“DOE and NNSA Should Improve Their Lessons-Learned Process for Capital Asset Projects”
GAO-19-25: Dec 21, 2018.
Archives for December 2018
Looks like the outgoing secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has approved DOE’s request of the new method to calculate container volume going into WIPP.
Given the legal volume cap of the amount of TRU waste WIPP can receive, such a license amendment would allow more plutonium disposal, by counting the volume of only the inner container and not the larger outer container.
SRS Watch in: “Progress report on plutonium removal from SRS filed; reclassification of high-level nuclear waste discussed”
Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle, December 19, 2018
DOE Files “Second Progress Report” with Federal District Court on Unjustified Removal of 1 Metric Ton of Plutonium from Savannah River Site – to Nevada or Texas
DOE Confirms Obstacles and Problems with Shipment, Including Increased Radiation Exposure to Workers & State of Nevada Legal Challenge
Columbia, South Carolina – The U.S. Department of Energy has filed with the federal district court in Columbia,
A big thanks to the Artistic Resources in Action Foundation for a donation to support the work of SRS Watch.
The donation from the Aria Foundation was, in part, due to our tabling at the Green Highways concert tour of musicians Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor in the summer of 2018.
MOX Services Takes Step to Make Revival of Terminated MOX Project Irreversible –
Wants US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Terminate “Construction Authorization” (License) for the Failed MOX Project; SRS Watch Continues to Call for Investigations and Congressional Hearings into Fraud, Waste, Abuse and Mismanagement at MOX Boondoggle
Columbia,
SRS Watch director, in dual role as senior adviser to Friends of the Earth, comments on pending December 14 vote by South Carolina Public Service Commission on SCE&G nuclear reactor debacle and who will pay billions of dollars in stranded costs.
SCE&G ratepayers should not pay a dime more for the failed AP1000 nuclear rector project and be refunded the $2 billion already spent in financing costs.
“Commission expected to decide new SCE&G rates on Friday –
New Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the MOX boondoggle?
Be alert to a report likely to come out soon on NNSA’s (mis)management of the MOX debacle. Before the end of 2018? Doesn’t sound like the report will take the essential step to review and investigate any fraud,
On December 11, 2018, another 70 layoffs were announced for the MOX boondoggle, by Orano Federal Services (formerly the plutonium-proliferation company AREVA):
See those layoffs, to be carried out by Feb. 4, 2019, and other layoffs in the updated WARN notice for South Carolina:
CB&I and Orano layoffs so far = 502 + 114 + 111 + 372 + 70 = 1168.
“Trump Wants to Reclassify Radioactive Waste from Nuclear Weapons to ‘Low Level’ so Disposal Is Cheaper”
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), of which SRS Watch is a member, has challenged this approach: “Trump Wants to Reclassify Radioactive Waste from Nuclear Weapons to ‘Low Level’
Criminals who defrauded the MOX project have property seized by the feds. Will the criminals soon report to federal prison in Ohio to serve their time?
Will in-depth investigations into MOX fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement root out more such criminal activity? Will the spotlight focus on the behavior of CB&I and Areva/Orano?
US District court document on property seizure linked here
Shutdown of plutonium fuel (MOX) boondoggle at US DOE’s Savannah River site continues – more worker layoffs announced on December 7, 2018
372 CB&I Project Services Group, LLC – likely craft workers at the bungled project – to be laid off on February 4, 2019
“WARN Notification Report” of December 7,
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) questions methodology of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) in evaluating functionality of the aging H-Canyon reprocessing plant’s radioactive gas exhaust tunnel (HCAEX).
Can this decrepit facility, used to reprocess DOE-controlled highly radioactive spent fuel, be operated safety in case of a seismic event or other unusual event?
DNFSB letter &