Monitors a host of energy and nuclear issues from a public interest perspective
“Appalling” and “Abysmal”
By Don Moniak, Aiken County, South Carolina – in The Aiken Chronicles, January 22, 2024
How the Department of Energy addressed Governor McMaster’s and Attorney General Alan Wilson’s conflicting and sometimes harsh opinions regarding the future of surplus plutonium.
See links below to the Final EIS on Surplus Plutonium Disposition and to the Federal Register notice about that (January 19, 2024). SRS could well be processing 34 metric tons (plus another 6 MT already addressed = 40 MT) of plutonium into transuranic waste (TRU) to be dumped in the Waste Isolation Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.
“Cold War nuclear waste is prioritized at Carlsbad-area repository. How much is there?”
article in Carlsbad Current Argus, Carlsbad, New Mexico, December 28 2023; with SRS Watch Director Tom Clements
Concerns were raised by government watchdog groups for a plan to dispose of Cold War nuclear waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant repository in southeast New Mexico,
The federal environmental lawsuit brought by public interest groups asking for the court to order DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to prepare a “Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement”
Buried secrets, poisoned bodies
December 20, 2023 – in Searchlight New Mexico, investigative journalism website (something we unfortunately do not have in South Carolina – all we get is SRS “SubStandard”
Plutonium is flammable, so there will be risks to SRS workers, the environment and public if SRS ever processes plutonium into “pits” for new nuclear warheads, part of the US effort to stoke a new nuclear arms race.
Proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant a key to the madness of a new nuclear arms race
“A New Nuclear Arms Race?”
article in Defense & Security Monitor, November 15, 2023
As the world faces another full-scale war in the Middle East,
Emails Obtained from the Department of Energy via a Freedom of Information Act request Reveal Frantic Interactions with Germany in Misguided Attempt to Import Highly Radioactive Waste to DOE’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina,
Attorneys for SRS Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tri-Valley CAREs, plaintiffs in a federal court case demanding a “programmatic Environmental Impact Statement” (PEIS) on plutonium pit production,
The U.S. Department of Energy has quietly told friends that it’s program to “dispose of” 40 metric tons of surplus weapons plutonium has been delayed 10 years. Search as we might we can find no public information about this.
From Nuclear Watch New Mexico, a fellow organization with SRS Watch in the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA):
U.S. Strategic Posture Commission Ratchets Up
Nuclear Arms Race
Today,
Dispute over $75M in legal fees SC attorney general paid to law firms now in judge’s hands
A decision is expected soon on whether to keep alive a lawsuit that questions the right of South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson to award $75 million in fees to private attorneys who helped secure $600 million for the state in a dispute involving the Savannah River Site.
South Carolina nuclear plant gets yellow warning over another cracked emergency fuel pipe
Small cracks have been found a half-dozen times in the past 20 years.
Nuclear experts raise new concerns about industry-led policy proposals to separate plutonium in Canada
(Sept. 25 2023) Twelve internationally recognized nuclear experts have sent an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,
“Are They Already Cutting Corners on Worker Protection at DOE’s New Plutonium Processing Plant?”
CounterPunch, September 11, 2023
As of this past Labor Day,
Savannah River Site Watch reached out to attendees at a clean energy festival (https://getoffthegridfest.com/) in Spartanburg, South Carolina on August 19, 2023, to enlist opposition to plans by the Department of Energy &
The U.S. Department of Energy is central to U.S. plans for full-scale nuclear war. But some patriots are confronting those plans as they pose a threat to all of us .
Oppenheimer’s Legacy: South Carolina and SRS at the Center of the New Nuclear Arms Race
In case you missed the August 16,
An often-ignored but important agency – the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) – which conducts oversight of DOE activities reveals that a leaking radioactive drum “believed” to be uranium waste was “discovered”
A draft recommendation before the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board (SRS CAB) to explore reprocessing of commercial spent fuel at SRS is misguided, poorly written and reveals profound ignorance of SRS abilities and the problems associated with reprocessing.
Photo in post: Don’t Dump Rocky Flats Plutonium Pit Production on South Carolina! 1992 at gates of Rocky Flats pit-production facility, nbear Boulder, Colorado, with current SRS Watch director (standing under the center of the billboard,
The federal judge in Columbia, South Carolina has issued a new schedule for the public interest lawsuit asking for preparation of a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) by DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) concerning the plan to produce plutonium pits –
The DOE’s Office of Hearings and Appeals has decided in favor of SRS Watch and granted our appeal of an inadequate search for documents relevant to our FOIA request related to import and dumping of Ger man spent fuel at SRS.
At showings of the films “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” at The Nickelodeon Theater in Columbia, South Carolina, in July 2023, pink-clad Barbies have been leafletting and engaging film attendees concerning the renewed threat of nuclear war,
Please attend this event in Columbia, South Carolina on August 6, 2023, to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima (uranium bomb) and Nagasaki (plutonium bomb).
South Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club: Action alert against plutonium pit production for new nuclear warheads, July 2023:
Call to Action to Oppose Plutonium “Pit” Production —
While investigative journalism is dead concerning SRS – to the detriment of our democracy – good that it still lives in New Mexico:
“Safety lapses at Los Alamos National Laboratory –
An email provided to SRS Watch in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals that the German entity notified SRS in October 2022 that the scheme to dump German spent fuel –
Plutonium pit production – for the core of nuclear weapons – was an environmental and health disaster at the Rocky Flats plant near Denver, Colorado. Officially closed in 1992,
Do challenges in plutonium pit fabrication for a new ICBM pose the risk of a return to nuclear weapons testing in Nevada?
“As America’s Nuclear Arsenal Upgrades, Usual Testing is Scrapped”
