Slide show questions nuclear future

Tuesday, June 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The federal government is asking taxpayers to spend $4 billion a year over the next 10 years to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons.

Also, environmental experts predict the United States will fall short of its commitment to clean up radioactive and toxic wastes left from 50 years of nuclear weapons research, development, production and testing.

So, what should the nation's priority be? Clean up or build up?

That is the focus of a new slide show, "Nuclear Weapons at the Crossroads: Which Path Will We Take?"

The program is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at the Sahara West Library, 9002 W. Sahara Ave.

Beatrice Brailsford, program director of the Snake River Alliance, Idaho, will present the program.

A Cornell University graduate, Brailsford has served on state and federal environmental advisory committees and has traveled to Russia to speak on regional grass-roots activism.

The event is sponsored by Citizen Alert, a statewide organization that for 22 years has focused on environmental issues affecting the Great Basin.

The program was prepared by the Military Production Network, a national alliance of groups, including Citizen Alert, representing communities living in the shadows of U.S. nuclear weapons facilities and radioactive waste dumps.

Admission is free.