COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - Court documents indicate that security will be tight when the federal government begins shipping weapons-grade plutonium from an old plant in Colorado to the Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina. <br>
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Court documents say federal agents traveling with the tractor-trailer rigs will be authorized to use deadly force to protect the shipments. <br>
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Barrels loaded with smaller cans of radioactive plutonium will be carried in the trucks. <br>
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The shipments could start by Saturday and last until November 2003. Up to 225 containers per month are to be shipped from the Rocky Flats, Colorado, nuclear weapons plant to the site on the Georgia line. A total of two-thousand cans, containing about six metric tons of material, are to be removed. <br>
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South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges lost a federal lawsuit last week to stop the shipments. Hodges didn't want the plutonium sent until the federal government agreed to a plan to remove the material. He also cited environmental concerns. <br>
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A federal judge in Aiken on Tuesday barred Hodges from interfering with the shipments. <br>
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The governor has appealed to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
