DOE Confirms Obstacles and Problems with Shipment, Including Increased Radiation Exposure to Workers & State of Nevada Legal Challenge
Columbia, South Carolina – The U.S. Department of Energy has filed with the federal district court in Columbia, South Carolina a second report on controversial efforts to remove a court-mandated 1 metric ton of plutonium from DOE’s Savannah River Site.
In the report, DOE reveals problems face the unjustified packaging and shipment. The public interest group Savannah River Site Watch maintains that the shipment is unnecessary and poses security, environmental and health risks and is a waste of financial resources and should not take place.
The “Second Progress Report” on plutonium removal was filed with the court on December 14, 2018. The report affirms that packaging and shipping the plutonium for “staging” at DOE sites in Nevada (Nevada National Security Site) and/or Texas (Pantex) will causes “additional radiation exposure to workers.”
full SRS Watch news release linked here
photo: “3013” plutonium storage cans, placed inside larger storage drum for storage in the old K-Reactor