DOE Announces Release of Draft EIS on Versatile Test Reactor (VTR); Lacking Justification and Due to Proliferation Risks, VTR Project Must Not Go Forward – SRS Watch news, December 21, 2020
Option to Fabricate Plutonium Fuel in Old K-Reactor at Savannah River Site would Bring Risks and Up to an Additional 30 Metric Tons of Plutonium to South Carolina – Must be Rejected
“Given that DOE has just rejected fabrication of plutonium MOX fuel at the SRS, it is totally absurd for any consideration to now be given to fabrication of VTR plutonium fuel at SRS,” said Tom Clements, director of the public interest group Savannah River Site Watch. “SRS has lost all memory of fuel fabrication and could never reestablish that capability over the next decade,” added Clements. “The SRS fuel-fabrication alternative, like the overall project itself, simply isn’t viable and South Carolina does not want another risky project that could result in yet more plutonium being stranded here,” Clements said. SRS watch supports the “no-action” alternative, which means not building the VTR.
full SRS Watch news release, December 21, 2020: SRS Watch on VTR draft EIS December 21 2020
News release on EIN Presswire: https://www.einpresswire.com/article/533249401/doe-releases-draft-eis-on-unjustified-versatile-test-reactor-cost-safety-plutonium-proliferation-risks-unacceptable
Energy & Water (DOE) funding for Fiscal Year 2021 – released on December 21, 2020 – VTR gets $45 million (page 160 pdf) – a pittance of the huge amount it needs to be viable:
https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20201221/BILLS-116RCP68-JES-DIVISION-D.pdf