As crazy and anti-transparency as it sounds, did you know the public must pay 10 cents per page to download federal court papers, via the court’s PACER system? SRS Watch –
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State of Nevada filing with Nevada federal district court, February 7, 2019: “PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR INJUNCTION PENDING APPEAL”
“Due to Nevada’s concerns about the DOE’s actions, the State has appealed this Court’s January 30, 2019, Order, which denied its motion for a preliminary injunction during the litigation of this case.
Appeal by State of Nevada to block further plutonium shipments from SRS to South Carolina has on February 5, 2019 been assigned a case number by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but no hearing date yet set
“Office of the Clerk United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Post Office Box 193939 San Francisco, California 94119-3939 415-355-8000 February 05, 2019
Short Title:
State of Nevada v.
Low quality obfuscation from DOE
Low quality obfuscation from DOE – which doesn’t answer what happened to the “missing” 1/2 tonne of plutonium – was it shipped to Pantex in Texas or another DOE site,
“Plutonium shipped from Savannah River Site to Nevada, court filing states”
Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle, January 30, 2019 – linked here
SRS Watch in “The government secretly shipped plutonium out of South Carolina. But tons remain”
Charleston (South Carolina) Post & Courier, Jan. 31, 2019
“This shipment does absolutely nothing to solve what happens to the plutonium at the Savannah River Site,” said Tom Clements,
U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission grants license exemptions
U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission grants license exemptions to CB&I AREVA MOX Services for MOX fuel fabrication facility until such time the NRC terminates the license – Note that the license has not been terminated yet!
Bombs Away at SRS? Not So Fast!
Citizens in South Carolina express opposition to unjustified, costly, dirty production of plutonium “pits” (for nuclear weapons) in the shuttered plutonium fuel (MOX) plant at the DOE’s Savannah River Site –
SRS Watch update, January 25, 2019
Nuclear Weapons Profiteers Beware: This will not stand – $94 billion increases in cost of nuclear weapons over next decade – to $494 billion, a 23% increase since 2017
While DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) keeps digging a hole in avoiding preparing the legally required Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) on expanded pit production,
SRS Watch tidbit – January 24, 2019 – “Pit Production Pitfalls”
Good to see that an invitation-only briefing has been scheduled in Congress about problems and obstacles associated with ramped up production of plutonium “pits” (for nuclear weapons).
Expanded pit production at Los Alamos National Lab and/or Savannah River Site (which has never produced pits),
State of Nevada filing in federal court in Nevada
State of Nevada filing in federal court in Nevada – against the State of South Carolina’s request to have a hearing on the unjustified removal of 1 metric ton of plutonium from SRS to Nevada be moved from federal district court in Nevada to South Carolina federal district court,
WOW! “Significant dose and contamination rates”
Stunning admission by SRS in receiving, processing and dumping unnecessary shipments of Canadian liquid high-level nuclear waste from Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario.
SRS mislabels the highly radioactive liquid as “Target Residue Material”
Hidden cost of Department of Energy operations
Hidden cost of Department of Energy operations – massive payment to former DOE workers via Department of Labor worker-exposure program
As of January 21, 2019, in 19,226 cases of worker exposure to chemical and radiation,
SRS Watch in “Rainwater contamination discovered at SRS processing plant”
SRS Watch in “Rainwater contamination discovered at SRS processing plant” [H-Canyon spent fuel reprocessing plant]
WRDW TV, Augusta, Georgia, January 17, 2019
&
Nevada federal court allows intervention by State of South Carolina in in case involving unnecessary plutonium shipment from SRS to Nevada
On January 17, a hearing is slated to go forward in federal court in Nevada on the unjustified shipment of 1 metric ton of surplus weapon plutonium from SRS to the Device Assembly Facility (DAF) at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site.
Shipment of SRS plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico – salt mine dump for transuranic waste – faces opposition:
“Permit changes at WIPP face challenges”
Albuquerque (New Mexico) Journal, January 13, 2019
“Government shutdown won’t delay Nevada plutonium hearing” [about shipment of 1 metric ton of plutonium from SRS for “staging” at the Device Assembly Facility in Nevada]
Associated Press, Jan. 11, 2019
article linked here:
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/south-carolina/article224278610.html
Redefine, Dump & Go? DOE challenged on plan to redefine high-level nuclear waste
8 public interest groups that work on DOE issues send group extensive comments on DOE’s effort to end run Congress & redefine high-level waste (HLW) as something less, part of DOE’s effort to speed disposal and cut “clean-up”
SRS Watch in “Appeals court issues final ruling allowing DOE’s termination of MOX project”
– see SRS Watch news release of Jan. 8, 2019
Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle, January 8, 2019
“State of Nevada request to stop SRS plutonium shipment goes to federal court”
SRS Watch in
“State of Nevada request to stop SRS plutonium shipment goes to federal court”
WXGF TV, FOX 54< Augusta, Georgia, January 7, 2018
SRS Watch in Las Vegas newspaper article on senseless plutonium shipment:
”Hearing set for lawsuit to block shipment of plutonium to Nevada”
Las Vegas, Nevada, Review-Journal, Jan. 7, 2019
More worker layoffs at MOX boondoggle: South Carolina WARN Act notice of January 7, 2019
105 employees by CB&I Project Services Group and 13 employees by Orano Federal Services, to be laid off by March 4, 2019
The MOX termination crew must be getting fairly lean in size.
Another WARN Act layoff notice
nother WARN Act layoff notice – dated January 4, 2019 – given to an additional 105 workers of CB&I Project Services Group at the terminated MOX boondoggle, with “layoff”
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on US DOE’s (mis)management of MOX boondoggle:
“DOE and NNSA Should Improve Their Lessons-Learned Process for Capital Asset Projects”
GAO-19-25: Dec 21, 2018.
Looks like the outgoing secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has approved DOE’s request of the new method to calculate container volume going into WIPP.
Given the legal volume cap of the amount of TRU waste WIPP can receive, such a license amendment would allow more plutonium disposal, by counting the volume of only the inner container and not the larger outer container.
SRS Watch in: “Progress report on plutonium removal from SRS filed; reclassification of high-level nuclear waste discussed”
Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle, December 19, 2018
SRS Watch director, in dual role as senior adviser to Friends of the Earth, comments on pending December 14 vote by South Carolina Public Service Commission on SCE&G nuclear reactor debacle and who will pay billions of dollars in stranded costs.
SCE&G ratepayers should not pay a dime more for the failed AP1000 nuclear rector project and be refunded the $2 billion already spent in financing costs.
“Commission expected to decide new SCE&G rates on Friday –
New Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the MOX boondoggle?
Be alert to a report likely to come out soon on NNSA’s (mis)management of the MOX debacle. Before the end of 2018? Doesn’t sound like the report will take the essential step to review and investigate any fraud,
On December 11, 2018, another 70 layoffs were announced for the MOX boondoggle, by Orano Federal Services (formerly the plutonium-proliferation company AREVA):
See those layoffs, to be carried out by Feb. 4, 2019, and other layoffs in the updated WARN notice for South Carolina:
CB&I and Orano layoffs so far = 502 + 114 + 111 + 372 + 70 = 1168.
“Trump Wants to Reclassify Radioactive Waste from Nuclear Weapons to ‘Low Level’ so Disposal Is Cheaper”
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), of which SRS Watch is a member, has challenged this approach: “Trump Wants to Reclassify Radioactive Waste from Nuclear Weapons to ‘Low Level’