NUCLEAR WATCHDOGS CALL ON DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY TO EXTEND PUBLIC COMMENT PERIODS, DELAY PUBLIC HEARINGS UNTIL NATIONAL EMERGENCY IS OVER

immediate release: 21 April 2020

contact: Marylia Kelley, 925.255.3589 : marylia@trivalleycares.org

additional site contacts below

NUCLEAR WATCHDOGS CALL ON DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

TO EXTEND PUBLIC COMMENT PERIODS, DELAY PUBLIC HEARINGS

UNTIL NATIONAL EMERGENCY IS OVER

The thirty-six member organizations of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability spoke with one voice today in a letter sent to Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette and National Nuclear Security Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty calling for DOE and NNSA to suspend all active comment periods and reschedule public hearings and meetings until the COVID-19 national emergency is over.

Marylia Kelley, Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs and president of the Board of ANA, writes in the letter: “In consideration of the extraordinary challenges facing all of us in this time, we are asking you to hit the pause button and to provide an indefinite extension of the comment periods for any and all National Environmental Policy Act processes currently underway in the Department of Energy or the National Nuclear Security Administration.”

“It is unreasonable to ask us to forfeit our chance to participate meaningfully in a NEPA process because of the COVID-19 threat and the civil constraints it has imposed upon us,” the ANA letter says. “A declaration of national emergency may be words on a page in a bureaucracy, but where we live, the emergency is real, and it is a complete and fearful disruption of our lives.”

The ANA letter cites an April 1 letter from the chairs of fourteen committees of the House of Representatives that was followed by a letter signed by 24 Senators asking for the same consideration. The Senate letter says:

    “the American public is not only legally entitled to a meaningful opportunity to participate in these important proceedings; their participation is crucial to ensuring that agencies’ work is carried out effectively. The public is an invaluable source of expertise for agency decision-makers, and their ability to weigh in on agency decisions advances the good government goals of accountability. Yet, such meaningful participation is an impossibility for tens of millions of Americans during this pandemic emergency period. We cannot reasonably expect the public to redirect attention from protecting themselves and families to comment on federal agency rules and proceedings that while important, are not related to the crisis at hand or its response.”

The NNSA has received requests for extension of at least three currently active public comment periods; it has responded to two of the requests, granting an additional fifteen days. A public meeting scheduled for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to receive comments on a plan to produce plutonium pits for nuclear weapons has been changed to a “virtual meeting.”

“It is inconceivable that the DOE or NNSA can believe continuing with time-limited comment periods or virtual public meetings conform to the spirit of public participation envisioned in NEPA or its implementing regulations,” says the ANA letter. “It is unconscionable for DOE or NNSA to proceed as though ‘business as usual’ is appropriate when the President of the United States has declared a national emergency.”

The letter requests a response within seven days.

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The letter from ANA can be found here.

The letter from 14 House Chairs can be found here.

The letter from 24 Senators can be found here.

Additional contacts:

Ralph Hutchison, 865 776 5050, orep@earthlink.net

Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance

Request for extension of comment period for Supplement Analysis regarding Enriched Uranium operations at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN pending.

Tom Clements, 803 834 3084, tomclements329@cs.com

Savannah River Site Watch

Virtual public hearing scheduled for April 30; comment period extended 15 days for Environmental Impact Statement on Plutonium Pit Production for nuclear weapons at Savannah River Site.

Jay Coghlan, 505 989 7342, jay@nukewatch.org

Nuclear Watch New Mexico

Fifteen day extension of comment period granted (to May 8) for Supplement Analysis on expanded Plutonium Pit Production for nuclear weapons at Los Alamos National Lab.

Nuclear Watch New Mexico: More than 120 Groups and Individuals Ask Udall and Heinrich to Extend Public Comment Period on Los Alamos Lab Plutonium Bomb Core Production

See the Nuclear Watch New Mexico press release:

Nuclear Watch New Mexico

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 21, 2020

Contact:   Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch NM, 505.989.7342, jay@nukewatch.org

                  Scott Kovac, Nuclear Watch NM, 505.989.7342, scott@nukewatch.org

More than 120 Groups and Individuals Ask Udall and Heinrich to Extend Public Comment Period on Los Alamos Lab Plutonium Bomb Core Production

Santa Fe, NM – Today, on behalf of more than 120 groups and individuals, Nuclear Watch New Mexico sent a letter to New Mexico Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich. It asks them to act upon their own words and demand that the public comment period be extended for plutonium “pit” bomb core production that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is fast tracking during the coronavirus epidemic. As sitting members of the Senate Appropriations and Armed Services Committees, Udall and Heinrich are in strong positions to make that demand of NNSA.

On April 8, 2020, at Senator Udall’s initiative, twenty-four senators (including Heinrich) wrote to the Office of Management and Budget asking that agency to:

“Instruct all federal agencies to indefinitely extend all open or announced upcoming public comment periods for rulemakings and administrative actions not related to the COVID-19 pandemic response…  meaningful participation is an impossibility for tens of millions of Americans during this pandemic emergency period. We cannot reasonably expect the public to redirect attention from protecting themselves and families to comment on federal agency rules and proceedings that while important, are not related to the crisis at hand or its response.” [1]

Preceding the Senators’ letter, on April 1 more than twenty organizations and individuals wrote to DOE Secretary Dan Brouillette and NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty. They requested that the public comment period be extended to at least June 19, 2020 for NNSA’s Draft Supplement Analysis of the 2008 Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for the Continued Operation of Los Alamos National Laboratory for Plutonium Operations. In addition, the Santa Clara Pueblo made its own independent request. The underlying issue is the quadrupled production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores for new nuclear weapons to at least 80 pits per year, divided between the Los Alamos Lab and the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. However, new pit production at SRS is vulnerable to likely failure, possibly leaving the entire burden on LANL.

Given its agenda to ram through expanded plutonium pit production irrespective of the coronavirus epidemic, the NNSA extended the comment period a mere 15 days to May 8, 2020. The agency claimed that “a two month extension of the comment period would have a severe adverse impact on the detailed planning and coordination of this effort” to expand the production of plutonium pit bomb cores at the Los Alamos Lab. [2]

However, it’s difficult to believe that an additional minimum of 30 days for the public to offer comment during the coronavirus pandemic would be “severe[ly] adverse” to NNSA’s plans for a number of reasons, including:

•     NNSA’s consistent track record of massive cost overruns and broken schedules.

•     The fact that FY 2021 funding for LANL’s nuclear weapons programs is slated to be increased by a third to $2.9 billion, while at the same time DOE proposes to cut Lab cleanup nearly by half to $120 million; and

•     LANL’s chronic track record of nuclear safety infractions while NNSA has restricted the access of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board that reports on it.

Moreover, expanded plutonium pit production is not only NOT needed, it may actually degrade national security. No future production is scheduled to maintain the safety and reliability of the existing nuclear weapons stockpile. Instead, future production is for heavily modified pits for speculative new-design nuclear weapons that can’t be tested because of the global testing moratorium, hence possibly lowering reliability.

Alternatively, new pits could prompt the U.S. to resume nuclear weapons testing, with severe international proliferation consequences. All of this is not necessary given that independents experts have concluded that plutonium pits last at least a century (pits in the active stockpile are now 40 years old or less). In addition, at least 15,000 existing pits are already stored at NNSA’s Pantex Plant near Amarillo, TX.

Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch Director commented, “New Mexicans of course expect their senators to say what they mean and mean what they say. Therefore, we’re confident that Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich will successfully persuade NNSA to extend the public comment period on plutonium pit production at the Los Alamos Lab until at least June 19. According to their own words, it’s the right thing to do.”

# # #

This press release is available online at https://nukewatch.org/udall-heinrich-extension-pr-4-21-20-20/

The letter to Senators Udall and Heinrich signed by more than 120 groups and individuals, two-thirds of whom are New Mexican constituents, is available at https://nukewatch.org/udall-heinrich-public-comment-extension-letter-4-21-20/

NNSA’s March 2020 Draft Supplement Analysis of the 2008 Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for the Continued Operation of Los Alamos National Laboratory for Plutonium Operations is available at https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/03/f72/draft-supplement-analysis-eis-0380-sa-06-lanl-pit-production-2020-03.pdf

The current deadline for comments, if not extended, is May 8. Comments can be emailed to lanlsweissa@nnsa.doe.gov, Subject line LANL SWEIS SA comment. NukeWatch NM will have sample comments available at www.nukewatch.org two weeks before whatever is the final deadline.

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[1]     https://www.tomudall.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/4.8.20%20United%20States%20Senate%20Letter%20to%20OMB%20Acting%20Director%20Vought%20FINAL%5b1%5d.pdf

[2]     NNSA letter, April 6, 2020, https://nukewatch.org/nnsa-to-nukewatch-15-day-extension/

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PUBLIC SEEKS HEARING ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS PLANS IN OAK RIDGE

Press statement put out by OREPA:

OAK RIDGE ENVIRONMENTAL PEACE ALLIANCE CALLS FOR PUBLIC HEARING ON DOCUMENT ANALYZING HEIGHTENED EARTHQUAKE RISK AT NUCLEAR BOMB PLANT, ASKS FOR EXTENSION OF COMMENT PERIOD DUE TO PANDEMIC

The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance today filed a formal request with the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration seeking an indefinite extension of the comment period and a public hearing on the NNSA’s study of earthquake and accident consequences at the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Citing a letter from twenty-two Senators that called for an indefinite extension of public comment periods until such time as the COVID-19 national state of emergency has ended, OREPA asked NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty and Secretary of Energy Dan Brouilette to recognize the significant disruption in public and private life due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to respond appropriately.

In making their request, Kevin Collins, president of OREPA’s Board of Directors, wrote:

“The fundamental issue dealt with in the Draft SA is the capacity of Buildings 9215 and 9204-2E to withstand a design-basis earthquake, for which we have no assurance, and the risk to workers and the public if the buildings fail. The Draft SA analyzes consequences of a “worst case scenario” that are “approximately ten times larger” (actually about 12 times larger) than the consequences for the Capability-sized UPF.

“In other words, the Draft SA postulates significant increases in risks to the public since the last time DOE/NNSA held a public meeting, ten years ago, on its plans for modernization of the enriched uranium program at Y-12. In light of this, the NNSA and DOE have a responsibility to address the people of Oak Ridge and Knoxville (the Draft SA says the consequences could affect a population of 1.5 million people) to make clear the risks to which they are being subjected, and to hear their comments. In this instance, it is not enough to inform the public they are being subjected to risks determined by the NNSA/DOE; it is critical and imperative that the public be consulted.”

In publishing the Draft Supplement Analysis for the Final Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for the Y-12 National Security Complex, Earthquake Accident Analysis, the NNSA announced a thirty-day comment period that would conclude on May 11, 2020. The Draft SA is a response by NNSA to the opinion rendered in September 2019 by federal judge Pamela Reeves in a lawsuit brought by OREPA and other organizations and individuals; it is the third Supplement Analysis of the 2011 Site-Wide EIS; the other two were vacated by order of the court.

A pdf copy of the letter is available here: 2020 SA REQUEST LTR

                   For more information, contact Ralph Hutchison at 865 776 5050.

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