Stop the New Nuclear Arms Race!! Comment deadline tomorrow 7/16/26
Glenn Carroll
PLUTONIUM PIT PEIS DEADLINE
JULY 16, 2026
SEND YOUR COMMENT TO
PIT...@NNSA.DOE.GOV
be sure to reference DOE/EIS-0573 in your comment
Dear Friends,
WE THE PEOPLE are being given an historic opportunity to comment on the record against nuclear weapons thanks to several public interest organizations' successful challenge to bring the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) into compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Thanks to those of you who attended and commented at the May 5 public hearing in North Augusta, SC, on DOE's draft PEIS (Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement). The public comment period ends tomorrow, July 16, 2026, at midnight and Nuclear Watch South urges everyone to send their reasons that we don't want or need nuclear weapons to PIT...@nnsa.doe.gov!
We made a great showing at the five public hearings in May and there are other forces arraying against plutonium pits. The Republican chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith (WA) has serious doubts that plutonium pit manufacturing can be attained observing that where we are unable to produce 30 pits per year DOE is now calling for 80 pits a year and saying, "Are you freaking kidding me?" Even the staunchest supporter of pit production at SRS, Senator Lindsey Graham (SC), recently deceased said, "We'll see if pit production is real." We have a real chance to win this! PLEASE PILE ON!!!
BACKGROUND The DOE and its super-secret internal agency National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) propose to build a plutonium pit production facility at Savannah River Site that would replace the Rocky Flats plutonium pit factory near Denver, Colorado, which was raided by the FBI and permanently shut in 1989. We have not mass-produced plutonium pits in the U.S. since that time. Plutonium has a half-life of 24,100 years and the U.S. produced thousands of the plutonium pits that are deployed as the fissionable heart of every modern nuclear bomb. We simply do not need more plutonium pits.
Rocky Flats was shut because of serious environmental crimes including explosions, fires, leaks and widespread radioactive contamination of both the local environment and its own workers. DOE's NEPA-required PEIS (Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement) which is supposed to analyze all foreseeable impacts of a proposed action does not even mention the experience and lessons learned at Rocky Flats!! YOU may want to mention it!
Nuclear Watch South is emphasizing the need to analyze the impact of USING the nuclear weapons containing plutonium, not just the impacts of making them, which are also plenty destructive.
YOU can say anything you want! Do you object to nuclear weapons because they can destroy our home planet? Does it trouble you that they threaten our children's future? Do you think that we should be investing in the human race instead of a new nuclear arms race?
RESOURCES
Add your voice to the chorus to STOP A NEW NUCLEAR ARMS RACE! pit...@nnsa.doe.gov
Use these good news stories to help write your comments:
Rare Referendum on Nuclear Warheads Begins in South Carolina
, Taylor Barnes, May 19, 2026
North Augusta meets to discuss plutonium pit production at SRS
, Rakiyah Lenon, May 5, 2026
Link to Nuclear Watch South comments made at the recent public hearing in South Carolina.
Link to comments by Nuclear Watch South board member Stephen Wing
Link to Nuclear Watch South's PLUTONIUM MADE SIMPLE fact sheet
Link to the national plutonium pit clearinghouse website: https://pitpeis.com/ There are fact sheets and complete videos of all five public hearings and more.
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has released its public comments toolkit and talking points online. It has several talking points listed under these three categories:
1) Plutonium pit production is unnecessary.
2) Plutonium pit production is dangerous.
3) Plutonium pit production is expensive.
Half-Life of Memory: America's Forgotten Atomic Bomb Factory is a new 55-minute documentary film about Rocky Flats Plutonium Processing Factory that is available FREE on both on tubi and on YouTube:
https://tubitv.com/movies/100041874/half-life-of-memory-america-s-forgotten-atomic-bomb-factory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArdhYwcl_MM
Send your comment to pit...@nnsa.doe.gov TODAY!
Add your voice to the chorus to STOP A NEW NUCLEAR ARMS RACE!
FOR THE EARTH,
Glenn
*
Coordinator
Nuclear Watch South
P.O. Box 8574
Atlanta, GA 31106
atom...@nonukesyall.org
404-378-4263
404-432-8727 cell
https://www.nonukesyall.org