NATIONAL NETWORK OF WATCHDOG GROUPS OPPOSES FUNDING FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS TEST PREPARATION:
CALLS PROPOSAL “DANGEROUSLY DESTABILIZING” AND “ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE.”
Today, three-dozen nuclear watchdog organizations,
Latest News
House Armed Services Subcommittee Fails to Affirm $R$ Plutonium Bomb Plant in Mark-Up of Defense Authorization
SRS nuclear war boosters – contractors & NNSA deep staters – sweating bullets over lack of $R$ Plutonium Bomb Plant being affirmed by key House subcommittee
The US House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces (of the Armed Services Committee) today sent a strong signal that the $R$ Plutonium Bomb Plant has weak support.
“Failed [MOX] Plutonium Project’s Final Chapter Is Fire Sale for Parts”
“Failed [MOX] Plutonium Project’s Final Chapter Is Fire Sale for Parts”
By Ari Natter, Bloomberg, June 18, 2020
U.S. conversion factory’s equipment is on the auction block
After $8 billion spent,
Noted expert: “Why a decision on a second US plutonium-pit-production factory should be delayed” – Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, June 12, 2020
Noted nuclear non-proliferation expert Dr. Frank von Hippel speaks up against the proposed, unjustified SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant:
“Why a decision on a second US plutonium-pit-production factory should be delayed”
Storage of Highly Enriched Uranium at Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Facility in TN is “Unsafe” – Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB)
Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREP) raises concern about safety of storage of highly enriched uranium (HEU) – bomb-grade uranium – at DOE’s Y-12 nuclear weapons facility in Oak Ridge,
Are Tritium Operations at SRS Safe? Tritium Gas, Processed at SRS, is Used in Nuclear Weapons to Boost the Blast
BOOM!!! Tritium in Nuclear Warheads = Boosted Nuclear Explosive Force; SRS Watch Requests Report
This National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) notice in the June 11, 2020 Federal Register underscores that the postponed meeting by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on SRS tritium operations needs to be held ASAP.
Former SCE&G Nuclear Official Committed Fraud in Failed Reactor Construction Project in South Carolina; Lawyers in Nuclear Ripoff Under Investigation
Stephen Bryne, former official with South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G – taken over by Dominion Energy – admits fraud in the failed construction of two new nuclear reactors at the VC Summer site in South Carolina.
“Japan should end its nonsensical effort to recycle nuclear fuel”
One day Japan’s costly, dangerous and failed program to reprocess highly radioactive spent fuel and stockpile plutonium will end.
NAS Panel Calls for Programmatic EIS on Surplus Plutonium Disposition
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) on surplus plutonium disposition? That’s the call in the new report (April 30) of the National Academies of Sciences on disposal of 48 metric tons of plutonium,
Important New Book: “Plutonium: How Nuclear Power’s Dream Fuel Became a Nightmare” – Why Spent Fuel Reprocessing and Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Use must be Terminated
“Plutonium: How Nuclear Power’s Dream Fuel Became a Nightmare”
by friends and colleagues of SRS Watch – by Frank von Hippel (Author), Masafumi Takubo (Author), Jungmin Kang (Author)
This book provides a readable and thought-provoking analysis of the issues surrounding nuclear fuel reprocessing and fast-neutron reactors,
Misguided Scheme to Dump German Spent Fuel at SRS Slipping Away from Profiteers?
“Nuclear waste could remain in Jülich for even longer”
“Der Atommüll könnte noch länger in Jülich bleiben”
WDR German radio,
“Nuclear Cleanup Sites Can Endure Prolonged Use of Skeleton Crews, Sources Say” – in Response to COVID-19
SRS Watch in “Nuclear Cleanup Sites Can Endure Prolonged Use of Skeleton Crews, Sources Say”
Federal and industry sources said this week they don’t foresee major environmental or public safety concerns emerging if the current level of reduced staffing at Energy Department nuclear cleanup sites due to COVID-19 lingers for months.
Nuclear Bomb Plant Under Construction at Y-12 (Oak Ridge, TN) Subject to Earthquake Risks
“New earthquake report shows risks “ten times as high”
This is troubling – on a new analysis on the nuclear bomb plant under construction by NNSA at Y-12 in Oak Ridge,
Groups Request Extension of Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Comment Period
Letter to DOE, April 1, 2020: Request for two-month extension of the April 24, 2020 comment deadline for the draft Supplement Analysis to the 2008 Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for continued operations of Los Alamos National Laboratory (DOEIEIS-0380- SA-06) in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
SRS: Operating in Inky Blackness of Unjustified Secrecy – Scared of the Public Knowing What’s Up?
SRS has slapped a lid of secrecy on “minimum mission-critical activities” that are occurring at the site – no explanation given for that terminology or what it covers. Shameful and potentially dangerous!
“Arms Control and Nonproliferation: A Catalog of Treaties and Agreements”
“Arms Control and Nonproliferation: A Catalog of Treaties and Agreements”
Congressional Research Service (CRS), updated March 26, 2020
report linked here: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/RL33865.pdf
When will Congress allow the CRS to post reports so the public can see them in a timely manner?
Stunning DOE admission to trigger more extensive environmental review: “New study says LANL nuclear pit production could go higher”
DOE admits Los Alamos National Lab to look at production of 80 plutonium pits/year – to fuel the new nuclear arms race – which underscores the requirement for preparation of a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement ( PEIS) on the matter,
Nuclear Industry Aims to Play Virus Relief into Bailout – NEI Letter of March 19, 2020
Well, some things in life are predictable. The US nuclear industry is seeking relief that goes far beyond immediate COVID-19 impacts.
In addition to seeking help for the floundering Votgle reactor construction project in Georgia,
SRS Still Acting like the Coronavirus is a Hoax – This Must Change!
It’s still looking like SRS thinks the COVID-19 virus situation is mostly a hoax. WHEN will SRS start acting responsibly and declare certain jobs “essential,” like high-level waste management and security of plutonium,
DNFSB Confirms SRS Denied Access to Facilities, Information – Report to Congress
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety board (DNFSB), mandated to oversight of certain DOE activities, confirms SRS “denied or delayed access to information, facilities, or personnel meetings that were necessary for the Board to perform its mission.”
Is the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), to Process Liquid High-level Nuclear Waste at SRS, Facing Start-up Problems?
What’s the status of start up of a key SRS facility to process liquid high-level waste? DOE has said that the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) would start in March 2020 but then said April and then that it would be in Fiscal Year 2020.
DNFSB Oversight: “SRS experienced the three radiological events recently.”
“SRS experienced the three radiological events recently.”
DEFENSE NUCLEAR FACILITIES SAFETY BOARD
February 21, 2020 report
SUBJECT: Savannah River Site Activity Report for Week
Radiological Protection: SRS experienced the three radiological events recently.
Will SRS Comply with COVID-19 Guidelines? Will Non-Essential Work of Nuclear War Planners Continue at SRS?
As the coronavirus spreads in the US and South Carolina – location of the Savannah River Site – what is the US Department of Energy doing concerning the 11,000 employees at SRS?
DNFSB Reschedules Meeting on SRS to June 1, 2020, in Aiken, SC
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) March 19 meeting on SRS was cancelled and has now been rescheduled for June 1, 2020, but we wonder if that will happen.
“Non-Proliferation Treaty turns 50 as US funds new nukes” – Opinion Piece by Nuclear Watch New Mexico, SRS Watch Ally, Exposes Efforts by US DOE for New and Costly Nuclear Arms Race
“Non-Proliferation Treaty turns 50 as US funds new nukes” — by Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, a sister organization of SRS Watch in the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA),
DNFSB March 19 Meeting on SRS Oversight Postponed to Summer, Due to Coronavirus
March 10 Update: The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has notified SRS Watch that due to the coronavirus “and other issues” that the March 19 “Public Hearing on the Status of the Savannah River Site”
NNSA Aiming to Spin Up Giant Black Money Hole on Nuclear Weapons Spending, including for the $R$ Plutonium Bomb Plant (PBP)
“The White House gave this nuclear agency a giant funding increase. Can it spend it all?”
Uh, no…..
Article in Defense News, March 3,
GAO Underscores Rough Path Ahead for Overly Ambitious Plans for $R$ Plutonium Bomb Plant (PBP)
Government Accountability Office (GAO), March 3, 2020: “NNSA’s Modernization Efforts Would Benefit from a Portfolio Management Approach”
“The Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is conducting four programs to modernize nuclear weapons,
MOX Zombie Officially Dead but Lives on as Contractor Honey Hole: Proposed $R$ Plutonium Bomb Plant (PBP)
The federal court decision is the final death blow of the MOX debacle but that zombie project has morphed into a contractor money machine (for the $R$ Plutonium Bomb Plant –
Good On Senators Feinstein and Markey for Demanding Cost on NNSA Nuclear Weapons Scheme
“Feinstein, Markey Request GAO Study on Affordability of Nuclear Weapons”
Feb 27 2020
Washington – Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) today requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examine if nuclear modernization activities undertaken by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are sustainable and affordable investments in our national security.