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April
17, 2026
For
Immediate Release
Contact:
Tom
Clements, Director,
SRS
Watch, 803-240-7268,
tomclements329[at]srswatch.org;
Jay
Coghlan, Nuclear Watch
New Mexico,
505-989-7342, cell:
505.470.3154,
jay[at]nukewatch.org;
Shelby
Cohen, Communications
Manager, SC Env. Law
Project, 864-414-7726,
shelby[at]scelp.org
WHAT: Press
briefing following an
April 21 inspection of
the proposed Savannah
River Plutonium
Processing Facility,
as stipulated in an
historic legal "settlement
agreement."
Update on
just-released draft
environmental review
of pit production and
report on massive
budget request by DOE
for FY27.
WHO: Plaintiffs
Savannah River Site
Watch, Nuclear Watch
New Mexico and
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Livermore, CA),
represented by the
South Carolina
Environmental Law
Project (SCELP). The
Union of Concerned
Scientists (UCS) is
their scientific
consultant. These
groups will be on the
pit plant tour.
WHEN: Wednesday,
April 22, 2026, 9:00
am EST/6:00 am PT.
WHERE: South
Carolina State House,
first floor, Columbia,
SC. It will also be
livestreamed on
YouTube: https://youtu.be/VVjm1JrnJU4.
The public is welcome
to attend.
WHY: Plutonium
"pits" are the core of
all U.S. nuclear
weapons. The
Department of Energy's
semi-autonomous
National Nuclear
Security
Administration (NNSA)
is seeking to expand
production to at least
30 plutonium pits per
year at the Los Alamos
Lab in New Mexico and
at least 50 pits per
year at the Savannah
River Site, near
Aiken, SC, which has
never produced pits.
NNSA pushed forward
with the project
without proper review,
in violation of the
National Environmental
Policy Act. Plaintiffs
sued in federal court
in Columbia, SC and
won, requiring the
NNSA to complete a
nationwide
Programmatic
Environmental Impact
Statement (PEIS), with
public hearings to be
held this May. The
court-ordered
"settlement agreement"
also required an
inspection of the
Savannah River
Plutonium Processing
Facility by plaintiffs
to ensure that no
production begins
before the completion
of the final PEIS. Pit
production generates a
host of radioactive
waste streams, some of
which would be
disposed of in
trenches at SRS, and
poses public safety
concerns, such as
plutonium criticality
and plutonium fires.
No future pit
production is to
maintain the safety
and reliability of the
existing stockpile.
Instead it is for
new-design nuclear
weapons that could
prompt a return to
testing.
The
Draft PEIS was
released by NNSA on
April 10, 2026 with a
90-day public comment
period now beginning
and a May 5 public
meeting in N. Augusta,
SC: https://www.energy.gov/nepa/articles/doeeis-0573-draft-environmental-impact-statement-april-2026
To
help inform the
public, plaintiffs and
UCS have kicked off a
Pit PEIS website: https://pitpeis.com/
The
SRS pit plant will be
the most expensive
buildings ever built
in the USA, with a
current DOE estimate
of around $30 billion.
The recent
DOE budget request for
FY 27 (page
17) reveals a huge
jump in pit-plant
funding. New plutonium
pits would be used for
new nuclear weapons,
fueling a nuclear arms
race. In their press
briefing, plaintiffs
and counsel will
report on their
inspection of the SRS
pit plant, call for
the public release of
an internal DOE report
critiquing the
troubled pit
production program and
discuss the NNSA's
failure to adequately
analyze pit aging and
pit reuse issues.
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