The Department of Energy continues to violate a committee made under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by refusing to update the public and the SRS Citizens Advisory Board about the status of the scheme to import, process and dump German spent nuclear fuel at SRS. No explanation has been forthcoming from DOE about this violation. Why?!
SRS Watch again publicly raised this issue in comments at the CAB meeting in Augusta, Georgia on March 13, 2023.
See details in a memo to the CAB, which was submitted for the meeting record & which has links to key documents about the dumping scheme (which is dead but DOE won’t admit it): memo to CAB on German spent fuel March 13 2023
We have confirmed from DOE that there are no plans to dump the irradiated German graphite spent fuel into the SRS high-level waste tanks, a move that which would negatively impact the target date to close the remaining 41 high-level nuclear waste tanks by 2037. So, why won’t DOE admit that the German dumping plan is dead? SRS Watch will continue to stand in for a derelict DOE and update the public on this matter.
We’ll find out more details once DOE responds to the SRS Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on the scheme – see initial SRS response of March 1, 2023: SRO-2023-00646-F Clements first letter German spent fuel agreement March 1 2023
“SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request Savannah River Operations Office SRO-2023-00646-F
This is to acknowledge your FOIA request for copies of:
“1) Any modification to the original Work for Others (WFO) agreement between DOE/Savannah River Nuclear Solutions and Jülicher Entsorgungsgesellschaft für Nuklearanlagen (JEN) – located at the Forschungzentrum Jüelich (FZJ) in Germany – and the Savannah River Site, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, and/or the Savannah River National Laboratory after February 2022. Modification Number 9 to the Work for Others agreement terminated on February 28, 2023, so this request covers any “modification” or new agreement subsequent to Modification Number 9. The requested modification(s) may be called Modification Number 10 (or higher);”
UPDATE, April 19, 2023: We have learned that a JEN official said on March 6, 2023 that the SRS-JEN agreement was not renewed after it ended on February 28, 2023. The FOIA response from SRS, now tardy, should say that the search for a new agreement did not find it. This is the final proof that the project is dead.
photos: stored Castor casks in Juelich Germany, with AVR spent fuel