The summary “Performance Evaluation Report” (PER) for the nuclear weapons programs at the Savannah River Site confirm that a special “Tiger Team” has reviewed documents for the planning of the proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant and that the team is helping implement new design and cost plans. Deployment of a Tiger Team, comprised of those with special expertise, indicates that NNSA is having trouble with design and cost issue with the pit plant (to make bomb cores for new nuclear warheads).
See full summary PERs, pressured by SRS Watch and other NGOs (Nuclear Watch New Mexico & Tri_Valley CAREs) to be released by NNSA: https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/nnsa-releases-annual-performance-reviews-management-and-operations-partners
The “Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Performance Evaluation Summary” for contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC (SRNS) reveals the work of a Tiger Team, a hint that cost and design issues were too much of a challenge for SNRS to deal with:
“For the SRPPF Project, SRNS executed the Construction Management subcontract, the Dismantlement & Removal (D&R) Critical Decision (CD)-3A activities, and Tiger Team implementation of CD-3X packages.”
See the PER summary for SRNS: https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/savannah-river-nuclear-solutions-llc-fy-23-performance-evaluation-summary
SRS Watch on January 24, 2024 filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the Tiger Team reports(s) on the SRS bomb plant and NNSA confirmed receipt of the FOIA request on January 24, 2024. Per NNSA’s chronic violation of its own FOIA regulations, there will likely be no response to this important request. Why NNSA blatantly ignores FOIA regulations and why both Secretary of Energy Granholm and NNSA Administrator Jull Hruby do not demand FOIA compliance should be the subject of GAO, OIG and congressional investigations. For the public, this sad state of affairs reveals a de facto policy against transparency, openness and public participation.
SRS Watch FOIA request for Tiger Team reports(s) on the SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant, January 24, 2024: https://srswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/initial-Tiger-Team-SRS-pit-plant-SRS-Watch-Jan-24-2024.pdf
NNSA initial response confirming receipt of the SRS Watch request, Jan. 29, 2024: https://srswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/initial-NNSA-reponse-Tiger-Team-pit-plant-Jan-29-2024.pdf
A document obtained by SRS Watch via FOIA – “Critical Decision (CD)-1 Independent Project Review (IPR)” – reveals of page 27 that the Tiger Team may be assisting with “Critical Decision-3” design packages for the pit plant: “To optimize the schedule, the project will use a multiple CD-3X strategy, employing as many as ten separate CD-3X packages for work such as, demolition and renovation of existing rooms, early site and utility work, and equipment and material procurements. While the project should be lauded for the creative solution and early planning work, producing and submitting multiple CD-3X packages will be labor intensive, and the review and approval process will require proactive management.” (see 2021 document at: https://srswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Doc-1-SRPPF-CD-1-IPR-Final-Report-210505-2.pdf)
This FOIA request, like so many other before NNSA, will likely simply be ignored. Chronic abuse of FOIA by NNSA, with the complicity of Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and NNSA Administrator Jill Hriby, merits investigation by GAO, OIG and Congress. NNSA’s effort against transparency, openness and public involvement can only be solved by holding accountable those who have implemented and are protecting such policies.
Update, January 30, 2024: Court-ordered mediation between plaintiffs and DOJ/NNSA concerning both documents in the “administrative record” and overall case demanding a Programmatic EIS (PEIS) on pit production was held on January 25, 2024. The mediation did not yield results and the case, now over 2.5 years old, continues. From top of our complaint in court document system (PACER):
U.S. District Court
District of South Carolina (Aiken)
CIVIL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 1:21-cv-01942-MGL
| Savannah River Site Watch et al v. United States Department of Energy et al Assigned to: Honorable Mary Geiger Lewis Cause: 42:4321 Review of Agency Action-EnvironmentDate Filed: 06/29/2021 |