Latest News

DOE’s 2037 Deadlines for SRS: Realistic or Illusory?

by Don Moniak, The Aiken Chronicles, November 11, 2024

“The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) has two major milestones to achieve by 2037.

“The sad legacy of the Savannah River plutonium plant”

Atlanta Journal-Constituion, November 6, 2024

Op-ed by Allie Maloney, a native Georgian and graduate of the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia,

https://srswatch.org/4530-2/

Photo: Cover of document obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by SRS Watch and other groups with so many pages blacked out so as to coverup need for research on pit aging.

“NNSA Loses Environmental Regulation Lawsuit”

A U.S. District Court judge ruled on Sept. 30 that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to conduct a proper analysis of alternatives that takes into consideration environmental impacts after significantly modifying plans for plutonium pit production in 2018.

Westinghouse Official to be Sentenced on November 20 for Role in South Carolina Nuclear Reactor Construction Debacle at V.C. Summer Site

Columbia, SC – After various delays,

Drones spotted over US nuclear reactors in 2022, 2023 and 2024 – US Nuclear Regulatory Commission lists in response to Freedom of Information Act request

These lists are interesting but don’t reveal if the drones flights were by hobbyists or something else.

“Plutonium just had a bad day in court”

“In a major decision whose consequences are still being assessed, a federal judge declared that plutonium pit production — one ingredient in the U.S.

A faulty idea that must be rejected: Restart of the VC Summer nuclear reactor construction boondoggle

A cursory “report” by the South Carolina Nuclear Advisory Council (NAC) –

The Department of Energy’s SRS Citizens Advisory Board (SRS CAB) is to meet on September 16 & 17 at the Hipp-Close Building, 8th Floor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia,

The U.S. Department of Energy is throwing a huge amount of tax payer money at so-called “advanced reactors,” hoping something will stick.  Nothing so far looks promising but one project,

“Another reason to cancel the Sentinel missile: the rising cost of its nuclear warhead” – at Savannah River Site & Los Alamos National Lab

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists,  by Stephen Young (Union of Concerned Scientists),

This is what failure looks like. Photo by High Flyer – of canceled, in 2017 , VC Summer nuclear reactor units 2 & 3 in foreground and unit 1 (operating) by lake in background.

Nuclear Weapons at Any Price? Congress Should Say No
Scientific American, May 13, 2024, By Sharon K. Weiner

Costs are skyrocketing to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Instead of turning a blind eye,

SRS Watch had a wonderful experience interacting with the public at a stupendous Bonnie Raitt concert on May 9 in North Charleston, SC.

We didn’t get back stage this time but we got a virtual hug and Bonnie gave us a shout from the stage.

SRS Watch in Ploughshares Nuke Talk podcast, posted on May 1, 2024

“Atomic Assembly: Savannah River Site, South Carolina”

If you’re interested in the history of the Savannah River Site,

The Barnwell reprocessing plant in South Carolina, adjacent to the Savannah River Site, thankfully never operated, thus sparing South Carolina huge volumes of highly radioactive nuclear waste and separated weapon-usable plutonium.

Photo: Unit 3 at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle, Georgia, started operation in August 2023; cover photo: units 3 and 4 (unit 4 is due to start operation in the 2nd quarter 2024,

Was the confused orange candidate raising the specter of South Carolina being hit by a massive nuclear weapon – from whom? – due to the DOE’s Savannah River Site being located here?

Materials from Japan containing significant amounts of weapon-grade plutonium and bomb-grade uranium – so-called Fast Critical Assemblies (FCAs) – were shipped by sea to the Savannah River Site,

Plutonium waste from Palomares, Spain to US? GAO report, Jan. 31, 2024 – “Nuclear Waste: Changing Conditions May Affect Future Management of Contamination Deposited Abroad During U.S. Cold War Activities”

“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,

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,

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.

By The Associated Press,

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,