Weapons industry appetite for taxpayer $$$ is endless

• The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space has been saying for the past 26 years that the nuclear industry views space as a new market.  They've long envisioned nuclear-powered mining colonies on the Moon, Mars and destinations beyond. The announcement by NASA of a new nuclear reactor power system that could enable long-duration space colonies only confirms our worst fears.  Accidents at, or soon after, launch with nuclear payloads would endanger our fragile Earth environment.  But even more troubling is the history of Department of Energy lab accidents as they fabricate these nuclear generators for space missions.  Worker contamination and release of radioactive contamination into the air and local water supplies have long been a problem revealing that nuclear-power is killing people even before a launch might occur.

• Trump's declared support for the creation of a separate branch of the military - the Space Force - is an indication that the aerospace industry has taken firm control of his administration.  The industry stands to make massive profit if such a separate 'space warrior force' can be created which would necessitate huge infusions of money into a program that the industry has long maintained would be the largest industrial project in human history - Star Wars.  The Air Force is opposed to the idea - they want to control the seamless web between the Earth and deep space themselves.

• One of the key reasons for this push to expand the US 'space warrior' mission is that the aerospace industry wants to control the pathway on and off the Earth as technology begins to enable resource extraction on planetary bodies.  Pentagon documents have long maintained that an important role for US military space forces would be to control who is allowed to leave the earth to mine the sky and return with the enormous profits imagined from such an undertaking.  This would ensure that war in the heavens would no longer be a theoretical consideration - it would become a reality as the US enforced its mission of 'Master of Space' on behalf of corporate interests.

• The use of nuclear power for military space operations - to power weapons in space - has long been on the Pentagon's drawing board.  The mix of nuclear power and space warfare is a deadly connection that must be avoided at all cost.  We will continue to build international opposition to these frightening plans.

• Rhode Island journalist Alex Nunes is the reporter that helped us in Maine during our recent campaign to stop the corporate welfare bill for General Dynamics (owner of Bath Iron Works).  Nunes is currently writing about a similar effort under way in Rhode Island and Connecticut to extract tens of millions from those cash-strapped states for the same General Dynamics Corp..  You can see his writing here.  This morning Nunes posted the following message on his Facebook page.

This was how legendary consumer rights advocate Ralph Nader responded to the $83-million subsidy to General Dynamics-Electric Boat Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy announced last week. I imagine he feels the same about Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo's $34-million deal to the same company. I sent him a listener question on the subject, which is what prompted the response.