A nuclear weapons facility along the Georgia-South Carolina border is about to become much more active; however, before billions of our tax dollars are spent, we want to ask ourselves some tough questions about their purpose and whether good enough measures will be taken to prevent contamination of those facilities. Our water and herbal resources for decades to come.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration released its annual budget request to Congress. Even as analysts continue to sift through the nearly 200-page document, the most shocking figure is the higher costs of the expansion of the plutonium bomb facility at the Savannah River Site (SRS), which has more than doubled from an estimate of $11 billion in 2021 to $25 billion.
This begs the question: why do we spend so much money on projects that can harm our region for generations without being proven to make us safer?
The coastal plains of this region have been and continue to be part of our country’s core identity. The Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base near Cumberland Island, the Atlantic center of the U. S. fleet of nuclear-powered missile submarines, is a reminder of the potential costs of a nuclear conflict.
A more immediate area of fear, however, is the SRS, located just outside Augusta, which is the largest and most important outpost of the U. S. nuclear industry in the Southeast. Plans to soon produce pits of plutonium (the radioactive core of nuclear bombs) at this site means that nuclear weapons may leave a larger and more permanent footprint on our region than ever before, threatening communities in the Southeast and costing the country billions of dollars a year.
Plans for SRS began in 1950, motivated by the risk of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Nicknamed the “H-bomb factory” by locals, this facility is said to produce essential parts for nuclear weapons. In the early 1950s and late 1980s, massive quantities of nuclear parts were produced in the SRS before being drastically reduced following the end of the Cold War. In 2018, the federal company in charge of SRS, the National Nuclear Security Administration, implemented a plan. start production of a plutonium pit at SRS at the same time as the existing facility in New Mexico. These wells have not been produced in significant quantities since the end of the Cold War, and the clinical network remains divided on whether new production is needed. It is even mandatory for the United States to have a reliable nuclear deterrent.
But there is no doubt that engaging in the production of plutonium pits may simply imply non-monetary prices for the grid, prices that the United States has unfortunately ignored. The apparent maximum caution occurred nationwide at the site of Hanford, Washington. Hanford was home to the world’s first plutonium processing reactor, built in 1942 to aid the Manhattan Project and yet shut down in 1971. Waste disposal procedures and grossly inadequate protective measures have led to the release of gigantic amounts of radioactive material into the air. soil and surrounding water sources. High levels of contamination persist in the surrounding groundwater, as do the tragic health consequences of the network.
More than 50 years later, an intense cleanup continues in Hanford, requiring significant taxpayer spending. The Department of Energy reported in 2023 that cleanup of the site could “cost about $341 billion and would likely not be completed until 2084. “That’s 113 years of post-closure cleanup.
It’s fitting that Hanford is on the Environmental Protection Agency’s national priority list for infected sites. Unfortunately, since 1989, the SRS has been on the same list and there are already warnings of serious water contamination and insufficient cleanup procedures.
Hanford doesn’t have to be the role model. Georgians and all Southeasterners are beginning to ask themselves very important questions: Are we, as taxpayers, willing to engage in a costly cleanup process that could take decades, in most cases?What measures will be taken to prevent a poisonous and radiological nightmare in our backyard?
Although SRS has yet to experience a disaster, the health of millions of citizens in and around the facility is too vital to be taken lightly. We will need to be briefed from Hanford and ask the federal, state and local governments to ensure protective measures and effective clean-up procedures. We hold them accountable for protecting our environment and our communities from the familiar horrors of mismanagement of nuclear waste.
If the production of a plutonium mine is to be undertaken, SRS deserves a shining example of how to do it well.
GET YOUR MORNING PAPERS DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
by Emma Sandifer, Georgia Recorder April 2, 2024
A nuclear weapons facility along the Georgia-South Carolina border is about to become much more active; However, before billions of our tax dollars are spent, we want to ask ourselves some tough questions about their purpose and whether good enough measures will be taken to prevent contamination of such facilities. our water and herbal resources for decades to come.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration released its annual budget request to Congress. Even as analysts continue to sift through the nearly 200-page document, the most shocking figure is the higher costs of the expansion of the plutonium bomb facility at the Savannah River Site (SRS), which has more than doubled from an estimate of $11 billion in 2021 to $25 billion.
This begs the question: why do we spend so much money on projects that can harm our region for generations without being proven to make us safer?
The coastal plains of this region have been, and continue to be, part of our country’s core identity. The Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base near Cumberland Island, the Atlantic hub of the U. S. fleet of nuclear-powered missile submarines, is a reminder of future prices. of a nuclear conflict.
A more immediate area of fear, however, is the SRS, located just outside Augusta, which is the largest and most important outpost of the U. S. nuclear industry in the Southeast. Plans to soon produce pits of plutonium (the radioactive core of nuclear bombs) at this site means that nuclear weapons may leave a larger and more permanent footprint on our region than ever before, threatening communities in the Southeast and costing the country billions of dollars a year.
Plans for SRS began in 1950, motivated by the risk of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Nicknamed the “H-bomb factory” by locals, this facility is said to produce essential parts for nuclear weapons. In the early 1950s and late 1980s, massive quantities of nuclear parts were produced in the SRS before being drastically reduced following the end of the Cold War. In 2018, the federal company in charge of SRS, the National Nuclear Security Administration, implemented a plan. start production of a plutonium pit at SRS at the same time as the existing facility in New Mexico. These wells have not been produced in significant quantities since the end of the Cold War, and the clinical network remains divided on whether new production is needed. It is even mandatory for the United States to have a reliable nuclear deterrent.
But there is no doubt that engaging in the production of plutonium pits may simply imply non-monetary prices for the grid, prices that the United States has unfortunately ignored. The apparent maximum caution occurred nationwide at the site of Hanford, Washington. Hanford was home to the world’s first plutonium processing reactor, built in 1942 to aid the Manhattan Project and yet shut down in 1971. Waste disposal procedures and grossly inadequate protective measures have led to the release of gigantic amounts of radioactive material into the air. soil and surrounding water sources. High levels of contamination persist in the surrounding groundwater, as do the tragic health consequences of the network.
More than 50 years later, an intense cleanup continues in Hanford, requiring significant taxpayer spending. The Department of Energy reported in 2023 that cleanup of the site could “cost about $341 billion and would likely not be completed until 2084. “That’s 113 years of post-closure cleanup.
It’s fitting that Hanford is on the Environmental Protection Agency’s national priority list for infected sites. Unfortunately, since 1989, the SRS has been on the same list and there are already warnings of serious water contamination and insufficient cleanup procedures.
Hanford doesn’t have to be the role model. Georgians and all Southeasterners are beginning to ask themselves very important questions: Are we, as taxpayers, willing to engage in a costly cleanup process that could take decades, in most cases?What measures will be taken to prevent a poisonous and radiological nightmare in our backyard?
Although SRS has yet to experience a disaster, the health of millions of citizens in and around the facility is too vital to be taken lightly. We will need to be briefed from Hanford and ask the federal, state and local governments to ensure protective measures and effective clean-up procedures. We hold them accountable for protecting our environment and our communities from the familiar horrors of mismanagement of nuclear waste.
If the production of a plutonium mine is to be undertaken, SRS deserves a shining example of how to do it well.
GET YOUR MORNING PAPERS DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Georgia Recorder is owned by States Newsroom, a grant-funded nonprofit news network and donor coalition as a 501c public charity(3). Georgia Recorder maintains its editorial independence. Please contact Editor John McCosh if you have any questions: info@georgiarecorder. com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.
Emma Sandifer is a native of Decatur, Georgia, and a program coordinator at the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, where her work focuses on coordinating national and nuclear security education projects for members and staffers of Congress.
TOOLKIT FOR DEMOCRACY
The Georgia Recorder is an independent, nonprofit news organization that works to link public policy to the stories of other people and communities affected by them. We’re bringing a whole new attitude to covering the state’s biggest issues from our position near the Capitol. We believe that data is an important network service and that all Georgians value government accountability and transparency.
We’re from States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Our stories can be republished online or in print under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4. 0 license. We ask that you edit them just for pleasure or for short, provide attribution and link to our website.