Ship Carrying Radioactive Waste (Stronium-90) from France to Arrives in Charleston, SC
Three U.S.-Supplied Strontium-Bearing Electricity Generators to be Trucked to Nevada to by Dumped in Ground-Level Trench in Area 5 at the Nevada National Security Site; No Explanation Given as to Why France Wasn’t Required to Deal with the Waste
UPDATE, November 20, 2020: The Pacific Heron docked this morning in the port of Charleston, SC. The strontium-90 was will soon be trucked across the US on I-26 and I-40, to be dumped in Area 5 at the Nevada National Security Site north of Los Vegas. The disposal of the RTGs in question could have been no worse in France than DOE dumping them in a hole in the ground (aka “trench”).
Columbia, SC — November 17, 2020 — A ship from France carrying highly radioactive strontium waste is soon to arrive in the port of Charleston, South Carolina, where the containers with the material would be offloaded at a military dock and trucked to Nevada for disposal. The transport and disposal are being coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The nuclear waste cargo on the UK-flagged Pacific Heron, which departed Cherbourg on November 5 and whose arrival is imminent, consists of “radioisotope thermoelectric generators” (RTGs) containing highly radioactive strontium-90, which were used to power buoys in France. The RTGs are believed to have been fabricated by the U.S. Department of Energy. After offloading in the military port north of the commercial port in Charleston, the RTGs would be trucked across the U.S. and dumped in a ground-level trench in Area 5 at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) north of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Similar RTGs from Alaska, used as a power source to detect seismic activity, were flown to Nevada and disposed of in a trench in Area 5 in 2015. A presentation (linked below) by the Air Force describes the 10 RTGs: “Each of the thermoelectric generators contains from 1 to 3 pounds of a radioactive material called strontium-90. The material is about the size of a hockey puck and is securely contained in a vessel with an inner shield made of tungsten and a cast iron protective housing, weighing approximately 4,000 pounds.” The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on the disposal of the RTGs from Alaska and that 3 RTGs from Mexico also went to the NNSS. (article linked in news release below)
Full SRS Watch news release, November 17, 2020: SRS Watch news on Pacific Heron and strontium RTGs to NV Nov 17 2020
Photo: Pacific Heron arrive in home port of Barrow-in-Furness, England on return from Charleston, SC i n January 2016, photo by Martin Forwood, Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE), special to SRS Watch