“United States Department of Energy Takes Steps to Halt Bungled Plutonium MOX Project at Savannah River Site: Judge Places Decision on Hold”
Also see other environmental stories of interest in the newsletter,
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Posted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on July 30, 2018:
SAVANNAH RIVER SITE SALT WASTE DISPOSAL [of high-level waste by-product]
NRC Onsite Observation Visit
July 9-11, 2018
“Annual Radioactive Waste Tank Inspection Program – 2017, July 2018”
by Savannah River Remediation (contractor)
Report “SRR-STI-2018-00146 Revision 1” – linked here
NOTE: The document was posted on August 28, 2018 in the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s digital library (ADAMS).
House-Senate Conference Committee on Defense Bill Authorizes Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Termination by Secretary of Energy
Columbia, SC – The House and Senate have agreed to language in the defense bill which would allow termination of the problem-plagued MOX project now under increasing duress at the DOE’s Savannah River Site.
SRS Watch in article on failed plutonium MOX project, painfully headed towards termination at the Savannah River Site
“South Carolina Fights U.S. Plan to Abandon Nuclear Project Employing 1,800 – Department of Energy is spending $1.2 million a day on facility designed to dispose of surplus weapons-grade plutonium”
Blindly pro-MOX US federal judge in Columbia, SC steps back and passes the issue of the status of the MOX project termination to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA, which has already, in response to DOE’s appeal, set a hearing on the matter for September 25-28, 2018
Filed in State of South Carolina v. United States, Docket 1:18-cv-01431 on July 16, 2018:
TEXT ORDER: This matter is before the court pursuant to Defendants’
SRS Watch in: “DOE memo: MOX support could jeopardize other Savannah River Site missions”
“The Department of Energy is signaling to South Carolina authorities that its effort to keep the mixed oxide facility alive could be jeopardizing other opportunities — including the proposed pit mission at Savannah River Site,
The Long, Painful, Costly March to MOX Failure Continues, Poca a Poca Amigos!
Rulings by Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on hearing on DOE’s efforts to halt the MOX debacle – the court is set to hear DOE’s appeal from a lower court on September 25-28,
Leadership of South Carolina House & Senate file on behalf of the public to join federal court case in which SCE&G is attempting to have two laws on its bungled nuclear project thrown out, July 3, 2018:
Filings by Speaker of the House Jay Lucas, including a proposed order:
– intervention – linked here
“Proposed Answer” by judge to SCE&G – linked here
Filing by Speaker pro tempore Hugh Leatherman –
DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) releases key document to SRS Watch on plutonium “pit” (core) production at Savannah River Site and Los Alamos – for unneeded nuclear weapons – via a July 3, 2018 response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request
Final Report for the Plutonium Pit Production Analysis of Alternatives,
October 2017, linked here
FOIA response cover letter to SRS Watch, July 3, 2018, linked here
MOX Doom postponed a bit as workers get breathing room to find new jobs: “Appeals Judge Declines DOE Request to Lift Order Protecting MFFF”
Exchange Monitor, July 2, 2018 – article linked here
“The Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) will enjoy judicial protection from the federal ax for essentially the rest of the government’s 2018 fiscal year after an appeals court on Friday decided not to immediately lift a lower court’s ban on closing the plant.
Disposal of nuclear waste which is in large a by-product of reprocessing to produce nuclear weapons materials will have impacts to the environment via its disposal as grouted waste in the Saltstone Disposal Facility (SDF).
These two documents, posted by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 25, 2018, discuss predictions related to amount of iodine-129 and technetium- 99 in the solidified waste to be left forever in the ground at SRS.
In its annual report (for 2017), the French reprocessing and plutonium-proliferation company Orano (formerly AREVA) documents that reprocessing by other countries in France is essentially over, a positive for nuclear non-proliferation.
As some peddle the fake news that European countries are vigorously pursuing reprocessing of highly radioactive spent fuel – to remove weapon-usable plutonium – this report from the heart of the French reprocessing industry sets the record straight.
MOX NEWS FLASH, June 25, 2018: For defrauding the US Government of over $6 million at the MOX project – due to fake receipts
– Phillip Thompson was sentenced this afternoon in federal court to 23 months in Butner prison medical facility in North Carolina, followed by 3 years probation. Home detention denied but sentenced reduced due to health issue.
State of South Carolina files motion in MOX termination federal case, June 25, 2018
1:18-cv-01431-JMC Date Filed 06/25/18 Entry Number 29 Page 1 of 28 – motion linked here
Also posted in docket on June 25, 2018: “MOTION for Summary Judgment by State of South Carolina.
The US Senate passes DOE funding bill on June 25, 2018 – allocates $220 million for MOX termination and $0 for MOX construction – the failed MOX project remains doomed
Senate news release of June 25 linked here:
Senate Energy & Water report, page 107: “MOX Construction.—The Committee recommends $220,000,000 for closeout costs associated with the termination of MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility construction,
Sentencing for one MOX fraudster postponed by federal court in Columbia, SC on June 22, 2018, sentencing for 2nd guilty fraudster still on for June 25 – expect a prison sentence and fine for submitting fake receipts in the MOX fiasco
“NOTICE OF CANCELLATION OF HEARING: Sentencing set for 6/25/2018 02:30 PM as to Aaron Vennefron (mbro, ) (Entered: 06/22/2018)”
”NOTICE OF RESCHEDULED HEARING as to Phillip Thompson Sentencing set for 6/20/2018 10:00 AM cancelled and rescheduled to: Sentencing set for 6/25/2018 01:30 PM in Columbia # 3,
Will the ill-informed federal judge in the district court in Columbia, SC rule on June 21, 2018 on DOE’s request to “stay” her preliminary injunction halting termination of the failed MOX project?
Once she denies the stay the matter will likely be ripe to be addressed by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration requested the “stay”
“Terminate MOX” gets a boost from President Trump – in June 20, 2018 statement on the Senate Appropriations bill (which may pass on June 21 & which has $0 for MOX construction & $220 million for MOX termination).
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503
June 20, 2018 (Senate)
STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY
Senate Amendment to H.R.
WARNING to potential workers at the MOX debacle: Don’t be punked by MOX job advertisements by CB&I/McDermott/Orano/Areva MOX Services.
The MOX fiasco rightfully remains on a termination track and pursuit of employment at the mismanaged project is ill advised and not a positive on one’s resume. Plus, we’re not sure these are real jobs or just being posted –
J. Michelle Childs, the confused judge who issued a preliminary injunction on June 7, 2018 to stop MOX termination and who has little grasp on the problems with the bungled MOX project and who is ignoring laws passed by Congress, is due to sentence two defendants who have pleaded guilty to defrauding the MOX project (via submission of false receipts).
See notices below in Docket 1:15-cr-00888-JMC – sentencing set for June 25, 2018 in federal court in Columbia, SC
After a decade of potential fraud,
DOE MOX Update
TV report on DOE’s filing of an appeal to the federal judge’s June 7 “preliminary injunction” stopping MOX termination for now – with SRS Watch. Why are no politicians speaking up for MOX workers?
Another bump in the legal road before DOE takes more action in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals: Federal district judge in Columbia, SC denies DOE’s June 15, 2018 request for a “stay” of her “preliminary injunction” that halted MOX termination.
See June 26, 2018 “ORDER AND OPINION” – “CONCLUSION
For the reasons discussed above, the court DENIES Defendants’ Motion for Stay of the Preliminary Injunction Pending Appeal (ECF No.
Small leak discovered in SRS high-level waste tank – not reported by a feckless DOE-SRS but rather by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
DNFSB weekly report, June 15, 2018, linked here
“H-Tank Farms: SRR has been conducting heel removal in Tank 15. Tank 15 is an old-style tank that had 26 previously identified leak sites.
June 25, 2018: We’re attending the federal court proceeding on sentencing for one of the parties who defraud the MOX project – stand by for updates after the 1:30 p.m. hearing
“NOTICE OF RESCHEDULED HEARING as to Phillip Thompson Sentencing set for 6/20/2018 10:00 AM cancelled and rescheduled to: Sentencing set for 6/25/2018 01:30 PM in Columbia # 3,
DOE & MOX booster bamboozling – with $enator Lindsey Graham as the head bamboozler – on MOX and plutonium “pits” (for nuclear weapons) rightly faces tough sledding in Congress
– read about it here:
“Congress Pushes Back on Nuke Agency’s Unnecessary Plutonium Buildup”
Project on Government Oversight (POGO) blog, June 13, 2018
http://www.pogo.org/straus/issues/nuclear-security/2018/congress-pushes-back-on-nuke-agency-unnecessary-plutonium-buildup.html
SRS Watch in “Judge’s Injunction Prevents DOE From Halting MOX Project”
Engineering News-Record, June 13, 2018 – article liked here
“Fallout”
While noting the importance of maintaining a pathway for removing plutonium from the state,
MOX workers are rightly leaving the MOX boondoggle in swarms, yet CB&I/McDermott/AREVA/Orano MOX Services started posting for new jobs at the failed MOX project again on June 13, after halting such postings when DOE began terminating the bungled project on May 10, 2018v
WE ASK MOX WORKERS and others in the know: Why would any properly qualified, motivated individual apply for a job at a project that DOE, Congress and the Trump Administration has placed a dead-end pathway?
As downblended plutonium from SRS is being dispoed of in DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, it’s worth learning more about DOE’s take on the two accidents in 2014 that closed the facility for over a year.
What REALLY Happened at WIPP? – The Tale of Two Fires
by Los Alamos National Lab, June 12, 2018
presentation linked here
“Judge throws wrench into plan to split plutonium ‘pit’ production” between SRS and Los Alamos National Lab
Albuquerque (New Mexico) journal, June 12, 2018