Nuclear Free Zone

On November 14th, 1984, the Davis City Council declared the city to be a nuclear free zone (despite the fact that trains of nuclear waste from UC run Lawrence Livermore Labs pass through Davis on their way to nuclear dumps in Nevada and that there's a Nuclear Lab on campus, which is not a part of the City of Davis). Not to mention all those pesky protons and neutrons in the food at the Farmer's Market.

This declaration had the support of the local Anti-nuclear movement.

This is a resolution from March 15th, 2000, that references the first one and gives an idea of what the City Council means by a "nuclear free zone."

Resolution No. 00-40, Series 2000 Resolution To Ban the use of Depleted Uranium 

Whereas, on the 14th day of November, 1984, by resolution, the City Council of Davis,
California, declared that the City of Davis be a nuclear Free Zone;

Whereas, on that occasion,the City Council stated that the present nuclear arsenals of
the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics contain
sufficient destructive force to kill all human life on Earth; that nuclear war is a grave
threat to the health and safety of the citizens of this community, to the survival of the
human species, and to the continuation of life on this planet; and that the desire to
end the nuclear arms race must start at the bottom, because if people lead, in time
the leaders will surely follow;

Whereas, the City Council also resolved to urge Congress and the President to
renounce the first use of nuclear weaponry, and to do all things necessary toward
that end and toward the elimination of the international threat of nuclear war;

Whereas, the Pentagon has developed a new class of weapons called Kinetic Energy
Penetrators composed of depleted uranium (waste from preparing uranium for
bombs or reactor fuel) which was first used in battle in the Gulf War, 1991;

Whereas, depleted uranium (DU) has radioactive half-life of 4.5 billion years;

Whereas, the Army has declared depleted uranium a radioactive waste that should
be isolated in a licensed repository for radioactive waste;

Whereas, the DU weapons not only penetrate armor and other hardened targets,
but also burst into flames releasing quantities of aerosolized uranium particles
into the environment that are easily carried by wind or water and are easily
resuspended, blowing radioactive contamination to locations quite distant from
battlefield locations;

Whereas, ingestion or inhalation of DU causes short- and long-term adverse
health effects closely related to complaints of Gulf War Veterans whose ailments
are called Gulf War Syndrome;

Whereas, the Department of Defense has denied for years the legitimacy of the
medical conditions dubbed ''Gulf War Syndrome'', but has now acknowledged
the existence of the Gulf War Syndrome and the necessity of its treatment;

Whereas, the Army knew, in advance of the 1991 Gulf War, that inhalation or
ingestion of DU particles could have an adverse effect on our service personnel,
and had advised leaders to provide protective measures and warnings for those
who may be exposed, and medical testing and treatment for those already exposed;

Whereas, when damaged US armored vehicles were collected for return to the
United States, it was found that some of the M1A1 tanks armored with depleted
uranium, and which had been struck by Ñfriendly fireæ using depleted uranium
penetrators, were too radioactive to be salvaged so they were buried at the salvage
site in Kuwait;

Whereas, despite known effects on service personnel and civilians in the Gulf War,
DU weapons were again used in Bosnia in 1993, and in Yugoslavia in 1999;

Whereas, there has been no effort to clean up contamination of DU at any of the
battlefield locations;

Whereas, it has been reported that residents in Iraq near those 1991 battlefields
have shown increased birth defects, leukemia and other cancers;

Whereas, thousands of U.S. Gulf War Veterans now have serious health defects,
and many have children with gross birth defects that may be due to their
contamination from depleted uranium;

Whereas, use of DU weapons may be a violation of International Law, relating to
indiscriminate harm and damage to the environment;

Whereas, there is concern that DU is used widely as ballast in commercial and
military planes and helicopters; and

Whereas, the U.S. has sold the DU weapons to at least 17 other countries;

Now, Therefore Be It Resolved, that the City Council petition the President and
members of Congress including all of the Senators and all of the members of
the House of Representatives to demand the President and the Department of
Defense do the following:

* Ban the further use of depleted uranium weapons and armor and also destroy
our stores on hand;

* Ban the sale of uranium weapons and/or depleted uranium to any other country,
and urge those countries which already possess DU weapons to also destroy
those weapons;

* Provide appropriate medical testing and medical care for veterans and others
suffering from DU contamination;

* Provide appropriate protective measures, monitoring and medical care of Service
Personnel who handle DU weapons or cleanup of DU contamination;

* Clean up the DU contamination in the battlefields of Kosovo, Bosnia and Iraq,
utilizing the unused monies budgeted for the Yugoslavian conflict; and to

* Ban all commercial uses of DU.

Passed and adopted by the Davis City Council on this 15th day of March, 2000,
by the following vote:

AYES: BOYD, FORBES, FREEMAN, WAGSTAFF, PARTANSKY.
NOES: NONE.
ABSENT: NONE.

_____(signed)____________________ JULIE PARTANSKY, Mayor

ATTEST:

______(signed)___________________ BETTY E. RACKI, City Clerk