its subsidiary Sandia Corporation, the company manages the Sandia National Laboratory in Livermore, California and Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Along with Bechtel Nevada and other smaller companies, Lockheed Martin administers the Nevada Test Site. Eight members of the Bush administration were once directly or indirectly part of Lockheed Martin, whose new slogan is “We Never Forget Who We’re Working For.” The company has produced depleted uranium munitions and landmines. Lockheed Martin’s profits soared by 36% just prior to the 2003 Iraq war, including a 15% increase just in military aircraft. The firm’s F-117 stealth attack aircraft bombed “leadership targets” in Baghdad. Lockheed Martin makes the Hellfire and Patriot (PAC-3) missiles and the Paveway II bombs, all used in Iraq, as well as “bunker buster” weapons. To read more on the company’s contribution to the 2003 “Shock and Awe” bombing of Iraq, go to www.actagainstwar.org/article.php?id=165. In March 2003, Lockheed Martin won a 100-million-dollar contract to make 212 PAC-3 missiles for use in Iraq, with plans to build 20 PAC-3s a month by 2005. “Homeland security” work is a lucrative new arena for the company. Lockheed Martin makes depleted uranium munitions, used in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, and in Afghanistan and Kosovo, and also manufactures anti-personnel landmines. “The Pentagon and United Nations estimate that U.S. and British Forces used 1,100 to 2,200 tons of armor-piercing shells made of depleted uranium during attacks in Iraq in March and April [2003]—far more than the estimated 375 tons used in the 1991 Gulf War,” writes Larry Johnson in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 4, 2003.

In May 2003, Lockheed Martin Mission Systems, along with Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, was awarded a contract to start designing equipment for streamlined nuclear-war planning, and also for nuclear-wartime communication equipment, for what the military sees as a 10-fold increase in the number of target requests by 2007. This contract is part of a 200-million-dollar, eight-year Pentagon program to enlarge and upgrade U.S. computer and telephone gear intended to function, and survive, all through a protracted nuclear war, consistent with the Nuclear Posture Review’s commitment to “defeat any aggressor.” See links to more information on the Nuclear Posture Review, and on the updated nuclear war plans, near the end of Appendix B.

For Star Wars, Lockheed Martin designed the current booster system, including Payload Launch Vehicles, at sites in Sunnyvale, California; Dallas, Texas; and Orlando, Florida. The firm is the prime contractor for the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS), which provides the missile-defense system with early warning of missile launches against the U.S. (the first test is slated for 2012). The Airborne Laser program in Sunnyvale tests beams of laser energy to destroy theater ballistic missiles hundreds of miles away. Lasers will be placed on 747 aircraft to zap medium-range ballistic missiles in their boost or ascent phases.

In 2001, Lockheed Martin was awarded the biggest defense department contract in history—200 billion dollars—to develop the F-35 high-tech Joint Strike Fighter plane, expected to become the main attack plane for the Air Force, Navy, and Marines for decades to come. The contract could grow to 400 billion dollars when foreign sales are added. Versions of the JSF will be made for the Navy, Air Force, and Marines, as well as for the United Kingdom.

In 1999, Lockheed Martin won an Air Force contract valued at up to 1.5 billion dollars over fifteen years to modernize and integrate command systems of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in Colorado, as well as the command and control systems of the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based U.S. Space Command, the Air Force Space Command, and other sites in the United States and abroad. The upgrade will link some forty separate air, space, and missile-defense command and control systems into a network with new capabilities to handle space warfare, according to Lockheed Martin.

In the 1970s, Lockheed admitted to paying 22 million dollars in bribes to win overseas contracts.² In 2001, Lockheed Martin had to pay a 4.25-million-dollar settlement agreement between the U.S. government and the company’s Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems division. Lockheed Martin used Foreign Military Sales (FMS) funds illegally in a contract to modify sonar systems used by Egypt.³ Former Lockheed Martin vice president Bruce Jackson chairs the Coalition for the Liberation of Iraq, a group that was one of the primary instigators of the 2003 bombing of Iraq. Watchdog group: www.stoplockheed.org.

Management:
Vance Coffman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
2002 salary, including stock gains, bonuses, etc.: $25,337,000
Total 2000-02: $47,734,000
Source: Business Week, April 21, 2003
G. Thomas Marsh, President and General Manager, Space Systems Company,
Space & Strategic Missiles (Sunnyvale, California)
Albert E. Smith, Executive Vice President, Space Systems (Littleton, Colorado)

2000-02 Pentagon contract awards: $47,721,000,000
2002 lobbying expenditures (inclusive of non-military products and services):
$8,260,000
2000-02 campaign contributions: $3,019,725

Headquarters:
Boeing World Headquarters
100 North Riverside Plaza
Chicago, IL 60606-1596
(312) 544-2000
www.boeing.com

Primary locations for missile defense work:
Boeing
1421 Jefferson Davis Highway
Arlington, VA 22202
(703) 472-4000

Boeing
499 Boeing Blvd.
Huntsville, AL 35806
(256) 461-2121

Boeing’s other missile-defense facilities are located in Houston, Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; Wichita, Kansas; Anaheim and Canoga Park, California; Kent, Washington; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Tucson, Arizona; Bedford, Massachusetts; and Ogden, Utah.

Notes: Boeing obtained over 16 billion dollars in Pentagon contracts in 2002, an increase from 13 billion dollars in 2001 and 12 billion dollars in 2000. As the prime contractor for missile defense, Boeing is responsible for the development and integration of program components, including the Ground-Based Interceptor, X-Band Radar, Battle Management Command, Control and Communication (BMC3) systems, Upgraded Early Warning Radar, and interfaces to the Space-Based Infrared System Satellites. The firm employs 3,760 people in missile defense, and received 9.1 billion dollars for missile defense in the budget for the 2004 fiscal year. Seventy percent of U.S. missile defense testing is done at Boeing Huntsville. (Northrop Grumman’s facility in Colorado Springs is another major test site.) The Redstone Arsenal, according to award-winning investigative reporter Karl Grossman, is “up to its neck in Star Wars work and sits alongside NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which is developing a nuclear-propelled rocket for military and civilian operations.”

According to Boeing’s website, the firm makes the following missile defense components: Airborne Laser and Advanced Tactical Laser (precise, directed-energy, laser weapons system intended to shoot down ballistic missiles in the boost phase); Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (designed to detect, track and destroy intercontinental ballistic missiles); Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile (intended to accurately defend against short- and medium-range threats); Arrow (joint American and Israel co-production of a ground-based ballistic missile defense system designed to protect against short- and medium-range missiles); Avenger (U.S. army’s line-of-sight, short-range, shoot-on-the-move system); and Divert and Attitude Control System (intended to position the Theater High Altitude Area Defense System missile to intercept its target).

In 2001, Boeing completed a 3-million-dollar missile-defense test silo at its airport plant in Huntsville, ninety feet underground. According to a company spokesperson, “A wide array of information is needed by Boeing. . . . Engineers need to know what amount of stress the silo’s concrete structure can withstand, and how silo doors will behave in sub-zero conditions. . . . We are going to have a special shroud built around the top of the silo, and then lower the temperatures to at least 30 degrees below zero. That’s just to test the doors.” Boeing is also building test silos at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California and two at Meck Island in the South Pacific. Boeing’s Rocketdyne division in Canoga Park does research for hit-to-kill warheads for missile defense.

In 1994, Boeing paid 75 million dollars in order to avoid criminal prosecution, which, at that time, was the largest non-criminal Pentagon payback case in government statements. The payment included 52 million dollars for computer-related work, overcharging on non-domestic government work, and 9 million dollars for hazardous-waste disposal costs.⁴ In 2001, the justice department sued Boeing for purportedly hiding a subcontractor’s billing fraud of several million dollars.⁵ In 2000, Boeing had to pay 15 million dollars to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit on behalf of 12,000 present and 7,000 former African-American employees.⁶ Despite this record, the Pentagon still designated Boeing the prime missile-defense contractor. The firm was awarded 38 billion dollars in “homeland defense” contracts in the 2003 fiscal year. Presidential advisor Karl Rove has owned up to 250,000 dollars in Boeing stock, based on his disclosure documents. Boeing funds the right-wing think tank Center for Security Policy, a major proponent of the need for missile defense and new nuclear weapons. Boeing’s slogan is “Forever New Frontiers.”

Management:
Philip M. Condit, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
2002 salary, including stock gains, bonuses, etc: $4,145,000
Total 2000-02: $27,794,000
Source: Business Week, April 21, 2003
James W. Evatt, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Boeing Missile
Defense Systems

Northrop Grumman Corporation

(incorporated weapons giants Litton Industries in 2001, and TRW in 2002)

2000-02 Pentagon contract awards: $24,264,000,000
2002 lobbying expenditures (inclusive of non-military products and services):
$11,770,618
2000-02 campaign contributions: $1,668,550

Headquarters:
Northrop Grumman Corporation
1840 Century Park East
Los Angeles, CA 90067-2199
(310) 553-6262
www.northgrum.com

Primary location for missile defense work:
Northrop Grumman Space Technology
One Space Park
Redondo Beach, CA
(310) 812-4321

Notes: With its 2002 acquisition of TRW, Northrop Grumman is now a major missile defense contractor. The company makes a central component of missile defense: the Battle Management Command, Control, and Communications (BMC3) system, which links the computer systems that are supposed to differentiate between nuclear warheads and Mylar decoy balloons. Northrop Grumman is also making spacecraft, Tactical High-Energy Lasers, Airborne Lasers, Space-Based Lasers, and target launch vehicles, and doing Theater Missile Defense work.

Northrop Grumman operates the Joint National Test Facility, a major missile-defense test site in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that carries out realistic national and theater missile-defense simulations (war games). The company is collaborating with Raytheon on the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) missile early warning system. Northrop Grumman’s site in Capistrano, California, is building the megawatt-class Scud-killing laser. The firm is collaborating on the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS), designed to track missiles and relay data to destroy them before impact, with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Litton TASC, Analex Corporation, and the Space Dynamics Laboratory of Utah State University. Northrop Grumman is also involved in the 7-billion-dollar Airborne Laser program. Seven members of the Bush administration are former officials, shareholders, or consultants of Northrop Grumman, whose company slogan is “Defining the Future.”

According to a 2003 company press release, Northrop Grumman will be manufacturing a “smart bomb rack assembly for the B-2 stealth bomber, allowing the B-2 to carry as many as 80 independently targeted, GPS-guided weapons, compared with its current capacity of 16. The B-2 is America’s most advanced strategic conventional and nuclear long-range heavy bomber. The primary mission of the B-2 is to ‘enable any theater commander to hold at risk and, if necessary, attack an enemy’s warmaking potential, especially those time-critical targets which, if not destroyed in the first hours or days of a conflict, would allow unacceptable damage to be inflicted. ’ The B-2 is the only aircraft in history to combine intercontinental range, large payload, precision weapons and stealth technology—a combination that is revolutionizing air warfare. ‘We can fly missions with impunity anywhere in the world from the heartland of America and return the same day’ (Lt. Col. Jay De Frank). Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor with Boeing, Raytheon and General Electric as principal team members. Total value of the work, scheduled to run through the first quarter of 2006, is 31.7 million dollars.”

Since 1997, Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems, based in Reston, Virginia, has been the chief manager of the nation’s Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) force, intended to ensure the effectiveness of the U.S. “nuclear deterrent force” through 2020. The contract’s total value is 6 billion dollars. Subcontractors are Lockheed Martin and Boeing. For over 40 years prior to this position, Northrop Grumman provided engineering and technical assistance to the Air Force to help it manage the ICBM force. The company is involved in updating Minuteman II launch facilities and missile alert facilities through its Clearfield, Utah, facility, including the propulsion, guidance, and launch command systems. According to a company press release, “The Nuclear Posture Review, released by the Department of Defense last year [2002] as required by Congress, presents the direction for American nuclear forces over the next 10 years and reaffirmed the need for the Minuteman III through 2020. Since keeping missiles on alert is so essential, Northrop Grumman initiated processes for weapons assessment and risk management to anticipate and resolve potential problems before resulting in unacceptable system performance.”

In addition to its nuclear-weapons work, Northrop Grumman is a major supplier of the weapons that were used to bomb Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan. They make the infamous B-2 Stealth bomber or “B-2 Spirit,” which cost 2.2 billion dollars each. Northrop Grumman has built 21 B-2s so far. Politicians like Senator Norm Dicks (D-Washington) and Senator Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-California) have been attempting to renew the Stealth program by requesting funding for up to forty more planes.

Management:
Ronald D. Sugar, chief executive officer and president
2002 salary, including stock gains, bonuses, etc.: $5,278,000
Total 2000-01 [Kent Kresa, former CEO]: $14,705,000
Source: Forbes, May 12, 2003; Business Week, April 21, 2003
Wesley G. Bush, Corporate Vice President and President, Northrop Grumman
Space Technology

2000-02 Pentagon contract awards: $19,537,000,000
2002 lobbying expenditures (inclusive of non-military products and services):
$3,440,000
2000-02 campaign contributions: $1,755,432

Headquarters:
Raytheon Company
141 Spring Street
Lexington, MA 02421
(781) 862-6600
www.raytheon.com

Primary location for missile defense work:
Raytheon Missile Systems
1151 East Herman Road, Building 80707
P.O. Box 11337
Tucson, AZ 85706
(520) 794-3000

Notes: Raytheon is a major missile-defense provider. They are the prime contractor for the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), the intercept element of the Ground-Based Interceptor, intended to find and destroy its target with kinetic energy, or hit-to-kill technology. Along with Boeing, Raytheon will continue to construct and try out the EKV for possible use in Star Wars. They build the missile-defense program’s X-Band Radar and Upgraded Early Warning Radar, and make the radar sensor for the Theater High Area Altitude Defense (THAAD) system. Raytheon produces missiles for the Navy Theater-Wide program, and manufactures missiles for Navy Aegis destroyers to intercept long-range ballistic missiles fired from North Korea.

Raytheon’s new CEO, William Swanson, along with former CEO Daniel Burnham, supplied the U.S. government with arms for illegal bombings of known civilian targets in Iraq, Kosovo, Serbia, and Afghanistan, according to the Massachusetts Anti-Corporate Clearinghouse. Raytheon makes Patriot air defense missiles. They manufacture Tomahawk cruise missiles, launched from Navy ships and submarines and used in bombing Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. Raytheon constructs the HARM missile that exploded and killed sixty-two civilians in a Baghdad market in the 2003 Iraq war. In conjunction with Lockheed Martin, Raytheon makes the Paveway II bomb, guided by sensors, also used in the 2003 Iraq war. Other Raytheon products include the “bunker buster” GBU-28 weapons, each 5,000 pounds, plus the Javelin, Maverick, and TOW missiles—all used in the 2003 bombing. The name “Raytheon” means “light from the gods.” The firm is actively working on more than 4,000 weapons programs, according to its literature, in primary areas of missiles, defense electronics, and information systems.

Raytheon paid 4 million dollars in 1994 to settle a government charge that the firm inflated a 71.5-million-dollar antimissile radar defense contract.⁷ In 1999, according to Reuters, Raytheon was forced to pay 3 million dollars to competitor AGES group and buy up 13-million-dollars worth of AGES aircraft parts to resolve the claim that Raytheon had hired a security company to spy on AGES and steal confidential documents, after the AGES Group was awarded a government contract formerly granted to Raytheon.⁸ There have been allegations that Raytheon’s lobbyists may have paid off a senator in 1995 to secure a 1.4-billion-dollar radar contract with Brazil.⁹ Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is a former Raytheon board member. Raytheon’s slogan is “Customer Success is Our Mission.”

Management:
William H. Swanson, president and chief executive officer (as of July 2003)
2002 salary [of former CEO Daniel Burnham], including stock gains, bonuses, etc.:
$8,922,000
Total 2000-02 [Burnham]: $19,591,000
Source: Business Week, April 21, 2003
Louise L. Francesconi, vice president and general manager, Missile Systems

General Dynamics Corporation

2000-02 Pentagon contract awards: $17,583,000,000
2002 lobbying expenditures (inclusive of non-military products and services):
5,250,933
2000-02 campaign contributions: $2,521,115

Headquarters:
General Dynamics
3190 Fairview Park Drive
Falls Church, Virginia 22042-4523

(703) 876-3000
www.generaldynamics.com
www.gdeb.com/about (Trident information)
www.gdbiw.com (Bath Iron Works)
www.gdds.com (other weapons)

Five major weapons-development sites:
General Dynamics Electric Boat (builds Trident submarines)
75 Eastern Point Road
Groton, CT 06340-4989
(860) 433-3000

Bang

or Trident Site
General Dynamics Electric Boat
P.O. Box 6519
Silverdale, WA 98315-6519
(360) 598-5100

Kings Bay Trident Site
General Dynamics Electric Boat
1040 USS Georgia Avenue
Kings Bay, GA 31547
(912) 882-6551

General Dynamics
Bath Iron Works
700 Washington Street
Bath, ME 04530
(207) 443-3311

General Dynamics Defense Systems
100 Plastics Avenue
Pittsfield, MA 01201
(413) 494-1110

Notes: At its large Electric Boat Division in Groton, Connecticut, General Dynamics produces the U.S. Navy’s Trident and Seawolf nuclear submarines. One Trident is capable of incinerating an area the size of Russia. Owned by General Dynamics, Bath Iron Works makes the Aegis destroyer, a guided-missile warship, each bearing 56 nuclear-capable Tomahawk Cruise missiles, each of which can carry a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead. One Tomahawk cruise missile can carry the equivalent of 15 Hiroshima bombs, with each destroyer representing the bombing force of 840 Hiroshimas. Each Aegis costs 900 million dollars to 1 billion dollars, and over 38 have been built so far. The Aegis also holds 20mm Vulcan cannons, which can fire depleted uranium munitions. General Dynamics’s company slogan is “Strength on Your Side.” For the missile defense system, they are working on sea-based systems for the Navy’s Aegis cruisers. General Dynamics makes traditional F-16 jets and Abrams tanks. According to the company’s website, “major products include the Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarine, Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyer, Abrams M1A2 digitized main battle tank, the Stryker wheeled assault vehicle, medium-caliber munitions and gun systems, tactical battlefield communications systems. . . . In our test facilities are 21st century platforms and systems like the Marine Corps Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAAV), Navy SSGN guided missile submarines and next-generation communication systems for the military and select commercial customers.” General Dynamics makes surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles, part of the inventory on more than 100 Navy ships. The company sells many of its products overseas, including tanks to Egypt, Kuwait, Greece, Morocco, Oman, Thailand, and Taiwan. A former vice president of General Dynamics, Gordon England, is now Secretary of the Navy.

Management:
Nicholas D. Chabraja, chairman of the board and chief executive officer
2002 salary, including stock gains, bonuses, etc.: $15,245,000
Total 2000-02: $31,367,000
Source: Business Week, April 21, 2003
Michael W. Toner, executive vice president and group executive, Marine Systems;
and president, Electric Boat Division

2002 Pentagon contract awards: $1,300,000,000
2002 lobbying expenditures (inclusive of non-military products and services):
$520,000
1999-2002 campaign contributions: $1,300,000

Headquarters:
Bechtel Group, Inc.
50 Beale Street
San Francisco, CA 94105-1895
(415) 768-1234
www.bechtel.com

Notes: Bechtel, the world’s largest engineering firm, has been involved with nuclear weapons since the Manhattan Project. Bechtel Nevada (in conjunction with Lockheed Martin) is in charge of advanced nuclear-weapons assembly, testing, and diagnostics facilities at the Nevada Test Site as part of a $1.9 billion contract for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Test Site is now carrying out subcritical nuclear tests, in opposition to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Bechtel Nevada also has contracts with NASA, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy. Bechtel Nevada works on the Stockpile Stewardship program to “upgrade” the U.S. nuclear-weapons stockpile.

The new Kwajalein ballistic missile defense test site in the Marshall Islands is managed by Bechtel and Lockheed Martin. With Boeing, Bechtel is working on design and construction for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system. Bechtel designs facilities and systems for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada. The company developed the first atomic power plant, and is now the largest nuclear power company in the world, having built forty-five plants in the U.S. alone. Bechtel manages the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory.

Bechtel National (BNI) and Jacobs Engineering have a five-year, 2.5-billion-dollar management and operations contract to manage the Oak Ridge Y-12 nuclear weapons plant (see more on Oak Ridge below). BNI has also managed other nuclear-weapons sites, such as the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, the Savannah River Site, the Mound Site, and Hanford (radioactive waste cleanup contract). In 2002, a Bechtel division secured a 202-million-dollar contract to build naval nuclear-propulsion components.

In 2003, Bechtel won a controversial 680-million-dollar contract to rebuild Iraq after the 2003 U.S. bombing of the country. The company has come under increasing fire for privatizing the water supply in Bolivia’s largest city, Chochabumba, and raising the rates poor citizens pay for water by 50%. According to San Francisco-based Direct Action to Stop the War, “Bechtel stood by while the government of Bolivia killed people in the streets who protested Bechtel’s water hikes. After the people prevailed and kicked Bechtel out, Bechtel is now suing Bolivia for 25 million dollars. One can only imagine what the people of Iraq will have in store for them.”

A report by Dena Montague of the Arms Trade Resource Center states that “Bechtel built the first Indian nuclear plant at Tarapur, the largest nuclear facility in Asia. The construction of the nuclear plant allowed for the detonation of India’s first atomic bomb using plutonium produced by the Tarapur reactor. Not only did Bechtel’s activities help foster a nuclear arms race in South Asia that has had global implications, the plant also experienced major leaks, causing severe radiation exposure in the area. This toxic phenomenon affected many nuclear power stations built by Bechtel. In fact, by the 1970s the entire generation of reactor plants Bechtel began building in the late 1950s were not in compliance with minimum Atomic Energy Commission safety requirements.”

Management:
Riley P. Bechtel, chairman of the board and chief executive officer
2002 salary, including stock gains, bonuses, etc.: not available
2002 estimated worth: $3.2 billion
Source: Forbes.com
Adrian Zaccaria, president, chief operating officer, director

Sources: The Center for Responsive Politics; Frida Berrigan, William Hartung, Michelle Ciarrocca and Dena Montague, Arms Trade Resource Center/World Policy Institute; Reaching Critical Will; MotherJones.com; SpaceDaily.com; U.S. Arms Sales page; Direct Action to Stop the War; Bruce Gagnon/Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space; Multinational Monitor; Steven Saples; Pratap Chatterjee; “The Real Rogues Behind Star Wars,” by Rachel Ries, Rachel Glick, Tim Nafziger, Mark Swier, and Kevin Martin; Center for Defense Information; CorpWatch; Public Citizen; Global Exchange; United for a Fair Economy; War Profiteers.com; Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; Stephen Schwartz; Jack and Fay Bus-sell /Maine Veterans for Peace

OTHER U.S. COMPANIES WORKING ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS (A PARTIAL LIST)

Alliant Techsystems, Alliant Missile Products, British Aerospace Electronics (BAE Systems), British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), BWX Technologies, Computer Sciences Corporation, Dyncorp, Fluor Corp., General Atomics, General Electric, GenCorp (Aerojet Missile and Space Propulsion Unit), Honeywell Inc. (1.8-billion-dollar contract in 2000 to make components to maintain existing nuclear weapons), IBM, ITT L-3 Communications Holding, Logicon Software, Mason & Hanger-Silas Mason Company, Inc. (refurbishes stockpiled nuclear weapons and dismantles old warheads at the Pantex plant, in Texas), Mitsubishi, Science Applications International Corporation,^g SI International, Siemens, Textron, United Defense (makes the Bradley fighting vehicles that fire depleted uranium shells), United Technologies, and Westinghouse Electric Company (warhead assembly).

U.S. NUCLEAR-WEAPONS LABORATORIES

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
7000 East Avenue
Livermore, CA 94550-9234
(925) 422-1100
www.llnl.gov
llnlweb@llnl.gov

Contractor: University of California Board of Regents for the U.S. department of energy. Major nuclear-weapons work such as the massive Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program, including the National Ignition Facility which may design fusion weapons. According to watchdog group Tri Valley CARES, LLNL designs four nuclear-weapons systems for the current U.S. stockpile: W87 and W62 intercontinental ballistic missile warheads, the B83 gravity bomb, and the W84 cruise-missile warhead. LLNL and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are the weapons development component of a “new strategic triad” for up to 15,000 “offensive” and “defensive” nuclear- and non-nuclear-weapons systems allowed under the Nuclear Posture Review. The Lab is planning to take over the testing of plutonium bomb cores for the U.S. arsenal; is seeking a permit from the California department of toxic substances control for a new 32-million-dollar radioactive waste treatment facility without an Environmental Impact Report; has begun work on a “Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator” (explosive force of 75 kilotons, five times more than Hiroshima) and “mini nukes” (under-5-kiloton bombs); and may soon build a biological weapons facility. Regarding LLNL and LANL, Dan Stober in the San Jose Mercury (October 10, 2002) writes: “The ‘design contest’ between the two labs is intended to generate enthusiasm among their workers, who have engaged in a spirited nuclear competition for five decades.” According to Michael I. Niman of The Humanist (March/April 2003), major media outlets in Europe obtained complete copies of the Iraqi weapons declaration in 2002, much of which was censored in the U.S. media after the Bush administration deleted 8,000 pages of the 11,800-page report. The missing material describes how between 1983 and 1990, Lawrence Livermore, Sandia, and Los Alamos Laboratories, as well as weapons contractors Bechtel, Hewlett-Packard, and Honeywell, among others, helped supply Saddam Hussein with weapons materials such as the makings of nuclear weapons (and instructions on how to use the components), botulinum toxins, West Nile fever virus, anthrax, and gas gangrene bacteria. Director: Michael R. Anastasio

Sandia National Laboratories
1515 Eubank SE
Albuquerque, NM 87123 (main facility)
(505) 845-0011

7011 East Avenue
Livermore, CA 94550
(925) 294-3000
www.sandia.gov
gperri@sandia.gov (public affairs office)

Contractor: Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. department of energy. Headquarters in Albuquerque with a smaller laboratory in Livermore. According to their website, “designs all non-nuclear components for the nation’s nuclear weapons.” Director: C. Paul Robinson

Los Alamos National Laboratory
1663 Central Avenue, MS A117
Los Alamos, NM 87545
(800) 508-4400; (505) 665-4400
www.lanl.gov
cro@lanl.gov (public affairs office)

Contractor: University of California (UC) Board of Regents for the National Nuclear Security Administration. All nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal were designed by a UC employee at Lawrence Livermore or Los Alamos National Laboratory. “[T]he Laboratory continues to ensure the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile” according to their website. Along with Lawrence Livermore, now working on 6 billion dollar a year of nuclear-weapons research, testing and production (not including delivery systems), including the B61 bomb and W80 cruise-missile warhead.

Director: George (Pete) Nanos

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
One Bethel Valley Road
Oak Ridge, TN 37831
(865) 574-4163
www.ornl.gov
mclaughlinmz@ornl.gov (public affairs office)

Contractors: Lockheed Martin, Bechtel National, Westinghouse Electric, and others. Produces nuclear-weapon components to support the design laboratories and the Nevada Test Site. See additional information below regarding the planned National Security Complex.

Director: Jeffrey Wadsworth

Nevada Test Site
c/o U.S. Department of Energy
Nevada Operations Office
Office of Public Affairs and Information
P.O. Box 98518
Las Vegas, NV 89193-8518
(702) 295-0944
www.nv.doe.gov
carter@nv.doe.gov (public affairs office)

Contractors: Lockheed Martin, Bechtel National, and others. The Nevada Test Site, where nuclear weapons have been tested since the 1960s, is located about sixty-five miles northwest of the city of Las Vegas, and is surrounded on three sides by the Nellis Air Force Range.

Manager: Kathleen Carlson

Source: Brookings Institution, Tri Valley CARES

For more information on the laboratories and who is managing the U.S. department of energy nuclear weapons complex, see the Brookings Institution website www.brook.edu/fp/projects/nucwcost/sites.htm. Also see a map and description of weapons facilities at www.stopthebombs.org/nuke/map.html.

HUGE NEW NUCLEAR-WEAPONS COMPLEX IN THE WORKS

Still grounded in a Cold War mentality, the U.S. department of energy in late 1998 announced plans for a new, patriotically titled “National Security Complex” in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Oak Ridge is presently home to the Y-12 Plant, the last remaining full-scale operating nuclear-weapons factory in the U.S., and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which designs nuclear-weapons parts. Three Tennessee Valley Authority commercial nuclear reactors—Watts Bar Unit 1 (near Spring City, Tennessee) and Sequoyah Units 1 and 2 (at Soddy Daisy, Tennessee)—have been chosen as the “preferred” sites to manufacture tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons. The decision breaches the longstanding policy of not producing bomb material in civilian nuclear power plants. According to Robert Tiller of Physicians for Social Responsibility, “Our leaders are upset that Iraq might use civilian facilities to produce components for weapons of mass destruction, but the United States is now committed to do that very thing—turning a civilian reactor into a bomb facility.” As the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance website states, “the U.S. nuclear arsenal is being rebuilt, one warhead at a time, at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Our bombs are being refurbished to last for 120 years, a violation of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.”

The DOE Environmental Impact Statement for Oak Ridge describes the first step in building a new 4-billion-dollar bomb plant, allowing the U.S. government to do ten times more nuclear-weapons work than current levels and to start production of new nuclear weapons. Nearly 7 billion dollars for nuclear bomb production, an increase of nearly 9% over the previous year, has been included in the Bush administration’s 2004 fiscal year budget.

Sources: William Hartung, Brookings Institution; Stephen Schwartz, Charles D. Ferguson, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance; Ralph Nader; Associated Press

NEW PLUTONIUM TRIGGER PLANT

As of 2003, the department of energy plans to build a new facility to make plutonium cores or triggers, called “pits,” for the stockpile of U.S. nuclear weapons. The Modern Pit Facility would cost up to 5 billion dollars to construct and 300 million dollars a year to operate. According to the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, the facility would “waste billions of taxpayer dollars, threaten global nuclear non-proliferation efforts, and create further environmental contamination and health risks for workers and community members.” Supporters of the facility in Congress and the Bush administration say that a provision needs to be made to replace aging pits, while the DOE’s own analysis shows no aging in pits similar to those in the current arsenal, and thus no need for designing new plutonium pits. Potential locations for the plant are Los Alamos National Lab, New Mexico; Nevada Test Site; Carlsbad Site, New Mexico; Savannah River Site, South Carolina; Pantex, Texas.