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 – for new nuclear weapons – at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Los Alamos National Lab in South Carolina. NNSA has refused to review the full environmental impacts of pit production and resulting waste disposal, especially the disposal of plutonium waste (transuranic waste, TRU), in the DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) dump near Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Currently the South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCEP), on behalf of plaintiffs SRS Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico (Santa Fe, NM) and Tri-Valley CAREs (Livermore, CA), is in discussion with the Department of Justice, lawyers for DOE/NNSA) to finalize the “administrative record” (ARA) in case, which would be a list of documents on which NNSA decisions were made and on which further filings can be based.
It now appears that the case, filed in June 2021 – yes, already over 2 years old! – will be delayed further and extend well into 2024.
Here’s the new schedule for the case – see pdf filing by the judge in the docket, on July 25, 2023: amended filing schedule in docket July 25 2023
U.S. District Court
District of South Carolina (Aiken)
CIVIL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 1:21-cv-01942-MGL
SECOND AMENDED SCHEDULING ORDER. Signed by Honorable Mary Geiger Lewis on 7/25/2023. (cbru, ) (Entered: 07/25/2023)
Pursuant to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Local Civil Rules of this
District, the following schedule is established for this case.
1. Plaintiffs may file a motion to complete or supplement the administrative record, if
necessary, no later than August 21, 2023. Defendants shall file any response to such
motion on or before September 6, 2023. If no motion to supplement the record is filed,
the record shall be considered complete on August 22, 2023.
2. Plaintiffs may file a motion for summary judgment no later than November 27, 2023.1
3. Defendants may file a combined motion for summary judgment and response to
Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment no later than December 29, 2023.
4. Plaintiffs may file a combined response to Defendants’ motion for summary judgment
and reply in support of Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment no later than January
29, 2024.
5. Defendants may file a reply in support of Defendants’ motion for summary judgment no
later than February 12, 2023. (should be 2024)
6. The parties shall meet and confer in good faith on any reasonable requests to adjust the
deadlines set forth herein, and shall move for such adjustments in a timely manner.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
s/Mary Geiger Lewis
MARY GEIGER LEWIS
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
Columbia, South Carolina
July 25, 2023
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Photos: Partially finished plutonium fuel (MOX) building at the savannah River Site, which boosters want to convert into the SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant, at a cost of around $20 billion. Will this be the most expensive building in US history?! Photos by High Flyer.