Latest News

“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 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”

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,

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. 

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.

https://srswatch.org/2445-2/

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,

“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,

“Nuclear waste could remain in Jülich for even longer”

“Der Atommüll könnte noch länger in Jülich bleiben”

WDR German radio,

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.

“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,

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 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”

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?

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,

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,

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,

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.”

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.

“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.

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? 

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” — by Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, a sister organization of SRS Watch in the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA),

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”

“The White House gave this nuclear agency a giant funding increase. Can it spend it all?”

Uh, no…..

Article in Defense News, March 3,

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,

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 –

“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.

           

“The all clear has been given regarding the emergency event.”

—–UPDATE 12:57 p.m.—–
The all clear has been given regarding the emergency event.
The emergency event was declared due to a security event when a vehicle attempted to enter a secure area of the site for routine work activated explosive detection devices.