Plutonium shipments to be well-packaged, guarded

Posted 10:05AM on Thursday 20th June 2002 ( 23 years ago )

COLUMBIA, S.C. - 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, according to court records. Federal agents traveling with the tractor-trailer rigs will be authorized to use deadly force to protect the shipments, court documents say. Barrels loaded with smaller cans of radioactive plutonium will be carried in the trucks. 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, Colo., nuclear weapons plant to the site on the Georgia line. A total of 2,000 cans, containing about 6 metric tons of material, are to be removed. Gov. 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. A federal judge in Aiken on Tuesday barred Hodges from interfering with the shipments. The governor has appealed to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. The U.S. Energy Department won't talk about the shipments because of security concerns. Some details about the plan to package and haul plutonium surfaced in court last week. Allen Gunter, program manager for plutonium at SRS, testified the plutonium will be both in metal and powder forms. The powdered plutonium, called plutonium oxide, could disperse through the air if a canister leaked, some environmentalists say. Even small amounts of plutonium can cause cancer if inhaled. Oxide "is by far the most dangerous material," said LeRoy Moore, with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, which tracks the plutonium issue at Rocky Flats. The government has said it has shipped oxide powder safely before, but not in the quantities that will come from Colorado, Moore said. The government will ship the material in airtight cans. The cans will be placed in another, larger can about the size of a 55-gallon drum that is also tightly sealed, records show. Moore said the cans have never been tested to see if they could withstand a terrorist attack. The government says the containers are safe. The trucks to be used are built so they could be "totally engulfed in a fire without incurring any damage to the cargo," according to a 1996 environmental impact statement filed Monday in U.S. District Court. The government won't say what routes will be used, but the tractor-trailers will probably use interstate highways and will stop, if necessary, only at government complexes, The Energy Department said. The trucks won't travel in bad weather, and won't exceed 55 mph. The trucks will be escorted by a detail of armed guards in several vehicles, records show. Records show the shipments would be tracked from a national communications center in Albuquerque, N.M. The center provides the capability to monitor the status and location of every convoy 24 hours a day, according to an environmental impact statement filed in court this week. DOE spokesman Joe Davis said the monitoring involves the use of satellites. The material will be stored in the old K reactor building at SRS. Hodges questions the building's safety, but the DOE says it's been modified to safely contain plutonium.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/6/193334