Citing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic response raised by anti-nuclear activists, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has extended by 15 days a public comment period on a draft environmental impact statement for making plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The agency notified the the citizen watchdog group Savannah River Site Watch of the delay by letter, according SRS Watch head Tom Clements. Comments will be due June 2 instead of the previously scheduled May 18, Clements said.
The NNSA plans to start making plutonium pits — fissile cores for nuclear weapons — at Savannah River in 2030. The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF) will be built from the remains of the partially completed Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility.
Like a companion pit plant at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, scheduled to come online in 2024, the SRPPF will produce cores for W87-1 style warheads intended for Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missiles: the planned successor for the Minuteman III fleet.
The NNSA published the draft environmental impact statement for pit production at the planned SRPPF in March, saying the facility could starting in 2030 handle all 80 pits per year the Defense Department wants.
Owing to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response, the NNSA was already planning a virtual hearing about the draft Savannah River environmental impact statement. At deadline, that remained scheduled for April 30.
The SRPPF was to undergo its critical design review in June, NNSA officials have said.
