Nuclear Free Zone

On November 14th, 1984, the Davis City Council passed a resolution declaring the city to be a nuclear free zone:

                RESOLUTION NO. 5115, SERIES 1984 

              RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
                 OF DAVIS DECLARING THE CITY OF DAVIS
                          A NUCLEAR FREE ZONE

WHEREAS,  the present nuclear arsenals of the United States of America
          and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics contain sufficient
          destructive force to kill all human life on Earth; and

WHEREAS,  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

WHEREAS,  the desire to end the nuclear arms race must start at the
          bottom because, if the people lead, in time, the leaders will
          surely follow;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Congress and the President are urged 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.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT no nuclear weapons shall be produced,
transported, stored, processed, disposed of, or used within the City of
Davis.

PASSED AND ADOPTED by the City Council of the City of Davis on this 14th
day of November 1984, by the following vote:

AYES:         Rosenberg, Taggart, Tomasi, Evans

NOES:         None.

ABSENT:       None.

ABSTAIN:      Adler

                                 /-Signed-/
                                ANN M. EVANS
                                   Mayor
ATTEST:

/-Signed-/
HOWARD L. REESE
City Clerk

On March 15th, 2000, the city council passed another nuclear materials related resolution urging a ban of the use of depleted uranium in both military and commercial applications.

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

2008-07-07 12:01:18   I've always felt a combination of amusement and exasperation whenever I hear people make blanket statements about nuclear technology, and especially radioactivity in general. They often overlook the fact that most smoke detectors contain a small amount of a radioactive element, and that x-ray machines use radiation, as does the common lightbulb. I understand and completely agree with not using nuclear weaponry, but pretty much any other use of nuclear technology is a much better one than the alternatives. Also, it occurs to me that the city may better be described, as a result of this resolution, as a "Uranium Free Zone". —JoePomidor

2009-08-18 20:33:18   Does anyone have a copy of the original 1984 resolution? —JimStewart

2009-08-18 22:06:40   I am a former Commissioner on the City Peace and Justice Advisory Commission — but my service started several years after the original Nuclear Free Zone resolution (and the Commission was established in 1986). I will search my materials, but I was easily able to find this quote & reference: the Council held that, "nuclear war is a grave threat to the health and safety of this community..." and "the desire to end the nuclear arms race must start at the bottom because if the people lead, in time, the leaders will surely follow." (Resolution No. 5115, Series 1984) —DougWalter

• [20 minutes later] I don't think I have a copy of the text of the original Res. #5115. Stephen Souza was active in lobbying the Council on this issue, but I don't know if he hoards papers. —DougWalter
• I obtained a copy of Resolution No. 5115, Series 1984 from the City Clerk's office. I'll transcribe it onto daviswiki when I get a chance. —jimstewart

2009-08-20 22:45:09   I removed some speculative statements from the body of the article. They had no apparent relevance to the actual article and detracted from the simplicity of the statement. They can be added back in as comments if someone cares to. —JimStewart

2009-08-27 14:05:26   After the Cold War, the US government purchased large quantities of weapons-grade plutonium from the remains of the Soviet Union. The purpose of this was to remove the material from poorly secured sites and prevent its diversion. The material was blended and processed into power reactor fuel and "burned" in US power reactors. Thus, in the realm of irony, Davis, by consuming the power produced by this plutonium may have violated Resolution 5115 by aiding in the disposing of nuclear weapons. —JimStewart

• Cite: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/business/energy-environment/10nukes.html?_r=1 —JimStewart

2010-02-12 08:41:35   Anyone else miss the Lyon signs with glowing frogs and that little limerick? —TomGarberson

• Very much so. -jw

2010-02-12 09:06:27   The nuclear free thing of Davis always seemed a bit strange to me considering the large amounts of radioactive isotopes used at the UC for research are driven through the city of Davis to be delivered at the UC. Granted these are not weapon grade nuclear compounds, they are still radioactive and therfore nuclear. btw I miss the frog signs too. —DagonJones

• Hell, you and I (and I'm guessing everyone else here) have at least few nuclei in us. We're nuclear, too! -tg
• Think how negative things would be without a nuclear presence. Plus, some people in Davis claim to like things unionized, which demands nuclear existence, right? -jw
• Now you're just fission' for a groan, aren't you? -tg
• Where's a moderator when you need one? -js
• Be careful... they might bust you over the head with a nightstick — or, as they say in the biz — a control rod. -jw