Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor Vol. 23 No. 09
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Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor
Article 3 of 10
March 01, 2019

Judge Again Refuses to Block Plutonium Shipments to Nevada

By Dan Leone

A federal judge this week refused Nevada’s second request to legally block the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from shipping weapon-usable plutonium to the state from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

U.S. District Judge Miranda Du, in an order published late Monday, refused to grant an injunction, writing that the request was moot because the NNSA has said it does not plan to ship any more plutonium to Nevada.

Nevada sought a second injunction Feb. 6, asking Du for a shipping moratorium while a higher court considers the state’s appeal of Du’s first refusal to block shipments. Nevada’s opening brief is due to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on March 4.

The NNSA sent half a metric ton of plutonium to the Silver State sometime before November 2018 to comply with an order from a different federal judge in South Carolina. Nevada sued the Department of Energy agency in U.S. District Court for Nevada on Nov. 30 to stop the shipment, unaware — the state has said — that the NNSA had already moved the material to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The shipment outraged Nevada’s congressional delegation — who have said the NNSA did not notify people who possessed the clearance to receive such sensitive shipping information — and Gov. Steve Sisolak (D), who in protest this week skipped a Western Governors’ Association breakfast with President Donald Trump, then demanded a private meeting with Trump to hear an explanation on the shipment. Nevada has said the agency cannot be trusted to refrain from more secret shipments.

Nevada also alleges the NNSA broke federal law by moving plutonium to NNSS’ Device Assembly Facility without performing a required environmental review. The NNSA claims it has done all the environmental reviews required to move the plutonium.

The NNSA must remove 1 metric ton of plutonium from South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020, to comply with a December 2017 order in a different federal lawsuit, brought by South Carolina. The state sued after the agency failed to turn this previously surplus weapon-grade plutonium into commercial reactor fuel at the Savannah River Site.

The NNSA subsequently redesignated a metric ton of plutonium at Savannah River as “for defense-production use” and, around August 2018, announced plans to ship it to NNSS and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, for transfer to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico some time in the mid- to late-2020s.

Los Alamos, which does not presently have space to store the plutonium, will turn the material into weapon cores suitable for future intercontinental ballistic missile warheads, the NNSA has said.

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DOE spent fuel lead Brinton accused of second luggage theft.



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