SRS Watch to Tour Germany from September 21-26 to Oppose Import to Savannah River Site of Highly Radioactive Spent Nuclear Fuel from Germany; Over 15 German Groups and Politicians Sponsoring the Tour
For Immediate Release –
news release linked here
September 12, 2014
SRS Watch Calls for Halt to Preparation of DOE’s “Environmental Assessment” Given Withdrawal of the Bulk of the Commercial Spent Fuel from Export Consideration by Germany
Columbia, SC – The public interest group Savannah River Site Watch (SRS Watch) today announces that it will participate with German groups and politicians in a 6-day tour of Germany to protest plans by German and U.S. Department of Energy officials to dump highly radioactive spent fuel from Germany at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.
With over 15 German groups and politicians in formal support of the tour, the director of SRS Watch, Tom Clements, will participate in a series of events to inform the German public and elected officials that SRS is not a dump site and that the unprecedented plan to dump the waste at SRS must be rejected.
The tour will begin on September 21 with a demonstration at the entrance to the Juelich nuclear research center, where German commercial reactor spent fuel is stored. Clements will later tour the spent fuel storage facility at the site with a member of the Bundestag (parliament). At Juelich, about 300,000 radioactive spent fuel balls are stored in 152 large casks. The message at the Juelich facility will be for Germany to build a new storage facility at the site and not attempt to illegally dump a challenging nuclear problem on the US.
The tour will also include a public meeting near Juelich, a news conference in Dusseldorf, an event outside the gates of the Ahaus facility- where 600,000 spent graphite fuel balls from the THTR reactor are stored and that were previously discussed for export to SRS – a public meeting in Hamburg and the tour will conclude with various meetings with members of the Bundestag in Berlin on September 25 and 26.
“Informing German audiences and politicians that SRS is not a nuclear dump for Germany will add a strong voice to the growing opposition in Germany against the spent fuel export,” said Tom Clements, director of the public interest group Savannah River Site Watch.
The spent fuel in question that has been proposed for export is from the AVR and THTR experimental gas-cooled reactors. Both reactors were commercial nuclear reactors that were connected to the electricity grid. Under German law, such spent fuel is illegal to export but efforts are being made to skirt the law. Import into the US of commercial spent fuel would be unprecedented and could be used to open the door to more such dumping.
DOE does not appear to be aware of information from Germany, in response to formally posed questions to the German government by members of the Bundestag (parliament), that German officials have withdrawn consideration of dumping the THTR spent fuel, the bulk of the waste involved in the scheme. This new information dramatically impacts the overall situation and renders DOE’s plans moot, according to SRS Watch.
In response to “Kleine Anfrage” on September 3, the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) said: “In der Frühphase der Sondierungen wurde daher auch erörtert, ob die THTR-brennelemente einbezogen werden sollen. Diese Überlegungen sind konkret nicht weiter verfolgt worden.” (From Google Translate: “In the early phase of soundings was therefore also discussed whether the THTR-fuel assemblies are to be included. These considerations have been specifically not pursued.”)
DOE is preparing an “environmental assessment” on some of the environmental aspects of receiving, processing and dumping the German waste but that document as now proposed has been rendered moot given that the THTR spent fuel is not now being considered. “DOE must halt the preparation of the environmental assessment as the scope of it has been dramatically altered by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s withdrawal of the THTR fuel from consideration to be exported,” said Clements. “There is no basis for continuing with the preparation of the environmental document as proposed and it must be terminated.”
DOE has also so far refused to prepare a “proliferation impact assessment” of the new reprocessing technique being developed by Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). A written request by SRS Watch for such an analysis was hand delivered on July 28, 2014 to Secretary of Energy Moniz and Administrator Frank Klotz of the National Nuclear Security Administration in a meeting near SRS. Administrator Klotz confirmed receipt of the SRS Watch letter in an August 28 written response.
Reprocessing of the highly radioactive graphite fuel would result in additional waste being sent to the SRS waste tanks, causing negative impacts to the urgent cleanup of the tanks. That new reprocessing method, to remove uranium from graphite fuel, poses a proliferation risks, according to SRS Watch, that DOE has so far refused to talk about. As the EA may be out in draft form by the end of the year – if it is to go forward – with a public comment period to follow. The public will not even be able to comment on details of the reprocessing technique and associated waste streams as the SRNL research will not have conclude by the end of 2014. Such blocking of ability to comment may also pose legal challenges for DOE, if it persists in preparing the EA document which now has no basis.
Some of the groups and politicians sponsoring the tour by SRS Watch include:
– Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Jülich (Lutheran Church, Department Jülich) www.kkrjuelich.de
– Strahlenzug Mönchengladbach, www. strahlenzug.de
– Wegberger Montagsspaziergänger gegen Atomkraft, www.montagsspaziergang.de
– AG Schacht Konrad, www.ag-schacht-konrad.de
– Anti-Atom-Bündnis Niederrhein, www.antiatom-buendnis-niederrhein.de
– Attac Jülich- Westcastor, www.attac-netzwerk.de
– AKW-nee Aachen- Westcastor, www.anti-akw-ac.de
– Friedensforum Duisburg, friedensforum-duisburg.de
– BUND NRW AK Atom, www.bund.net
– Sofa Münster (sofortiger Atomausstieg), sofa-ms.de
– Aktionsbündnis Münsterland gegen Atomanlagen, www.facebook.com/keincastornachahaus.
– Sayonara Genpatsu Düsseldorf e.V., www.sayonara-genpatsu.de
– Antiatomgruppe Fuku Düsseldorf, antiatom-fuku.de
– Ausgestrahlt ( Bundesweite Antiatomorganisation), www.ausgestrahlt.de
– Bürgerinitiative Kein Atommüll in Ahaus e.V.
– Hubertus Zdebel, MDB, Sprecher der Linksfraktion für den Atomausstieg, http://www.hubertus-zdebel.de
– Hans Jörg Rohwedder,MDL, Umweltpolitischer Sprecher der Piratenfraktion im Landtag NRW, hans-joerg.rohwedder@landtag.nrw.de
Newspapers in Aiken, SC, Augusta, GA, Greenville, SC and Spartanburg, SC have editorialized against the spent fuel import proposal and a majority of individuals speaking at the DOE “environmental assessment” meeting on June 24 in N. Augusta, SC, spoke against the idea.
Across Germany, the message will be:
South Carolina ist kein Entsorgungsplatz für deutschen Atommüll!
South Carolina is not a Nuclear Waste Dump for Germany!
Notes:
1. SRS Watch comments against bringing the spent fuel to SRS, at June 24, 2014 public meeting: “Savannah River Site Faces Unprecedented Import of Highly Radioactive Spent Nuclear Fuel from Two German Nuclear Power Reactors; Export from Germany Illegal and Unwarranted”:
https://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/comments_on_illegal_german_nuke_waste_import_to_srs_june_24_2014.pdf
2. DOE’s Federal Register notice, June 4, 2014, announcing preparation of the “environmental assessment” – “Environmental Assessment for the Acceptance and Disposition of Used Nuclear Fuel Containing U.S.-Origin Highly Enriched Uranium From the Federal Republic of Germany”:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-06-04/pdf/2014-12933.pdf
3. DOE-SRS presentation of June 24, 2014, “Potential Acceptance and Disposition of German Pebble Bed Research Reactor Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Fuel Environmental Assessment,” – misrepresents the contents of the graphite spent fuel:
https://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/doe_public_meeting_presentation_june_2014-1.pdf
4. SRS Watch – Freedom of Information Act request document confirming discussions began in December 2011 about the spent fuel plan:
https://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/foia_german_spent_fuel_to_us_jan_13_2014.pdf
5. “Statement of Intent” between The U.S. Department of Energy & two German government entities, signed on March 28/April 1, 2014:
https://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/statement_of_intent_march_april_2014.pdf
6. Questions (“Kleine Anfrage”) posed by Bundestag members to Federal Ministry of Education and Research, August 13, 2014: https://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/kleine_anfrage_13_august_2014.pdf
7. Response by Federal Ministry of Education and Research to questions, September 3, 2014:
https://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/kleine_anfrage_answer_from_govt_3_september_2014.pdf