Public Information Meetings - Proposed New Activities for the Savannah River Site The Central Savannah River Area Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) will host information meetings in three S.C. cities.  The meetings are designed to provide information about planned facilities, ANSWER QUESTIONS and obtain citizens perspectives on the plans.

The meetings will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 PM on:
Tuesday, April 10 Radisson Hotel 2100 Bush River Road - Columbia, SC 29210
Wednesday April 11 Holiday Inn Express 35 Bluffton Road - Bluffton SC 29910
Thursday April 12 Holiday Inn Express 110 Birch Tree Drive- Greenwood, SC 29649
For additional information, please call (803) 642-6140.

From Joe Whetstone:

The notice appeared in the Bluffton Today paper on Sunday April 8.

Hope some of you will attend. Here are some possible questions and I hope others will share potential questions:

What consideration has been given to Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS)?

Considering the following: The DOE cost estimate is $5.2 Billion to cleanup the failed reprocessing portion of the West Valley, N.Y. venture. Failure to make GE's reprocessing facility in Morris, Illinois operational due to various technical problems, has left 772 tons of spent fuel is sitting in limbo there. Some of the most radioactively contaminated sites in the world are the result of reprocessing. The citizens living in Beaufort and Jasper Counties must deal with tritium in their drinking water daily primarily due to SRS.

Why will this venture be any better than previous ventures?

In order for GNEP to live up to DOE's dreams, large numbers of breeder reactors would be needed, how many breeder reactors are operating successfully in the US or the rest of the world for that matter?

How does UREX + reduce proliferation risks when the PUREX process would allow extraction of plutonium from UREX + fuel? Radioactive contamination of the sea as far as the Arctic can be traced to the reprocessing facilities of Sellafield, England and La Hague, France.

Why should DOE be trusted to not pollute the Savannah River even more given its past history?

What is the total project cost of GNEP?

Given potential transportation and terrorism risks, how will the fuel rods to be reprocessed at the GNEP facility be shipped to the SRS?

How many tons of radioactive spent fuel will be shipped to SRS over the life of the project?