Berkeley has become the second city in the US to proclaim itself ‘in compliance’ with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, following Takoma Park, Maryland, who made a similar declaration last month. Takoma Park received their ‘certificate of treaty compliance’ at a small ceremony in the United Nations building on May 14th.
Through the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act of 1986, Berkeley has maintained one of the strongest municipal prohibitions against the nuclear weapons industry in the country for over thirty years, prohibiting any work on nuclear weapons from taking place within the city, and barring the city from contracting with, or investing in, any company working on nuclear weapons.
Nevertheless, Berkeley has a complicated legacy that leads many to doubt its sincerity as a nuclear-free city. It played a foundational role in the original development of nuclear weapons, with the discovery of plutonium in Berkeley labs in 1941. The University of California continues to be closely connected to both the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, key facilities in the ongoing production of nuclear weapons in this country.