Transport Ships Involved in Controversial Plutonium Shipment from Japan to US DOE’s Savannah River Site (SRS) Depart Port in Great Britain, Transport Completion Doubtful before Nuclear Security Summit in March
Bulk of 331 Kilograms of Plutonium is of UK Origin and Must Not be Dumped at SRS – via Port of Charleston, South Carolina; No Viable Plan for its Disposition or Removal from South Carolina
Linked in News Release and at SRS Watch Photos: Recent Photos of Transport Ships in Port of Barrow, UK, Including Loading Ammunition and Deck-Mounted Guns
Columbia, South Carolina, USA – A controversial plan to remove plutonium from Japan for shipment to the United States has now begun with departure of two empty transport ships from the United Kingdom. The transport mission begins under intense pressure to complete the shipment before the Nuclear Security Summit begins in Washington, DC in late March.
The UK-flagged transport ships Pacific Egret and Pacific Heron, both outfitted with deck-mounted weapons, departed their home port of Barrow-in-Furness, UK in the early morning of January 19, as informed by the UK group Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE).
The ships, operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport limited (PNTL), are bound for the Tokai nuclear facility, north of Tokyo. At Tokai, 331 kilograms of plutonium that has been used for nuclear reactor research at the Fast Critical Assembly (FCA) will be loaded onto the vessels for shipment to the US. The cargo may also contain highly enriched uranium (HEU) now stored at the FCA.
“As there is no non-proliferation or security justification for UK-origin plutonium to be taken to the Savannah River Site, the UK must deal with its own plutonium and not dump this problem on SRS,” said Tom Clements, director of SRS Watch.