LETTER TO SENATOR DIANE FEINSTEIN CONCERNING THE MOLECULAR FOUNDARY PROJECT AT LBNL

By Leuren Moret



Senator Diane Feinstein
United States Senate
One Post Street, Suite #2450
San Francisco, California 94104

October 10, 2003

RE:LONG RANGE DEVELOPMENT PLAN - Molecular Foundary Project at LBNL

Dear Senator Feinstein,

As a professional geologist, I am disturbed and concerned about the construction and development of the planned Molecular Foundary at LBNL which will certainly contribute to additional pollution of the watershed, groundwater, and air of Berkeley and surrounding communities. The reality and danger of natural disasters such as earthquakes, catastrophic fires, landslides and other land instability problems has already been demonstrated in the Bay Area.

Even worse, LBNL/UC has continued a reckless and self-serving policy of developing their properties without concern for the economic or environmental impact to the community. This project has gone on in high secrecy for several years without notification to the City of Berkeley and Environmental Commission. Now they have "self-exempted" themselves from conducting an EIR which is required by law.

Recently the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has been caught in two major cases of international science fraud for falsely claiming the discovery of elements 116 and 118 (see "Periodic Chart" attached). These cases are just the tip of the iceberg in science fraud committed at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and Lawrence Livermore Lab, the two nuclear weapons labs where I worked seven years as a professional scientist. This is an internationally emabarrassing indication of the decline in ethics at LBNL, which at one time enjoyed prestige, fame, renown and Nobel Prize awards for major scientific discoveries.

It seems that the Molecular Foundary Project at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is following along this same leadership path of desperation and science fraud in order to tap into great pots of government money.

The citizens and city government of Berkeley have been the greatest victims of the arrogant leadership style at LBNL which demonstrates a lack of ethics and an eager willingness to commit fraud and justify the manipulation of city government in the name of "sexy science" which is just more of the usual $exy $cience.

Not only has this infamous laboratory/University of California campus at Berkeley earned the distinction of being the "university that poisoned the world", but it has also badly contaminated the city of Berkeley and surrounding communities with radiation. Ironically, radiation is the greatest enemy of nanotechnology because it causes defects by nuclear energy particles "shooting holes" in the tiniest building blocks of nature and makes nanotechnology success impossible.

The radioactive contamination of the environment where LBNL is located will impact the success of this nanotechnology project called "the Molecular Foundary". Nor do members of the community want another source of contamination, nanotechnology, created in this area either. In the not too distant future, we will have to drink the groundwater in Berkeley as water shortages pressure communities to tap into local sources.

Nanotechnology requires an absolutely clean and radiation free environment. How can LBNL management boldly claim in public meetings that they can build this new facility to do "great things for humanity" such as develop a cure for "...acne..", "...AIDS..." etc. when the project is already compromised. And how does our "nuclear free zone" city know that research conducted at the Molecular Foundary will not be used for nuclear weapons applications? Environment Health & Safety Division Director McGraw has already publicly referred to LBNL as "...the stealth lab...".

As a professional geoscientist, I worked on the Superfund Project at Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory (LLNL), where a complex terrain is contaminated with chemical and radioactive compounds. When I began working there as a drilling geologist and managed the sampling database, I was told there was only chemical contamination. I quit in 1991, and became a whistleblower at LLNL when I discovered that the 2-3000 samples I had been handling each month in areas where we had been drilling, were contaminated with radioactive materials.

I was told that "every isotope on the Periodic Chart" from 40+ years of experiments was buried in the ground. The retaliation by LLNL Management Duane Sewell and Bert Heffner for my reporting science fraud, theft, corruption, contractor overcharging, graft, and discrimination to Mr. Richard Berta, Western Regional Inspector for DOE, in 1991 at LLNL has lasted 12 years and continues today.

In January of 1992, Mr. Berta informed me that there was "no basis to your allegations". Yet today the University of California is at risk of losing the management contract for the labs because of the investigation of complaints similar to mine and which many other people have reported over the years. It is a systemic problem.

That same pattern of retaliation in Livermore is practiced here in Berkeley by LBNL and I have observed and experienced it with concerned citizens during the past three years while working on radioactive pollution issues here in the community. As an Environmental Commissioner in the City of Berkeley, I have watched City Council Members Gordon Wozniak and Linda Maio sit on the City Council and boldly vote in favor of the lab on LBNL issues despite the fact that both of them receive salaries/retirement from LBNL. At the least, they should recuse themselves. The oath they took as City Council members required them to protect the citizens and community of Berkeley... not to act as scientific and professional prostitutes for LBNL.

On the Environmental Commission, stacked with and through the actions of pro-LBNL/UCB members and (retired) employees such as former Chairs Gordon Wozniak and Elmer Grossman, and Robert Clear, the strongarm policies of LBNL continue to compromise the governmental and citizen process. But that's not all they have done.

Physical violence, bullying, intimidation, false statements and accusations directed at citizens and commissioners have occurred during City Council meetings and Environmental Commission meetings by Elmer Grossman and Gordon Wozniak. Robert Krumme, the Environmental Commissioner appointed by City Council member Betty Olds, went so far as to kick another commissioner in a wheelchair who was videotaping a presentation I was giving on radiation to the Environmental Commission last Fall. Krumme was angry at the topic I was covering. Not surprising since Betty Olds represents many lab employees in her district. There is no accountability or remorse for these egregious actions against citizens... or even worse, the disabled.

How long do concerned citizens have to be targeted, harrassed, kicked, slandered and intimidated by LBNL operatives in public and private?

How many more forms of pollution from "$exy $cience" will contaminate our community and slowly kill our babies and children?

How many more $cience fraud projects will LBNL get great pots of money for as a reward for the lies of their leaders?

We need your support, Senator Feinstein, and help from other elected officials in positions of influence at the Federal Level. Congresswoman Barbara Lee was very effective at shutting down the National Tritium Facility by cutting their funding through the NIH. We need your help to cut the funding at DOE for the Molecular Foundary planned at LBNL.

Thank you,

Leuren Moret
City of Berkeley Environmental Commissioner
2233 Grant Street Apt. 1
Berkeley, California 94703
E-mail: leurenmoret@yahoo.com

Attachment: Periodic Chart

cc: UC President Atkinson, Senator Boxer, Representative Lee, Congressional Representatives, City Council of Berkeley, Berkeley City Clerk, Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste, CEAC, All City of Berkeley Commissions, Tri-Valley CARE's, Jennifer Lawrence Principal Planner - Long Range Planning UC Projects, G. Brechin, W.A.G.E., Gwilliam