SRS Watch news, April 23, 2022: Nuclear Weapons Funding Request for Savannah River Site Takes a Huge Leap in Support of Dangerous, Enduring U.S. Plans to Fight a Full-Scale Nuclear War
SRS to Take a Larger Role in Nuclear Weapons Activities as Funding for SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant Spirals Out of Control, Increasing 189% in One Year and Nearing $1 Billion Per Year
See DOE’s “FY 202323 Budget Justification” – posted April 22, 2022: https://www.energy.gov/cfo/articles/fy-2023-budget-justification
Columbia, SC – Details of the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget request for Fiscal Year 2023 were released on Friday, April 22, 2022, and a frightening picture emerges of a nation engaged in a nuclear weapons buildup emerges. A key to DOE’s plans to make new nuclear weapons and upgrade old ones is dependent on a host of new production facilities, with the proposed Savannah River Site (SRS) Plutonium Bomb Plant (PBP) playing a key role in expanded reliance on nuclear weapons.
DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) produces and maintains nuclear weapons for its client, the U.S. Department of Defense, and its critical role is often overlooked by those who don’t realize the role of DOE in nuclear weapons.
“The DOE budget request reveals a sharp jump in funding for nuclear weapons activities at SRS, which will raise the threat of nuclear war,” said Tom Clements, director of the public interest group Savannah River Site Watch. “There is simply no justification in wasting billions of dollars on a plutonium pit plant at SRS, which is being pursued not for deterrence but in support of a startling US policy to fight a full-scale nuclear war,” added Clements.
Full SRS Watch news release of April 23, 2022: SRS Watch news on DOE budget April 22 2022