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.
Latest News
Great News! Sierra Club (South Carolina) Opposes SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant Funding Request for Fiscal Year 2022, Supports Programmatic EIS on $11-Billion Pit Plant – Advisory May 30, 2021
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;
Release of Draft EIS on Westinghouse Uranium Fuel Plant near Columbia, South Carolina Delayed Again, to July 2021 & License Extension Likewise Delayed
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,
US Nonproliferation Experts Express Concern about Moltex Plutonium Project and Proliferation Risks to Prime Minister Trudeau
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.
“Merits and Viability of Different Nuclear Fuel Cycles & Technology Options and the Waste Aspects of Advanced Nuclear Reactors,” May 17-18, 2021
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 &
Annual Report on Nuclear Ship Savannah (NS Savannah) Posted by NRC, Still Docked in Baltimore
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.
HALEU (High Assay Low Enriched Uranium) Poses New Security Risks: DOE; Centrus HALEU Project to be Permitted to Produce Weapon-Grade Uranium (HEU)?
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”
Signs of Trouble at 66-Year-Old H-Canyon Reprocessing Plant; Bubble, Bubble, Toil & Trouble with SRS Spent Fuel Storage?
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 Presented Community Service Award for Volunteer Efforts in Columbia, SC
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,
DOE: Different Materials Usable for a Nuclear Explosion, Like Neptunium and 4 Kg Reactor-Grade Plutonium in a “DOE SQ” (New Term it Seems)
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,
Hype Shifts from SMRs to Illusory “Advanced Reactors,” Biden to Follow?
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.
DOE’s NNSA Reveals it’s Out of Money. Flat Broke. Busted. Nothing Left for Beneficial Nuclear Non-Proliferation Program to Convert Reactor from Weapon-Grade Uranium Fuel.
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,
New “Nuclear Posture Review” (NPR) to Assess Need for New Nuclear Warheads and Plutonium Pit Plan, including Proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant
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 –
Articles: Plutonium pit production at proposed Plutonium Bomb Plant under review? Plutonium “disposition” at SRS via H-Canyon reprocessing plant into waste tanks
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”
Proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant Faces More Challenges – Appears to be Under Review
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.
Follow the money: “INSIDE THE ICBM LOBBY: SPECIAL INTERESTS OR THE NATIONAL INTERESTS”
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”
“U.S. continues push to restart plutonium pit production” at SRS and Los Alamos, for Preparation for All-Out Nuclear War and not Deterrence
“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.”
34 Metric Tons of Plutonium – Yes, 34! – Could be Headed to SRS for Fabrication in K-Area into Fuel for Unjustified Reactor – But Trouble Awaits the Project
“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,
U.S. Doom Machine Preparing for Full-Scale Nuclear War (hey, it’s very profitable!): “Nuclear Notebook: United States nuclear weapons, 2021”
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.
UK-Flagged Pacific Grebe Arrives Back in England after Dropping Spent Research Reactor Fuel in Savannah, GA, which was taken to USGS Reactor in Denver
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.
“Groups ask Biden for wider environmental review of nuke work” for unjustified, new nuclear weapons
Groups ask Biden for wider environmental review of nuke work
Associated Press in Washington Post, February 17, 2021
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Watchdog groups want the Biden administration to reconsider a decision by a U.S.
Los Alamos National Lab’s Doom Machine – Planning for Full-Scale Nuclear War – Faces Challenge by Patriots
“Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab Opens Office in the City of the Santa Fe (“Holy Faith”) of Peace and Environmental Protection”
News from Nuclear Watch New Mexico,
SRS Aiming to Dump More Reclassified High-Level Nuclear Waste at Texas Low-Level Nuclear Waste Dump? Article in Texas Tribune
“West Texas is on track to get even more nuclear waste — thanks to the federal government”
A hazardous waste disposal company in Andrews County wants to handle more dangerous levels of nuclear waste.
How will Grout Poured into Empty High-Level Waste Tanks at SRS Perform? Will Degradation Lead to Groundwater Contamination?
“SUMMARY OF DECEMBER 9, 2020, WEBINAR CALL RELATED TO EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED BY THE SAVANNAH RIVER ECOLOGY LABORATORY AND THE CENTER FOR NUCLEAR WASTE REGULATORY ANALYSES TO SUPPORT TANK FARM CLOSURE AT THE SAVANNAH RIVER SITE”
Safety Board: Radiation Does Rates High as a Nuclear Firecracker in New SRS High-Level Waste Facility
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) – thanks for their oversight! – reports high radiation levels in new high-level waste processing facility at SRS, now undergoing start up –
Future Well Drillers at What Was Once SRS -Beware! Rad Waste Vaults Below!
CAUTION urged to future well drillers at what was once the Savannah River Site and Idaho National lab – vaults with radioactive waste may lurk below! Subsurface material disposed of as “Waste Incidental to Reprocessing”
Plans to Dump German High-Level Nuclear Waste on SRS Remains on Life Support Due to Strong Citizen Opposition
“152 Jülicher Castoren stehen immer noch „an Ort und Stelle“ – Ein Erfolg für Westcastor?”
“152 Jülich Castors Still “in Place” – A Success for Westcastor?”
Plans to dump highly radioactive graphite spent fuel from Germany on SRS faces strong opposition in Germany.
NNSA’s “Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan” – Bring on the Nukes, Increase the Threats to Our Security & Hand Over the Cash!
“NNSA Nuclear Plan Shows More Weapons, Increasing Costs, Less Transparency”
The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) new Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan (SSMP) doubles the number of new nuclear warhead programs compared with the previous plan from 2019.
Unjustified $R$ Plutonium Bomb Plant, Dangerous New Nuclear Warhead Programs to Face Strong Opposition in 2021
“Under Trump, the nuclear weapons industry has boomed – Expansion could be scaled back as President-elect Biden and Congress prioritize pandemic and recession problems.”