Feds push for Plutonium Pit Production at Savannah River Site; Aiken, South Carolina
/Do we really need or want new nuclear weapons?
By The Fairewinds Crew
With thousands of excess nuclear weapons worldwide, it’s shocking to think that we need to build new ones. While Fairewinds Energy Education predominately works in the area of atomic energy, we look at the whole ‘fuel chain’ which includes waste management and uranium mining as well as every phase in between.
For decades, nuclear reactors at the Savannah River Site (SRS) created plutonium for use in building the U.S. arsenal of these plutonium “pits” – these inner triggers for atomic (fission) and hydrogen (fusion) bombs. The Savannah River forms the border between South Carolina and Georgia. But the Savannah River Site (SRS), chosen for its remoteness during World War II, is the nexus between atomic bombs and nuclear power. However, when some members of our Fairewinds Crew read about Plutonium Pit Production at the Savannah River Site, we actually had no idea what they were talking about. Are these open ‘pits’ – holes in the soil in which to dump more high-level radioactive waste – like those used all across the U.S. during the Manhattan Project and ongoing bomb making and atomic bomb waste disposal? No, they certainly are not.
Plutonium Pits are the trigger – the innermost part of an atomic bomb – and since we are talking about Georgia and South Carolina, let’s compare it to the pit inside a sweet Georgia or South Carolina peach. The ‘pit’ is the trigger at the center that makes the whole device work.
The United States already has thousands of plutonium pits for thousands of nuclear warheads. One would think that that is enough, especially given that groups worldwide have been seeking denuclearization for the planet. Even the U.S. and Russia, the most nuclear weaponized countries in the world, have entered into a treaty to downsize their arsenals and move toward peace. Now, at SRS, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wants to construct an unprecedented new facility to build new pits (atomic triggers) for a new bomb design and to refurbish old pits. The JASON report from 2006 states that these existing warhead pits will last 100 years, so clearly the motive is to design a new bomb, not refurbish the old bombs.
The assessment demonstrates that there is no degradation in performance of primaries of stockpile systems due to plutonium aging that would be cause for near-term concern regarding their safety and reliability. Most primary types have credible minimum lifetimes in excess of 100 years as regards aging of plutonium
On the other hand, there is another approach: a peaceful, nuclear weapons-free future! In 2017, the coalition-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Nobel Peace Prize for its denuclearization efforts around the world. ICAN received the prize due to its vision and dedication “draw[ing] attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons” and its diplomatic, treaty-based passage aimed at banning them altogether. So, despite all the governmental grandstanding and drumbeating, the work of organizations like ICAN and individuals, like all of us, can stand up and demand another path forward. After all, we owe it to the generations that will inherit the world we leave behind.
Maggie and Arnie Gundersen, the founder and chief engineer of Fairewinds Energy Education Nonprofit, now live in Charleston, South Carolina. South Carolinians are already handling the debt of V.C. Summer 2 and 3 atomic power reactors that turned out to be a self-enriching boondoggle by corporations that took taxpayers and ratepayers for a boat-load of $9 Billion, to attempt to build an extremely costly and unsafe atomic reactor only 20-miles outside the SC’s capitol of Columbia. This utility and energy corporate network of good ole boys attempted to build the AP1000 nuke plant, which was poorly designed when it was first proposed during the 1990s.
We can tell you that South Carolina is a beautiful state filled with amazing people, farmers, musicians, artists, writers, and a truly unique collection of amazing chefs. Charleston is a huge tourist destination, yet S.C. politicians still have a love-affair with the temporary construction jobs that should be created if a new bomb facility is constructed in South Carolina. By the way, SRS pays no taxes, and these same politicians ignore the risks that linger for several lifetimes after the construction project itself is over. Disturbingly, South Carolina is already host to one of the world’s most contaminated atomic waste dumps, making a whole swath of our beautiful state a contaminated wasteland. Do we really need more nuke facilities and waste here? And with thousands of warheads on alert already, does South Carolina or the U.S. really need the cost and risks of building yet another type of atomic bomb?
In order to get the pit Facility approved, the DOE has filed an Environmental Impact Statement. Of course they claim there is very little negative impact from building bomb triggers in SC! Spearheaded by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Savanna River Watch, many national environmental organizations are providing comments on the new SRS Environmental Impact Statement. If your group is interested in signing on, please contact Tom Clements or Stephen Young.
Sorry for the late notice, but organizational sign-ons must be received by Tuesday, June 2 according to UCS and SRS.
We urge you to visit the SRS Watch site for a detailed discussion of the environmental and safety issues associated with operating this new bomb project.
The US Government wants to make citizen involvement in commenting on Environmental Impacts of Federal projects much harder in the future. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed into law on January 1, 1970. According to The White House in the press release issued January 20, 2020,
NEPA requires Federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of proposed major Federal actions as part of their decision-making. The NEPA process can impact a wide variety of projects affecting Americans’ everyday lives from the construction of roads, bridges, highways, and airports to water infrastructure, conventional and renewable energy projects, and land, forest, and fishery management activities. CEQ’s NEPA regulations date back to 1978 and have not been comprehensively updated in over 40 years.
NEPA was originally created to protect the environment and people around the country from construction projects that were not adequately reviewed. It was meant to be create a methodology to clearly examine any environmental impacts of a project, not simply to create an easy method to push through whatever a current political administration wants to accomplish.
Yet, according to that very same White House Press Release,
“Overhauling the NEPA regulations for the first time in a generation is another promise kept by President Trump. Over the past 40 years, NEPA has been used as a tool to slow or completely kill important infrastructure projects across the country. Our Administration continues to uphold environmental standards while streamlining the permitting process and removing frivolous litigation. No American city should be waiting over 30 years for a better highway because NEPA has their infrastructure project held up in unnecessary paperwork,” said Acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought. [Emphasis Added]
We at Fairewinds Energy Education believe that adding a much larger radioactive burden to an already radiologically overburdened area like that in the vicinity of the Savannah River Project, the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant site, and the Barnwell nuclear power radiological repository – all in close proximity to each other – is further condemning the people in that area of SC and Georgia to live in one of the most radioactive contaminated areas in the U.S.
According to The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), that prepared this draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Plutonium Pit Production at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina (SRS Pit Production EIS) (DOE/EIS-0541),
“NNSA prepared the draft SRS Pit Production EIS to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of producing a minimum of 50 pits per year at SRS and developing the ability to implement a short-term surge capacity to enable NNSA to meet the requirements of producing pits at a rate of not less than 80 pits per year beginning during 2030 for the nuclear weapons stockpile. The draft SRS Pit Production EIS is an important element of the overall NEPA strategy related to fulfilling national requirements for plutonium pit production. DOE announced this NEPA strategy on June 10, 2019 (84 FR 26849).” [Emphasis Added]
Is that how South Carolinians and Georgians are perceived… as elements of an overall national strategy to expand nuclear weapons and manufacture more no matter what the health risks are to the people living and working nearby! Residents of nearby towns have some of the highest cancer rates in the country as well as many other significant physical illnesses and disabilities.
We at Fairewinds Energy Education want people to be safe and protected, and we want your voices to be heard.
Radiation Knows No Borders. Fairewinds will keep you informed!
