An email provided to SRS Watch in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals that the German entity notified SRS in October 2022 that the scheme to dump German spent fuel – from the closed AVR gas-cooled reactor – on SRS was being terminated. DOE failed to inform the public about this, in violation of a commitment made in 2017. Given DOE’s failure, SRS Watch took on the job to inform the public, including filing a FOIA request to get more information.
See email from the German company JEN, telling SRS officials that the contract to process and dump the German spent fuel at SRS was being terminated: Schaffler 10.12.22 email_Redacted-2
But the FOIA request was was for all communication between SRS and JEN about the project’s termination and the only document provided was the email linked above. Thus, in an attempt to get a proper response to the FOIA request, SRS Watch filed an official appeal on June 30, 2023 of the FOIA decision by SRS. See FOIA appeal here: Appeal by SRS Watch of FOIA June 30 2023 And, initial acknowledgement response of July 10, 2023 by DOE’s Office of Hearings & Appeals: Appeal ack. letter July 10 2023 Ack Ltr-1
Original SRS Watch FOIA request, March 1, 2023: initial FOIA for SRS JEN agreement March 1 2023
In response to the SRS Watch FOIA request, SRS did provide two documents on technical aspects of the cooperation as well as a draft SRS-JEN agreement that was never finalized (#10 in a series – SRS Watch had obtain the earlier “Work for Others” agreements via FOIA requests dating back a decade). See the 3 documents, being made public here:
SRNL HTGR Technology Maturation Activities Cost Estimate_Redacted-1
SRNL HTGR Technology Maturation Activities_Redacted-1
2022-03-30-WFO-13-021 Mod No. 10-JEN-signed_Redacted-1
And, see the DOE response cover letters to SRS Watch here:
June 5, 2023:
SRO-2023-00646-F Clements first release letterlk-1
June 13, 2023:
SRO-2023-00646-F Clements final letterlk-2
NEWS UPDATE, August 1: The DOE’s Office of Hearings and Appeals has decided in favor of SRS Watch and granted our appeal of an inadequate search for documents relevant to our FOIA request. The request has been “remanded” back to SRS to conduct an adequate search. See the order here: FIA-23-0022 FOIA appeal order August 1 2023
Photo: SRS Watch director Tom Clements outside spent fuel storage facility at Juelich, Germany- standing with German activists and politicians in opposition to scheme to dump AVR spent fuel on SRS – After a 10-year fight WE WON and the project has been terminated! This victory is a testament to international cooperation and diligent watching-dogging by the public in Germany and the US.