DOE is dragging its feet in providing “lessons learned” documents on the plutonium fuel (MOX) debacle.
Once again, DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) hasn’t provided documents, requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by SRS watch about “lesson learned” on the failed MOX project at SRS and has again kicked the response can another month down the road. Here’s the April 11, 2022 response from NNSA’s FOIA office in Albuquerque, New Mexico to the SRS Watch director, Tom Clements:
“Site Office Response: “The NNSA Subject Matter Experts are still reviewing the responsive documents for releasability to Mr. Clements. This Office will try to submit the final response package to your office by Friday, May 20, 2022.””
Will documents of substance be provided? Will problems with NNSA and contract management of the project be discussed? Have “lessons learned” documents been provided to Congress in order that they investigate reasons why NNSA lost $8 billion in construction on the MOX boondoggle? Besides needing the understand why the project failed so badly, the public needs to learn how NNSA managed the project and understand the challenges facing them as they aim to turn the MOX building into the $20-billion SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant (for new nuclear weapons to fuel a new nuclear arms race).
What’s your bet that documents will be provided to SRS Watch shortly after May 20 (after the FOIA office pulls the “response package” together and finalizes it)?
For more on the plutonium pit issue and the threat of new nuclear weapons, see this April 12, 2022 informative news release by sister organization Nuclear Watch New Mexico: “Biden’s FY 2023 Budget Fuels New Nuclear Arms Race” – https://nukewatch.org/press-release-item/bidens-fy-2023-budget-fuels-new-nuclear-arms-race/
Photos: MOX building – just a shell – at SRS, which DOE is aiming to turn into the SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant, by High Flyer.