SRS Watch files two important Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) – on 1) plutonium aging and 2) lessons learned from the plutonium fuel (MOX) debacle:
#1. The Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2021, passed into law on December 27, 2020, requires NNSA to send to Congress a plan for research into plutonium and pit aging. That report was due 180 days after the passage of the act. Was it sent? Though NNSA response to FOIA requests is inexcusably sluggish and has almost ground to a halt, we’ll find out if the report was sent to Congress.
See the request: https://srswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/FOIA-request-for-pit-aging-report-by-SRS-Watch-July-16-2021.pdf
Initial acknowledgment letter from NNSA to SRS Watch, dated July 26, 2021: initial NNSA response for plutonium aging plan July 26 2021
#2. The bungled plutonium fuel (MOX) project was finally terminated in 2018, after a waste of $8 billion on construction alone.. Now, boosters want to convert the partially finished MOX building into a plutonium pit plant for nuclear warheads, at an additional cost of $11 billion. In light of the rush to turn a ill-constructed building into the Plutonium Bomb Plant (PBP), has NNSA conducted a lessons-learned analysis of what went wrong with the MOX project, including problems with both NNSA and contractor supervision of the project? Either the request document is provided or NNSA will have to admit that no lessons-learned review has been conducted, which would be a stunning admission. Congress continues to try and brush the MOX boondoggle under the rug but congressional hearings on MOX are needed.
See the request: https://srswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/initial-FOIA-request-MOX-lessons-learned-July-20-2021.pdf
# 3 Request for public-private funding plan for the unneeded Versatile Test Reactor (VTR). The plan was due to Congress in January 2021 but it’s unclear if it was delivered. Funding for the VTR has been eliminated by the House Appropriations Committee, so it’s in trouble. just where is the promised private funding for the project? Plan for making the plutonium fuel for the VTR is to fabricate it from 34 metric tons of plutonium – likely from surplus plutonium pits stored at DOE’s Pantex site – ether at SRS or Idaho National lab. The VTR could be rolled into another questionable reactor – TerraPower’s sodium-cooled Natrium reactor.
See FOIA request here: FOIA request for VTR plan SRS Watch July 23 2021
NNSA acknowledgemnt letter for SRS watch FOA request on MOX lessons learned, August 3, 2021: https://srswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/NNSA-acknowledgement-letter-for-MOX-lessons-learned-reports-August-3-2021.pdf