New Plutonium Weapons Production Alert!
The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration has plans to resume production of nuclear weapons and is considering the Savannah River Site, located near Aiken, South Carolina and Augusta, Georgia. An Environmental Impact Study (EIS) has been submitted for public comment.
Five public hearings will be held across the nation. The first one will be in North Augusta, South Carolina, on Tuesday, May 5, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. Comments will be accepted from both in-person and virtual attendees. Comments are also being accepted online at the NNSA website and by email to PitPEIS@nnsa.doe.gov through July 16, 2026.
To attend in person:
North Augusta Community Center
495 Brookside Dr.
North Augusta SC 29841
5:00-5:30pm Open House Poster Session 5:30-8:00pm Formal Public Hearing
To attend online:
https://bit.ly/PitPEIS5May
Meeting ID: 267 103 716 263 892
Passcode: Wb2RJ9zA
Join by Phone: 571-429-4592
Phone conference ID: 297 381 326#
Nuclear Contamination at SRS
In the 1950s, the original mission of the Savannah River Plant (SRP) was for plutonium production. The mission was later enlarged to include production of tritium for hydrogen bombs, plutonium-238 for space applications, and other isotopes, such as californium-252. These production activities required five nuclear reactors that used heavy water—water enriched with deuterium—as their coolant and moderator, two aqueous separation facilities to separate the plutonium from the uranium targets, a solid/gas separation facility to separate the tritium from the lithium targets, a fabrication plant for the production of the targets, a production area for heavy water, and miscellaneous support facilities such as laboratories, power stations, shops, and a waste disposal area.
Groundwater at SRS is contaminated with radioactive tritium, plutonium-239, and cesium-137. Radioactive tritium has already been found in drinking water 70 miles downstream from SRS at Beaufort, SC. Toxic contamination at SRS caused by weapons development, testing, and manufacture includes trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, mercury, and lead plus radioactive strontium-90, cesium-137, cobalt-60, and tritium. Underground tanks store 35 million gallons of liquid high-level radioactive waste.
The Union of Concerned Scientists posted this alert:
UCS and our partners are calling on Congress to stop dangerous and unnecessary plans to carry out the most expensive expansion of our nuclear weapons complex in history, including making hundreds of plutonium bomb cores for new nuclear weapons.
This kind of production, which involves extremely dangerous radioactive materials, also puts workers and nearby Indigenous and majority-Black communities at risk. We’ve seen this before: marginalized communities are put at risk in exchange for a false sense of national security.
Yet the government is speeding ahead, and the costs are skyrocketing with a potential cost of tens of billions of dollars. Congress and the National Nuclear Security Administration must reevaluate its plan to create new plutonium pits for new nuclear weapons.
As a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the United States has an obligation to work toward nuclear disarmament. Plans to make new plutonium pits for new nuclear weapons go against this commitment and instead fuel and multi-polar nuclear arms race that we can already see brewing internationally.
The hearing in South Carolina is one of only two hearings with a virtual participation option. Although plutonium pit production in South Carolina is a certain threat to the local environment, nuclear weapons are a global issue and every single person on Earth has a stake in seeing that they are not produced, stockpiled or used EVER. Please add your voice to protect our planet and our future from a new nuclear arms race!