Plutonium secretly shipped to Nevada removed sooner than expected

[Mary Wilson]

September 16, 2022 - 4:21 pm
Updated September 16, 2022 - 4:24 pm

By Gary Martin

WASHINGTON – A half-metric ton of weapons-grade plutonium secretly shipped into Nevada has been removed four years early under federal court order and an agreement reached by U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, officials said Friday.

Cortez Masto, D-Nev., first announced the removal of the plutonium, stored at the Nevada National Security Site north of Las Vegas.

She was notified by the National Nuclear Security Administration late Friday.

... Attempts to contact the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration for comment were not immediately returned.

The NNSA shipped the plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to Nevada in 2019 under federal court order.

Four years ahead of schedule

“When I heard that the Trump administration secretly shipped weapons-grade plutonium to our state, I acted immediately to ensure it was removed,” Cortez Masto said in a statement. Cortez Masto also secured in writing a pledge by Perry not to send any more plutonium from South Carolina to Nevada.

... Some of the material was sent to the Nevada facility, and some to the Pantex Plant in Texas until pits to accommodate the material at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were completed, according to NNSA.

... also sought to open Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear waste repository, just 60 miles north of Las Vegas.

https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/...-nevada-removed-sooner-than-expected-2641314/

 

[Emily]

https://www.kgou.org/energy/2022-09...th-nuclear-waste-stateimpact-goes-underground
Where should we put our country's nuclear waste? StateImpact Oklahoma goes underground to find out


KGOU | By Beth Wallis,
StateImpact Oklahoma

Published September 15, 2022 at 9:33 AM CDT

...

‘The U.S. is stuck in a mess of its own making’


In 1987, Congress amended the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to designate Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the country’s first deep geological repository to permanently house spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste. But decades of opposition over environmental, safety and religious concerns have kept the site from becoming operational.

Until a permanent disposal site for high-level waste can be sited and constructed, the Biden administration instead wants to focus on creating interim storage sites. Gupta’s team at OU is aiming to expand a network of interim storage sites that will be in operation from 50-100 years. But some see the proliferation of interim storage as kicking the nuclear can down the road.

Cindy Vestergaard, senior fellow and director with the Stimson Center’s Nuclear Safeguards and Blockchain in Practice Programs, said the responsibility of dealing with nuclear waste lies with the federal government, but with no permanent solution, the DOE is “just moving the problem.”

“The U.S. is stuck in a mess of its own making,” Vestergaard said.

Vestergaard said what separates the U.S. from other countries in terms of nuclear storage is which entity is ultimately responsible for it. Whereas nuclear energy falls under the purview of the federal government in the U.S., Vestergaard said shifting that responsibility to industry makes the process more efficient.

“That’s one of the biggest challenges right there, because it’s very difficult to do consent-based siting,” Vestergaard said. “Oddly enough, from the government side, particularly when it’s coming from an organization like the Department of Energy in the United States that doesn’t have a lot of trust in terms of public trust. And that’s because of a long history on that side.”

 

[Emily]

https://www.cnet.com/pictures/how-much-nuclear-waste-is-in-your-state/
How much nuclear waste is in your state?

The Nuclear Energy Institute keeps tabs on the spent nuclear fuel stored in states across the US. Here's where the radioactive waste ends up.

Jessica Learish