SRS Watch News

Historic Settlement Reached in NEPA Lawsuit Over Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Production

News release, January 17, 2025

AIKEN, S.C. — Nonprofit public interest groups have reached an historic settlement agreement with the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency,

Savannah River Site Watch Celebrates 10 Years of Public-Interest Advocacy for the Environment, Nuclear Nonproliferation

News release linked here:  https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/757512140/savannah-river-site-watch-celebrates-10-years-of-public-interest-advocacy-for-the-environment-nuclear-nonproliferation

COLUMBIA, SC, November 4,

South Carolina Environmental Law Project

Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition

Nuclear Watch New Mexico

Savannah River Site Watch

Tri-Valley CAREs

For Immediate Release –

Photo: SRS Watch director Clements at Underground “bunker” at the University of Georgia – special collections

SRS Watch director Tom Clements is honored that the University of Georgia houses the archives of over a 40-year career.

At the South Carolin Nuclear Advisory Council (NAC) meeting in Columbia, SC on April 29, 2024, SRS Watch made a hard-hitting comment questioning the role of the NAC in an energy bill now before the South Carolina legislature.

 

DOE image on front page: tritium canister (of classified size) & above: diagram of Tritium Producing Burnable Absorber Rod (TPBAR)

TVA gains NRC approval to increase production of radioactive tritium gas for nuclear weapons –

U.S. DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Delays Urgent Research on Plutonium “Pit” Aging While Spending Tens of Billions on Nuclear Weapons Bomb Core Production; Heavily Redacted Document Obtained via Tardy Response to FOIA Request

Nearly three years after filing a Freedom of Information Act request,

Energy Legislation before South Carolina General Assembly Includes Unjustified Giveaways to Nuclear Industry; in Ill-Advised Move, Elevates Role of Nuclear Advisory Council (Industry Promotional Body)

Unlearned Lesson: Current Dominion Energy Electricity Bill Includes Hidden Charge of 5.6% for Failed V.C.

U.S. Department of Energy Admits Design Problems with Controversial New Plutonium Bomb Plant at Savannah River Site as Cost Surges to a Stunning $25 Billion, Likely Most Expensive Building in U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Paves Way for Increase in Production of Tritium for Nuclear Weapons, Further Undermining Nuclear Non-Proliferation Norms and Keeping U.S. on Nuclear War Footing

SRS Watch news,

Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle: new Westinghouse AP1000 reactors – unit 4 on left (under criticality testing) and unit 3 on right (operating), reactor buildings are white, at the base of the cooling towers –

The summary “Performance Evaluation Report” (PER) for the nuclear weapons programs at the Savannah River Site confirm that a special “Tiger Team” has reviewed documents for the planning of the proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant and that the team is helping implement new design and cost plans.

The federal environmental lawsuit brought by public interest groups asking for the court to order DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to prepare a “Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement”

Emails Obtained from the Department of Energy via a Freedom of Information Act request Reveal Frantic Interactions with Germany in Misguided Attempt to Import Highly Radioactive Waste to DOE’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina,

Attorneys for SRS Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tri-Valley CAREs, plaintiffs in a federal court case demanding a “programmatic Environmental Impact Statement” (PEIS) on plutonium pit production,

The U.S. Department of Energy has quietly  told friends that it’s program to “dispose of” 40 metric tons of surplus weapons plutonium has been delayed 10 years. Search as we might we can find no public information about this.

Savannah River Site Watch reached out to attendees at a clean energy festival (https://getoffthegridfest.com/) in Spartanburg, South Carolina on August 19, 2023, to enlist opposition to plans by the Department of Energy &

Photo in post: Don’t Dump Rocky Flats Plutonium Pit Production on South Carolina!  1992 at gates of Rocky Flats pit-production facility, nbear Boulder, Colorado, with current SRS Watch director (standing under the center of the billboard,

The federal judge in Columbia, South Carolina has issued a new schedule for the public interest lawsuit asking for preparation of a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) by DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) concerning the plan to produce plutonium pits –

The DOE’s Office of Hearings and Appeals has decided in favor of SRS Watch and granted our appeal of an inadequate search for documents relevant to our FOIA request related to import and dumping of Ger man spent fuel at SRS. 

An email provided to SRS Watch in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals that the German entity notified SRS in October 2022 that the scheme to dump German spent fuel –

U,S. State Department won’t respond until November 2025 to an information request about more nuclear waste that could come to SRS from a nuclear weapons accident in Spain in 1996!

DOE is using “pit aging” as a justification to fabricate new pits for new nuclear weapons. We challenge them to back up their claim with scientific data!

Major Savannah River Site (SRS) Public Interest Victories – For a Cleaner, Safer Site

Stopped operation of the Allied General Nuclear Services (AGNS) reprocessing plant,

SRS Watch, in response to a DOE notice that an Environmental Impact Statement would be prepared on production and availability of High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU), has requested that a Nonproliferation Impact Assessment (NPIA) be prepared related to the HALEU program.

Here are some Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by SRS Watch – which indicate how slow DOE processes FOIA (counter to DOE regulations).  Such slow response to FOIA request by public interests groups like SRS Watch undermines public confidence and hurts transparency and openness.

Members of our grassroots network of public-interest groups around DOE sites – the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), of which SRS Watch is a member – met with the Office of Environmental Management (EM) on April 25 to voice concern about site clean-up issues.

German Federal Government Concurs with Termination of Plan to Ship Highly Radioactive Spent Fuel from Germany to U.S. DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina

Decade-long Effort Funded by Germany to Develop Reprocessing Technique at SRS for Irradiated Graphite Fuel has Ended,

Comments by Savannah River Site Watch (SRS Watch) on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program (SPDP EIS) (DOE/EIS–0549:

https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeeis-0549-surplus-plutonium-disposition-program)

27-page comments of SRS Watch posted here:  Comments on Pu disposition draft EIS Clements March 16 2023

The comments by SRS Watch,