District Court Denies Department of Energy’s Motion to Dismiss Plutonium Pits Suit
Aiken, SC — In a win for public participation and environmental protection, the United States District Court of South Carolina denied the Department of Energy’s motion to dismiss a 2021 legal action filed by multiple citizen groups. The suit was prompted by the agency’s failure to take the “hard look” required by the National Environmental Policy Act at its plans to more than quadruple the production of plutonium pits for new nuclear weapons and split their production between the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site.
In her ruling, Judge Mary Geiger Lewis thoroughly rejected the defendants’ arguments that the plaintiffs lacked standing, saying it was “not a close call”.
“We were able to defeat yet another attempt to use standing as a weapon to keep members of the public out of the government’s decision-making process,” said Leslie Lenhardt, Senior Managing Attorney at the South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP). To date, the Department of Energy (DOE) has refused to fully examine the environmental and safety impacts of their cross-country plan, which would create massive quantities of dangerous radioactive materials, put hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on the line, risk a new nuclear arms race, and violate the nation’s foundational environmental law.
The Savannah River Site has never produced plutonium pits, the explosive cores of all U.S. nuclear weapons, and currently stores 11.5 metric tons of plutonium, which poses a daunting management and disposal challenge. Pit production will only increase its plutonium burden, along with more waste that needs to be treated, stored and disposed of.
“The ruling is a significant loss for the DOE in its efforts to dodge its legal obligations under NEPA,” said Tom Clements, Director of SRS Watch. “We will push forward in court to make sure that the DOE conducts the mandated environmental analysis of impacts of plutonium pit production at all involved DOE sites, including sites at which plutonium waste would be disposed.”
News release on SCELP website & EIN Presswire, with link to judge’s ruling: https://www.scelp.org/news/district-court-denies-department-of-energys-motion-to-dismiss-plutonium-pits-suit & https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/616942538/district-court-denies-department-of-energy-s-motion-to-dismiss-plutonium-pits-suit
Court-agreed timeline of next steps, as agreed by DOJ and SCELP lawyers – the “administrative record” of documents in the case are due soon from Department of Justice lawyers: DOJ SCELP schedule agreement Feb 14 2023
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Text from docket (1:21-CV-1942), via PACER document access system:
| Date Filed | # | Docket Text |
|---|---|---|
| 02/07/2023 | 31 | MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER denying 23 Motion to Dismiss. Signed by Honorable Mary Geiger Lewis on 2/7/2023.(cbru, ) (Main Document 31 replaced to correct scrivener’s error in signature date on 2/10/2023) (cbru, ). (Entered: 02/07/2023) |
| 02/07/2023 | 32 | TEXT ORDER: The parties are directed to confer and submit a proposed scheduling order no later than February 14, 2023. IT IS SO ORDERED. (Proposed Scheduling Order due by 2/14/2023) Signed by Honorable Mary Geiger Lewis on 2/7/2023. (cbru, ) (Entered: 02/07/2023) |
| 02/15/2023 | 34 | DELETION OF DOCKET ENTRY NUMBER 33. Reason: Proposed orders are not filed. (cbru, ) (Entered: 02/15/2023) |
| 02/16/2023 | 35 | SCHEDULING ORDER (Administrative Record due by 4/14/2023) Signed by Honorable Mary Geiger Lewis on 2/16/2023. (cbru, ) (Entered: 02/16/2023) |
| 02/21/2023 | 36 | ANSWER to 21 Amended Complaint, by National Nuclear Security Administration, The, Jennifer Granholm, Jill Hruby, United States Department of Energy.(Bowens, Barbara) (Entered: 02/21/2023) |
DOJ answer to our complaint – Who me?! – Reflecting a “Deny it all” policy: Answer to Amended Complaint fro m DOJ Feb 23 2023
image: logo of of SCELP