More public interest victories to add to the list of victories over 40 years!
In July 2022, there have been two significant developments at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS), near Aiken, SC, that reflect victories from environment and nuclear non-proliferation perspectives.
Spent fuel export from Germany to SRS now off the table. For 10 years, SRS has had an agreement with a German nuclear research site at Juelich, Germany under which export of highly radioactive spent fuel would be shipped to SRS for processing and disposal, both on site and elsewhere. Activists have opposed the proposal since its inception in 2012 and the SRS Citizens Advisory Board passed a resolution against the German spent fuel import in 2017. Now, a new CDU-Green government in the state of North Rhine-Westfalia has come to an agreement that a new spent fuel storage facility at Juelich will be pursued. Thus, as the director of the German waste management company has said to the media, “We will propose to give up the option of exporting the Castors [casks with the spent fuel] to the US.”
Though their collective heads seem to be in the sand on this matter, DOE and contractors will be fully informed about the changed situation in Germany at the SRS Citizens Advisory Board meeting in Augusta, Georgia on July 26, 2022, during a public comment period. (See CAB agenda here: July 2022 Agenda ). In 2017, the CAB passed a recommendation against the import of the German spent fuel: https://www.srs.gov/general/outreach/srs-cab/library/recommendations/Rec_350_-_German_Fuel.pdf
SRS Watch update, July 13, 2022: https://srswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Status-of-Savannah-River-Site-JEN-cooperation-July-13-2022.pdf
H-Canyon reprocessing plant on track for closure. The H-Canyon reprocessing plant, which produced nuclear weapons materials during the Cold War and which pumped tens of millions of gallons of high-level nuclear waste into on-site storage tanks, is now slated to be closed. SRS stated in a news release issued on July 11, 2022 that H-Canyon would be rendered inoperable, something long sought by environmentalists, in 2033. Before then, remaining research reactor spent fuel at SRS would be processed through H-Canyon and into the SRS tanks, to then be solidified with glass in large containers, awaiting disposal as high-level waste in the ever-elusive U.S. underground disposal facility.
Be alert to any move by DOE to build a new, costly reprocessing plant as the end of H-Canyon becomes firmer.
Photo: Castor spent fuel casks – containing highly radioactive graphite fuel balls – stored at the current Juelich storage facility, which the SRS Watch director has visited.