Where’s the environmental-impact review of restarting the HB-Line at SRS to purify plutonium? Looks like DOE may be violating or on the verge of violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for failure to analyze the impacts of starting up this aging facility. We urge DOE to proceed cautiously as it moves further down the obstacle course in an attempt to unleash plutonium proliferation, from which a few select companies would profit. (See Arms Control Today July/August 2026 article: “U.S. Selects Companies for Controversial Plutonium Transfer.”)
DOE claimed in a March 6, 2026 post that it was restarting the HB-Line, which sits atop the H-Canyon reprocessing facility, to provide purified plutonium to be fabricated into plutonium fuel in facilities that don’t exist to be used by commercial nuclear reactors that don’t exist: “The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) today announced the decision to restart HB-Line operations at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. Restarting HB-Line provides the capability to power America’s nuclear future by recycling surplus plutonium and partnering with industry to produce uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for advanced nuclear reactors. The facility is an integral part of H-Canyon, the only chemical separations facility of its kind in the United States.”
To say the least, DOE is way out in front of its skis on restart of the HB-Line, in part as no needed has been demonstrated and no EIS had been prepared.
And, as SRS Watch pointed out in 2025, HB-Line has faced numerous technical problems in the last attempt to operate it. See “H-Canyon Folly, Plutonium Failure,” from November 2015, written as the plutonium fuel (MOX) program was crumbling in the hands of DOE and MOX contractors: https://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/srs_mox_plutonium_oxide_folly_nov_12_2015.pdf
There is much in the “Folly” report that DOE must consider when preparing the EIS on HB-Line restart.
We will be alert to DOE’s next move concerning the HB-Line and pledge to the public that we will be alert to any violation of US environmental law that might take place. Likewise, we will be alert to DOE unleashing plutonium proliferation, as we pointed out in our October 2025 report “Unleashing Plutonium Proliferation in the U.S. Holds Risks.” (https://srswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Unleashing-Plutonium-Proliferation-SRS-Watch-Oct-31-2025.pdf)
Here’s what we concluded in 2015 and the stakes are even higher now given that DOE has gone crazy pushing highly speculative and costly programs based on private reactors that on paper might be able to use plutonium fuel but which don’t exist (like Oklo’s Powerhouse): “If HB-Line is placed back into service for the unnecessary oxide production mission, pressure will be on equipment and personnel to flawlessly perform, which will be a challenge given recent operational history. A single safety incident could cause permanent closure of HB-Line.”
NOTICE: DO NOT BE SURPRISED IF THE DOE/PRIVATE EFFORT TO PROLIFERATE PLUTONIUM COMES CRASHING DOWN, AFTER A HUGE WASTE OF TAX PAYER MONEY.