Monitors a host of energy and nuclear issues from a public interest perspective
Lawsuit Filed Against Biden Administration Over Nuclear Bomb Core Production Plans
Federal agencies’ refusal to review cross-country expansion of plutonium pit production violates the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act,
Advocacy Groups to Announce Legal Action on DOE’s Plans for Plutonium Bomb Plants at Savannah River Site and Los Alamos National Lab – to Make Plutonium “Pits” (Cores) for New Nuclear Weapons,
Documentation from the U.S. Department of Energy that the 2030 Target Date for Production of 50 Pits Per Year at the Proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant (PBP) –
Officially, the cost of the proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant doubled last week in DOE’s nuclear weapons budget request for Fiscal Year 2022, from $4.6 billion to a whopping $11 billion.
Great move! South Carolina Sierra Club opposes proposed $11-billion SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant, questions NNSA’s $603 million funding request for pit project in Fiscal Year 2022 budget released on May 28;
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Revised License Renewal Schedule for the
Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC
Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility
Docket 70-1151
SNM -1107
The schedule for the release of the draft EIS on the Westinghouse uranium fuel plant near Columbia,
Department of Energy Budget Roll-Out Bungled, Request for Fiscal Year 2022 Reveals Savannah River Site Plutonium Bomb Plant (PBP) Cost Soars to Staggering $11.1 Billion; SRS Plutonium Pit Project Requests $603 Million in FY22,
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY’S FY 2022 NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND CLEANUP BUDGET REQUEST of Friday, May 28, 2021 – Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (of which Savannah River Site Watch is a proud member)
The White House is releasing its detailed Fiscal Year 2022 budget on Friday,
US experts to Prime Minister Trudeau: Canada’s support for plutonium fuel undermines global efforts to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons
The May 25, 2021 letter expresses concern about the Canadian government’s financial support of Moltex – a startup nuclear company that proposes to extract plutonium from CANDU irradiated nuclear fuel.
Nonproliferation, security issues of advanced reactors & associated nuclear fuel cycles to be addressed by National Academies of Sciences (NAS) panel, May 17-18, 2021: “Merits and Viability of Different Nuclear Fuel Cycles &
Stay tuned for the release by the US DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration of a “Critical Decsion-1” determination on the proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant. CD-1 would approve the basic project design and present an update cost range.
The annual final safety report for the Nuclear Ship Savannah was publicly posted by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on May 10, 2021. The NS Savannah, defueled for decades, was the nation’s first and only nuclear-powered commercial vessel.
Groups Notify Biden Admin of Impending Lawsuit Over Nuclear Bomb Core Plans
Multi-state coalition says DOE’s plans to massively expand plutonium pit production violate a major environmental law and constitutes an environmental injustice.
In a just-released presentation, the US Department of Energy has outlined gaps in physical protection regulations to protect “High Assay Low Enriched Uranium.” HALEU is being touted for fuel for fanciful “advanced reactors”
Looks like personnel at the aging H-Canyon reprocessing plant can’t even hang a warning sign correctly. If they don’t sweat the small stuff what about the big stuff?
SRS Watch director Tom Clements garners community service award in Columbia, South Carolina. Craig Currey, head of the Transitions homeless center, and a representative of United Way, presented the award at a luncheon on April 7,
A report just made public by the U.S. Department of Energy confirmss that it’s not only weapon-grade plutonium that can be used for a nuclear device.
The report by Los Alamos National Lab and dated March 31,
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) are slated to hold meetings on illusory “advanced reactors” and the fuels for them.
1.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has revealed that it has spent all of our money. Busted flat. Nothing left. Nada. Zilch. Nichts.
Well,
“HALEU IN PORTSMOUTH, Ohio? Nuclear weapons and other grave risks”
Alert from Beyond Nuclear: “The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is poised to forego a more comprehensive National Environmental Policy Act review of American Centrifuge Plant/Centrus’s scheme to generate High Assay Low Enriched Uranium in Portsmouth,
In an interview with Nikkei Asia, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has confirmed that a new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is getting underway., as anticipated. The NPR will review new nuclear warheads for which new plutonium pits will be made –
SRS Watch in two plutonium articles of interest, both posted in the Aiken Standard on March 17, 2021:
“Ongoing ‘review’ forces Pentagon official to pull out of SC pit production briefing”
Plutonium pit project – initially to produce pits for new warheads (first W87-1, then W93) – under formal review? The unneeded, unjustified the SRS Plutonium Bomb plant is coming under increasing scrutiny.
Read why the proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant is not needed to make new plutonium pits for the new ICBM (with W87-1 warhead), while Northrop Grumman gets rich: “INSIDE THE ICBM LOBBY: SPECIAL INTERESTS OR THE NATIONAL INTERESTS”
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is quietly moving toward licensing a Centrus facility in Piketon, Ohio to produce “high-assay low- enriched uranium” (HALEU). Why the secrecy?
HALEU is 5% to 20% enriched in uranium-235,
“U.S. continues push to restart plutonium pit production”
Physics Today, March 5, 2021
“The government is preparing two facilities to fabricate the cores of nuclear weapons despite concerns over the safety and necessity of the endeavor.”
“New reactor fuel mission floated for SRS, DOE documents show”
Aiken (South Carolina) Standard, March 5, 2021, article linked here:
Comments on draft EIS on the VTR by Tom Clements,
All you’ll need to know about U.S. nuclear weapons – a force built to fight an all-out nuclear war, not just for deterrence, funneling massive amounts of our money into the pockets of war profiteers.
Irradiated research reactor fuel from Finland’s FiR reactor was recently shipped into the U.S. port of Savannah, Georgia and then transported cross county to a TRIGA reactor in Denver,
South Carolina Environmental Law project (SCELP) takes on the issue of environmental review of production for plutonium pits for nuclear weapons!
Read about it and more admirable work of SCELP in their February 2021 news update.
