Klöckner & Co - UBS Best of Germany Conference, September 17, 2013
SRSW to Germany September 21-26 2014
4
Savannah River Site Watch www.srswatch.org For Immediate Release September 12, 2013 Contact: Tom Clements, [email protected] SRS Watch to Tour Germany to Oppose Import to Savannah River Site of Highly Radioactive Spent Nuclear Fuel from Germany; Over 15 German Groups and Politicians Sponsoring the Tour SRS Watch Calls for Halt to Preparation of DOE’s “Environmental Assessment” Given Withdrawal of the Bulk of the Commercial Spent Fuel from Export Consideration by Germany Columbia, SC – The public interest group Savannah River Site Watch (SRS Watch) today announces that it will participate with German groups and politicians in a 6-day tour of Germany to protest plans by German and U.S. Department of Energy officials to dump highly radioactive spent fuel from Germany at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. With over 15 German groups and politicians in formal support of the tour, the director of SRS Watch, Tom Clements, will participate in a series of events to inform the German public and elected officials that SRS is not a dump site and that the unprecedented plan to dump the waste at SRS must be rejected. The tour will begin on September 21 with a demonstration at the entrance to the Juelich nuclear research center, where German commercial reactor spent fuel is stored. Clements will later tour the spent fuel storage facility at the site with a member of the Bundestag (parliament). At Juelich, about 300,000 radioactive spent fuel balls are stored in 152 large casks. The message at the Juelich facility will be for Germany to build a new storage facility at the site and not attempt to illegally dump a challenging nuclear problem on the US. The tour will also include a public meeting near Juelich, a news conference in Dusseldorf, an event outside the gates of the Ahaus facility- where 600,000 spent graphite fuel balls from the THTR reactor are stored and that were previously discussed for export to SRS - a public meeting in Hamburg and the tour will conclude with various meetings with members of the Bundestag in Berlin on September 25 and 26. “Informing German audiences and politicians that SRS is not a nuclear dump for Germany will add a strong voice to the growing opposition in Germany against the spent fuel export,” said Tom Clements, director of the public interest group Savannah River Site Watch.
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Tom Clements, director of Savannah River Site Watch and a Fairewinds team member, is on tour in Germany to oppose the import of highly radioactive waste from Germany to the Savannah River site.
Transcript of SRSW to Germany September 21-26 2014
Savannah River Site Watch
www.srswatch.org
For Immediate Release
September 12, 2013
Contact: Tom Clements, [email protected]
SRS Watch to Tour Germany to Oppose Import to Savannah River Site of Highly Radioactive Spent
Nuclear Fuel from Germany; Over 15 German Groups and Politicians Sponsoring the Tour
SRS Watch Calls for Halt to Preparation of DOE’s “Environmental Assessment” Given Withdrawal of
the Bulk of the Commercial Spent Fuel from Export Consideration by Germany
Columbia, SC – The public interest group Savannah River Site Watch (SRS Watch) today announces that
it will participate with German groups and politicians in a 6-day tour of Germany to protest plans by
German and U.S. Department of Energy officials to dump highly radioactive spent fuel from Germany at
the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.
With over 15 German groups and politicians in formal support of the tour, the director of SRS Watch,
Tom Clements, will participate in a series of events to inform the German public and elected officials
that SRS is not a dump site and that the unprecedented plan to dump the waste at SRS must be rejected.
The tour will begin on September 21 with a demonstration at the entrance to the Juelich nuclear
research center, where German commercial reactor spent fuel is stored. Clements will later tour the
spent fuel storage facility at the site with a member of the Bundestag (parliament). At Juelich, about
300,000 radioactive spent fuel balls are stored in 152 large casks. The message at the Juelich facility will
be for Germany to build a new storage facility at the site and not attempt to illegally dump a challenging
nuclear problem on the US.
The tour will also include a public meeting near Juelich, a news conference in Dusseldorf, an event
outside the gates of the Ahaus facility- where 600,000 spent graphite fuel balls from the THTR reactor
are stored and that were previously discussed for export to SRS - a public meeting in Hamburg and the
tour will conclude with various meetings with members of the Bundestag in Berlin on September 25 and
26.
“Informing German audiences and politicians that SRS is not a nuclear dump for Germany will add a
strong voice to the growing opposition in Germany against the spent fuel export,” said Tom Clements,
director of the public interest group Savannah River Site Watch.
The spent fuel in question that has been proposed for export is from the AVR and THTR experimental
gas-cooled reactors. Both reactors were commercial nuclear reactors that were connected to the
electricity grid. Under German law, such spent fuel is illegal to export but efforts are being made to skirt
the law. Import into the US of commercial spent fuel would be unprecedented and could be used to
open the door to more such dumping.
DOE does not appear to be aware of information from Germany, in response to formally posed
questions to the German government by members of the Bundestag (parliament), that German officials
have withdrawn consideration of dumping the THTR spent fuel, the bulk of the waste involved in the
scheme. This new information dramatically impacts the overall situation and renders DOE’s plans moot,
according to SRS Watch.
In response to “Kleine Anfrage” on September 3, the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
(Federal Ministry of Education and Research) said: “In der Frühphase der Sondierungen wurde daher
auch erörtert, ob die THTR-brennelemente einbezogen werden sollen. Diese Überlegungen sind konkret
nicht weiter verfolgt worden.” (From Google Translate: “In the early phase of soundings was therefore
also discussed whether the THTR-fuel assemblies are to be included. These considerations have been
specifically not pursued.”)
DOE is preparing an “environmental assessment” on some of the environmental aspects of receiving,
processing and dumping the German waste but that document as now proposed has been rendered
moot given that the THTR spent fuel is not now being considered. “DOE must halt the preparation of
the environmental assessment as the scope of it has been dramatically altered by the Federal Ministry
of Education and Research’s withdrawal of the THTR fuel from consideration to be exported,” said
Clements. “There is no basis for continuing with the preparation of the environmental document as
proposed and it must be terminated.”
DOE has also so far refused to prepare a “proliferation impact assessment” of the new reprocessing
technique being developed by Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). A written request by SRS
Watch for such an analysis was hand delivered on July 28, 2014 to Secretary of Energy Moniz and
Administrator Frank Klotz of the National Nuclear Security Administration in a meeting near SRS.
Administrator Klotz confirmed receipt of the SRS Watch letter in an August 28 written response.
Reprocessing of the highly radioactive graphite fuel would result in additional waste being sent to the
SRS waste tanks, causing negative impacts to the urgent cleanup of the tanks. That new reprocessing
method, to remove uranium from graphite fuel, poses a proliferation risks, according to SRS Watch, that
DOE has so far refused to talk about. As the EA may be out in draft form by the end of the year - if it is
to go forward - with a public comment period to follow. The public will not even be able to comment on
details of the reprocessing technique and associated waste streams as the SRNL research will not have
conclude by the end of 2014. Such blocking of ability to comment may also pose legal challenges for
DOE, if it persists in preparing the EA document which now has no basis.
Some of the groups and politicians sponsoring the tour by SRS Watch include:
- Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Jülich (Lutheran Church, Department Jülich) www.kkrjuelich.de
- Strahlenzug Mönchengladbach, www. strahlenzug.de
- Wegberger Montagsspaziergänger gegen Atomkraft, www.montagsspaziergang.de
- AG Schacht Konrad, www.ag-schacht-konrad.de
- Anti-Atom-Bündnis Niederrhein, www.antiatom-buendnis-niederrhein.de
- Attac Jülich- Westcastor, www.attac-netzwerk.de
- AKW-nee Aachen- Westcastor, www.anti-akw-ac.de
- Friedensforum Duisburg, friedensforum-duisburg.de
- BUND NRW AK Atom, www.bund.net
- Sofa Münster (sofortiger Atomausstieg), sofa-ms.de
- Aktionsbündnis Münsterland gegen Atomanlagen, www.facebook.com/keincastornachahaus.
- Sayonara Genpatsu Düsseldorf e.V., www.sayonara-genpatsu.de
- Antiatomgruppe Fuku Düsseldorf, antiatom-fuku.de
- Ausgestrahlt ( Bundesweite Antiatomorganisation), www.ausgestrahlt.de
- Bürgerinitiative Kein Atommüll in Ahaus e.V.
- Hubertus Zdebel, MDB, Sprecher der Linksfraktion für den Atomausstieg, http://www.hubertus-
zdebel.de
- Hans Jörg Rohwedder,MDL, Umweltpolitischer Sprecher der Piratenfraktion im Landtag NRW, hans-
Newspapers in Aiken, SC, Augusta, GA, Greenville, SC and Spartanburg, SC have editorialized against the
spent fuel import proposal and a majority of individuals speaking at the DOE “environmental
assessment” meeting on June 24 in N. Augusta, SC, spoke against the idea.
Across Germany, the message will be:
South Carolina ist kein Entsorgungsplatz für deutschen Atommüll!
South Carolina is not a Nuclear Waste Dump for Germany!
###
Notes:
SRS Watch comments against bringing the spent fuel to SRS, at June 24, 2014 public meeting:
“Savannah River Site Faces Unprecedented Import of Highly Radioactive Spent Nuclear Fuel from Two
German Nuclear Power Reactors; Export from Germany Illegal and Unwarranted”:
http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/comments_on_illegal_german_nuke_waste_imp
ort_to_srs_june_24_2014.pdf
DOE’s Federal Register notice, June 4, 2014, announcing preparation of the “environmental
assessment” – “Environmental Assessment for the Acceptance and Disposition of Used Nuclear Fuel
Containing U.S.-Origin Highly Enriched Uranium From the Federal Republic of Germany”:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-06-04/pdf/2014-12933.pdf
DOE-SRS presentation of June 24, 2014, “Potential Acceptance and Disposition of
German Pebble Bed Research Reactor Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Fuel Environmental
Assessment,” – misrepresents the contents of the graphite spent fuel:
http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/doe_public_meeting_presentation_june_2014-
1.pdf
SRS Watch - Freedom of Information Act request document confirming discussions began in December
2011 about the spent fuel plan:
http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/foia_german_spent_fuel_to_us_jan_13_2014.pdf
“Statement of Intent” between The U.S. Department of Energy & two German government entities,
signed on March 28/April 1, 2014:
http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/statement_of_intent_march_april_2014.pdf
Questions (“Kleine Anfrage”) posed by Bundestag members to Federal Ministry of Education and
Research, August 13, 2014:
http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/kleine_anfrage_13_august_2014.pdf
Response by Federal Ministry of Education and Research to questions, September 3, 2014:
http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/kleine_anfrage_answer_from_govt_3_september
_2014.pdf
Contact:
Tom Clements
Director, SRS Watch
www.srswatch.org
