From Tom Clements:

Your presence will be needed for an August 18 meeting on the future uses of land at the Savannah River Site!

The meeting on an SRS “energy park” will be held on Tuesday, August 18, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the N. Augusta, SC municipal building. This is when future uses of the site will be discussed, including for reprocessing, spent fuel storage, nuclear reactors and other dirty missions, as well as for other clean options.

At the August 18 meeting will be Mark Gilbertson, from Department of Energy (DOE) headquarters. He is the one who in March urged contractors to pursue spent fuel storage and reprocessing for an SRS “energy park.” Many have written letters to Energy Secretary Steven Chu about what he [Gilbertson] said and in his response he totally distanced himself from what he had said (and I heard). On August 18, we need to keep up the pressure of him and other contractors who have been trying to make decisions on an “energy park” in secret and without public input.

August 18 will be the public’s chance to have input into the “energy park” concept. Community environmentalists are seeking to have as many members of the public in attendance as possible as the booster groups (SRS Community Reuse Organization, Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness) will likely be there in force.

We really need to get the public to this meeting so PLEASE mark your calendars. The time is tentative but more info will follow when it’s finalized.

Stay tuned but please plan on attending on August 18.

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SRS Education

From Bob Alvarez:

Here’s are a couple maps I put together a few years back that shows: (1) that SRS is near the epicenter of one of the most destructive earthquakes in U.S. history — not a good place to store the world’s largest inventory of mercury, much less the nation’s single largest concentration of high-level radioactive wastes; and (2) SRS sits atop the primary drinking water aquifer of the Southeastern Coastal Plain. (see below)

For more information contact Tom Clements:tomclements329@cs.com

[Note – Though we have known these general figures, DOE has today issued a news release on what the sites are getting in “clean up” stimulus funds, including $1.96 billion to Hanford and $1.61 billion to SRS. DOE-EM continues to insist that these funds will be used leveraged into “energy parks,” which DOE has made clear could include commercial spent fuel storage and reprocessing at SRS if the “community” (aka contractors) wants it. Tom Clements]

Department of Energy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Contact Number – (202) 586-4940

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New Funding Will Create Jobs and Accelerate Cleanup Efforts

Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced $6 billion in new funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to accelerate environmental cleanup work and create thousands of jobs across 12 states. Projects identified for funding will focus on accelerating cleanup of soil and groundwater, transportation and disposal of waste, and cleaning and demolishing former weapons complex facilities.

“These investments will put Americans to work while cleaning up contamination from the cold war era,” said Secretary Chu. “It reflects our commitment to future generations as well as to help local economies get moving again.”

These projects and the new funding are managed by the Department’s Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for the risk reduction and cleanup of the environmental legacy from the nation’s nuclear weapons program, one of the largest, most diverse and technically complex environmental programs in the world.

The states and DOE sites that will receive this funding include: Continue reading →