Savannah River Site Watch got the green light from Grammy Award winner Bonnie Raitt to lobby outside of her concert in North Charleston on Friday, where the group collected signatures in opposition to bringing more nuclear materials to South Carolina. “Bonnie follows these nuclear waste issues and she’s very supportive of our work,” said SRS Watch Director Tom Clements.
Clements said about 90 attendees signed prewritten letters and added their own comments at the bottom of the page. The letters are being sent to Gov. Nikki Haley’s office in support of her stance against further shipments of waste to South Carolina, Clements said. When contacted about SRS Watch’s efforts, Haley spokeswoman Chaney Adams sent a statement she’s used multiple times: “Governor Haley has been clear: South Carolina will not become a permanent dumping ground for nuclear waste.”
Despite that declaration, SRS has received several shipments of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and weapons-grade plutonium through various international programs over the years. Under the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), for example, the U.S. has removed or eliminated more than 5,000 kilograms of HEU from various countries since 1994. Much of that material has been handled at SRS, though it is unclear how much.
Clements said Friday’s effort mainly focused on the possible transfers to SRS of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany and Canada. The 900 kilograms of German material would arrive in the form of 1 million graphite spheres, each about the size of a tennis ball.
The Canadian material is currently wrapped up in a legal battle. Under the Atoms for Peace program, the material was used to produce molybdenum-99 for medical purposes at the Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario. Shipments of the material to SRS were expected to begin sometime this year. But on Aug. 12, multiple antinuclear groups sued the Department of Energy and other parties because they believe the necessary steps were not taken before the department authorized up to 150 shipments that total 6,000 gallons of HEU.
