Federal Government Meets Watchdogs’ Demand for Environmental Review of Expanded Plutonium “Pit” Production (for Nuclear Weapons), Including Preparation of Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on Proposed “Plutonium Bomb Plant” (PBP) at SRS
In a victory for transparency and legal compliance by the government, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today (June 10, 2019) published a “Notice of Intent” in the Federal Register to complete environmental reviews on its controversial proposal to expand plutonium “pit” production for new and refurbished nuclear weapons.
The environmental reviews, required by the National Environmental Policy Act, were first demanded in an October 31, 2018 letter by Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Savannah River Site Watch and Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, to which NNSA did not respond. A second letter sent on May 17, 2019 by attorneys for the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Washington, DC law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Eubanks LLP yielded quick results.
The June 10 Notice of Intent states that three environmental reviews will be conducted:
“NNSA anticipates that it will prepare at least three documents including: a supplement analysis (SA) to the Final Complex Transformation Supplemental Programmatic EIS (Complex Transformation SPEIS); a site-specific EIS for the proposal to produce pits at SRS; and site specific documentation for the proposal to authorize expanding pit production at LANL.”
DOE will conduct a hearing to determine the “scope” of the EIS on the Plutonium Bomb Plant on Thursday, June 27, 5-9 p.m. at the North August Community Center in N. Augusta, SC. Please attend and comment on the need for more nuclear weapons and the potential environmental impacts of pit production n at SRS.
Full news release of SRS Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tri-Valley CAREs linked here
The June 10, 2019 Federal Register “Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production [aka Plutonium Bomb Plant] at the Savannah River Site is available at :
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-06-10/pdf/2019-12003.pdf