Pacific Egret docks in Tokai-Mura, Japan to pick up 331 kgs of plutonium; Egret departed at about 3 p.m. Japan time on March 22, 2016, bound for SRS, expected to join with Pacific Heron off shore for the ~50-day journey to Charleston, Sough Carolina
Shipment by Sea of Plutonium from Japan to US DOE’s Savannah River Site Gets Under Way
Shipment being Conducted as Part of Upcoming Nuclear Security Summit Sends Troubling Signal that Foreign Plutonium can be Dumped at SRS, in South Carolina, with No Disposal Plan and Absent Adequate Nuclear Non-Proliferation Justification
UK-Flagged Ship Pacific Egret Spotted at Plutonium-Loading Dock in Tokai, Japan; Location of Pacific Heron Unknown but Key Part of Semi-Secret Operation
Columbia, South Carolina, USA – Despite questions raised about the justification for the shipment, a sea transport of plutonium from Japan to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) has begun.
The loading for the shipment of 331 kilograms (730 pounds) of plutonium aboard the British-flagged ship Pacific Egret, and accompanied by the Pacific Heron, began on the morning of March 21, Japan time. Both ships are armed and it is unknown if military vessels will also accompany the two vessels in the 50+-day transport to the military port in Charleston, South Carolina. From Charleston, the plutonium will be carried by truck to SRS and will be added to the 13 metric ton plutonium already stranded at SRS with no viable disposal path out of the site.
The shipment is being conducted in advance of the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit – March 31 to April 1 in Washington – but does nothing to address the growing plutonium stockpiling crisis in Japan and only exacerbates the plutonium storage and disposition problems at SRS, according to the public interest group Savannah River Site Watch.