NNSA Cracks, Finally Admits Plutonium Import from Switzerland to US (SRS)….Like We’ve Been Saying for Weeks
National Nuclear Security Administration
U.S Department of Energy
For Immediate Release – linked here
March 3, 2016
Contact: NNSA Public Affairs, (202) 586-7371
United States Collaborates with Switzerland to Remove Last Remaining Separated Plutonium
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), working in collaboration with the Government of Switzerland, announced that approximately 20 kilograms of separated plutonium have been transported from Switzerland to the United States. The successful transport of this plutonium was completed through a multilateral effort that included NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN), Switzerland’s Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER), and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE). With this removal, Switzerland is now free of all separated plutonium.
—–
March 2 Plutonium Transport Alert! Yes, another shipment to the Savannah River Site…
“Nuclear Security Summit Effect” (NSSE) = Foreign-Origin Plutonium Dumping at SRS with No Justification or Explanation
Another Plutonium Transport to the US DOE’s Savannah River Site, from Tokai, Japan, is about to get underway
What we have dubbed the “Nuclear Security Summit Effect” (NSSE) continues to result in foreign-origin plutonium dumping at SRS. The DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and White House have rendered themselves speechless and unable to publicly justify the upcoming shipment.
Two angry birds – the UK-flagged Pacific Heron and Pacific Egret – are due to arrive in Tokai, Japan to take of a load of 331 kilograms of plutonium from the Fast Critical Assembly (FCA) and transport it to the military port at Charleston, South Carolina. The plutonium would then be taken by trucks to the K-Area plutonium storage facility – where 13 metric tons of plutonium are stored – and be stranded with no viable, defined & funded disposition path out of the state.
The shipment contains 236 kg of UK-origin plutonium but the NNSA and White House have buckled at the knees and can’t offer any justification whatsoever as to why this plutonium would be dumped at SRS and not go into the 125+ metric ton plutonium stockpile at the UK’s Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, England.
NNSA & White House Officials: We recognize security concerns with the shipment but we urge you to muster some courage and explain why foreign-origin “gap” plutonium is coming to SRS. There is no security concern about telling the public why foreign plutonium is coming here. Rather, it seems that the silence stems from to be abject fear of transparency and openness by a few parading as public servants. We know that for PR reasons that you want to have this shipment underway during the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit, in order to claim some kind of pending non-proliferation “success.” But will you likewise reveal at the summit how the material will be managed at SRS and promptly removed from South Carolina?
Sadly for sound nuclear non-proliferation and environmental policies, the Nuclear Security Summit Effect (NSSE) = Foreign-Origin Plutonium Dumping at SRS with No Justification or Explanation