SRS Watch has submitted comments for the “scoping” for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposed “Versatile Test Reactor.” DOE has proposed that SRS make the fuel for the reactor but SRS has no experience with such work since the production reactors at SRS closed in the 1980s. Sounds like it’s another effort to please contractors and throw jobs at SRS, which lacks a clear future mission beyond clean-up (still the king of jobs at the site).
VTR scoping comments by SRS Watch August 20 2019.
DOE claims the VTR will be constructed and on line by the end of 2025 but we bet that we’ll see a repeat of cost increases and schedule slippage, a la the MOX debacle (a project that urgently needs investigation for waste, fraud, abuse and mins management.)
Federal Register notice by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, August 5, 2019: “Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for a Versatile Test Reactor”
Union of Concerned Scientists questions the need for the VTR in a blog of April 5, 2019: “There are Faster, Cheaper, Safer and More Reliable Alternatives to the Energy Department’s Proposed Multibillion Dollar Test Reactor“