N.M. Nuke Activist Group Hires Fired LANL Nonproliferation Expert
NS&D Monitor
10/17/2014
Jim Doyle, the Los Alamos National Laboratory nonproliferation expert who has alleged he was fired based on an the publication of an article supporting nuclear abolition, has signed on to work with Nuclear Watch New Mexico, a nuclear activist group based in Santa Fe, N.M. Doyle has alleged that he was fired this summer because of an article that was published in the international journal Survival: Global Politics and Strategy. After the article was initially cleared by the lab for publication, Doyle said he was told the article contained classified information. The lab said his July 8 firing came as part of a series of layoffs, and the Department of Energy rejected his whistleblower claims and an appeal for a secretarial review of the case. However, the National Nuclear Security Administration last month asked DOE’s Inspector General to examine Doyle’s case.
Nuclear Watch New Mexico said Doyle will begin a “collaborative project to assess and augment” the NNSA’s nonproliferation programs. “It is important that the people of New Mexico and the nation pay close attention to taxpayer-funded priorities at our national labs,” Doyle said in a statement. “Only a few hundred conservatively maintained nuclear weapons are needed to deter others while we work towards global abolition. Instead the government plans to waste our treasury on unneeded, provocative, so-called modernization programs. To help counter this, our project will identify and seek to augment nuclear security programs and investments that can truly make the nation and the world safer.”