NH #545: Plutonium Pits Lawsuit re: Savannah River Site in South Carolina, Los Alamos in New Mexico

Plutonium pits - the trigger for nuclear weapons:  Congress has mandated that this country produce new plutonium pits at a rate of 80 per year by 2030... but nobody's done the proper Environmental Impact Surveys to determine what this manufacturing push will mean to people and the environment.
(graphic by Nature; used courtesy Tom Clements and Savannah River Site Watch)

This Week's Featured Interview:

Plutonium pits are the triggers necessary to detonate nuclear weapons.  The United States currently has an estimated stockpile of approximately 3,800 active warheads -- 1,800 deployed with approximately 2,000 held in reserve. Additionally, there are approximately 1,750 retired warheads are awaiting dismantlement, giving a total inventory of approximately 5,550 nuclear warheads.

Congress has mandated that we begin producing 80 new plutonium pits per year... though it begs the question:  WHY???   And how have they gotten away with not yet performing a comprehensive Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) on the full project at both sites where the pits are to be manufactured - the Savannah River Site in South Carolina near Georgia, and Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico.  This PEIS would comprehensively analyze the full range of health, safety and environmental justice impacts of splitting the production of pits at two sites across the country.

To learn more about this situation and the complex set of issues it entails, we spoke with two of the principals in this lawsuit:

• TOM CLEMENTS serves as the Director of Savannah River Site Watch and has worked on nuclear issues for Greenpeace International, Friends of the Earth, the South Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club, and other NGOs.
  EMAIL: srswatch@gmail.com
• LESLIE LENHARDT is Staff Attorney for the South Carolina Environmental Law Project.  Previously, from 2007 to 2018, she was in private practice with her focus on environmental and administrative litigation as well as regulatory matters.

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

"Health" and "exposure to radiation" don't usually go hand-in-hand... but then, with some of the other crazy things people are believing these days, is it any wonder that in some places, people think it's a good idea?

Links:

• World Nuclear Survivors Forum 2021
• Kings Bay Plowshares 7
• Code Pink petition asking for the elimination of nuclear weapons from the Biden Budget.
• Where Do We Stand with Radiation and Fracking? 
• Nuclear Weapons and Reproductive Justice
• Vox video on the Church Rock uranium tailings pond spill on Navajo Nation land on July 16, 1979:

https://youtu.be/ETPogv1zq08