Nevada is demanding that the Department of Energy produce detailed records of all plutonium shipments to and within the state during the last 20 years, a Monday court filing shows.
It was only one of 65 demands from Nevada in a 28-page list made public Monday by the U.S. attorney representing DOE and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in the state’s November lawsuit over the shipment last year of a half metric-ton of plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS).
The federal government appended Nevada’s wish list to a protective order motion, which if granted would block the state from gathering more information about last year’s plutonium shipment, and from deposing three DOE officials. Nevada is seeking evidence that the agency and its employees did not comply with federal environmental laws when they planned and made the shipment.
Nevada sued to block the NNSA shipment of weapon-usable plutonium to the NNSS from the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. The agency acknowledged in January it had shipped the material to Nevada before the lawsuit was filed. The agency must move the plutonium out of South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020, to comply with a federal court ordered handed down in a separate lawsuit in 2017.
In Monday’s motion, the federal government said Nevada is not legally entitled to go information-fishing about last year’s shipment, and that U.S. District Judge Miranda Du should rule on the state lawsuit based solely on the administrative record the NNSA created of its internal decision-making about the shipment.
The DOE branch had agreed to submit its administrative record April 12 but now will not file until after Du rules on Monday’s motion, according to that motion.
Du had not ruled on NNSA’s the motion at deadline Tuesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing and Nevada had not filed any response to the motion.
