Savannah River Site Watch has filed another Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for an amended “work for others” agreement between SRS (Savannah River National Lab) and the Jülicher Entsorgungsgesellschaft für Nuklearanlagen (JEN).
The agreement concerns research being conducted by SRNL into processing and dumping of highly radioactive graphite fuel balls that were irradiated in the long-closed experimental AVR and THTR nuclear reactors. The spent fuel is currently stored at facilities in Jülich and Ahaus, Germany. Under German law, the export of the spent fuel is illegal and if export moves forward there will be various challenges to the operation, which also poses security risks.
SRS Watch learned of the dumping-for-profit scheme in 2014 and informed the public and the SRS Citizens Advisory Board. The SRS Watch director toured the spent fuel storage facility in Jülich, which is operating under an expired license. SRS Watch endorses a new storage facility at the Jülich site or an upgrade to the facility.
Though some of the spent fuel contains US-supplied highly enriched uranium (HEU), DOE has determined that there is no proliferation risk to leave it in Germany. (DOE memo on no proliferation risk of AVR spent fuel August 1 2013.)
FOIA request for “modification 6” to original SRS-Germany agreement – request for WFO modification number 6 August 30 2019
FOIA response for request for “modifications 3 & 4” – “WFO agreeement SRS JEN obtained via FOIA Feb 19 2019” and “modification 5” – “WFO SRS JEN final response rcvd April 24 2019”
Initial response from SRS, September 11, 2019 – FOIA acknowledgement SRS JEN cooperation Sept 11 2019
How long will it take to send an existing document that is readily available?
UPDATE of October 4, 2019: In a letter from SRS dated September 16, 2019, DOE says “Modification Number 6 is still in draft form and cannot be released under Exemption 5, deliberative process. It is estimated that this document will be in its final form in a few weeks when you can submit another request for this document. there are no other documents responsive to your request.” FOIA response SRS JEN WFO mod 6 not ready Sept 16 2019.