Subject: Friday, Be There!! Y2K Nuclear Countdown - White House
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 21:32:08 -0500
From: Carol Moore <CarolMoore@kreative.net>
To: Washington Action Group <waggers@egroups.com>

Y2K NUCLEAR COUNTDOWN VIGIL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Proposition One Committee 202/462-0757

NUCLEAR SAFETY AND PEACE VIGILERS TO
REMIND WORLD OF NUCLEAR ACCIDENT
RISKS AS YEAR 2000 DAWNS

When: Friday, December 31st
Where: White House sidewalk, Lafayette Park side
What: Vigil -- Noon until five p.m. Press Conference -- 1 p.m.

As the year 2000 breaks around the world, members of the Washington area nuclear safety and peace communities will sponsor a "Y2K Nuclear Countdown" to remind the world that we are all under a countdown to the nuclear power or weapons accident that will kill thousands, millions or even billions of people. Activists will use a large map of the earth, dotted with nuclear symbols identifying facilities, to track the year 2000 as it enters each new time zone.

Nuclear power accidents and near-accidental nuclear war incidents happened before Y2K. They are even more likely after Y2K due to accidental or sloppy use of noncompliant embedded chips and old or new noncompliant software. Activists demand that: the 34 nuclear nations immediately shut down for Y2K and then rapidly phase out nuclear power plants; the U.S. and Russia de-alert the 5,600 nuclear warheads in land-based ICBMs now on hair trigger alert; all nations rapidly phase out their 30,000 plus nuclear weapons; U.S.-Russia keep open the Y2K Center at the U.S. Space Command Headquarters in Colorado Springs and inform the press and public of all false missile alerts.

Press conference participants, who will be available for comment during the day, will include local activist experts on nuclear power, nuclear weapons and rising nuclear tensions over foreign interventions. Ninety-four year old Louise Franklin-Ramirez, author of "Deadly Nuclear Radiation Hazards" and an antinuclear activist for nearly fifty years says, "I want to see the end of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in my lifetime." Other participants include Carol Moore of the Washington DC Area War Tax Resistance and the Libertarian Party, antinuclear activist James McGuinness, John Steinbach of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Committee and Veterans for Peace, Ellen and William Thomas of the Proposition One Committee and Martin Thomas of the D.C. Statehood Green Party.

In the last several years the Australian government's Canberra Commission, the Tokyo Forum, two United Nations General Assemblies, the European Parliament, and at least five hundred peace and green organizations have all called for de-alerting nuclear weapons during the Y2K rollover or permanently. Sponsors of the vigil include: the Gray Panthers, Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Committee, Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Veterans for Peace, Pastors for Peace DC, Proposition One Committee, Washington DC Area War Tax Resistance, Washington Action Group, Global Peace Walk 2000, Nonviolence International, Veterans for Justice, Friends of the Earth Australia and Australian Peace Committee.

Relevant web sites:

www.Y2Kwash.org www.dealert.org www.nirs.org www.prop1.org
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Note to activists: If any nuclear accidents or massive power outages in Russia happen, please consider joining us. We'll probably stay past five. If not, after the vigil we can go down to the Presidents Y2K Center at 1800 G street and see what's going on!