Calling the Department of Energy’s 2018 shipment of plutonium to Nevada a “nuclear incident” and a nuisance, the state is asking a federal judge to boot half a metric ton of the fissile material out of the Nevada National Security Site (NSS) and prohibit further shipments.
The draft amended complaint filed Friday is the latest change of legal tack in Nevada’s 2018 lawsuit, filed to stop DOE from shipping weapon-usable plutonium to NNSS from the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. In January, the department acknowledged it had shipped the half-metric ton of plutonium to the NNSS’ Device Assembly Facility well before Nevada sued.
That plutonium now constitutes “loss of, damage to, and loss of use to Nevada’s property arising out of or resulting from radioactive and/or special nuclear material” under the 1957 Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act, lawyers for Nevada wrote in a draft amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court for Nevada. The Price-Anderson Act gives federal courts jurisdiction over injuries to persons and property caused by some nuclear materials.
U.S. District Judge Miranda Du must still approve Nevada’s motion to file the amended complaint. Du had not ruled on the motion at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
Citing the Price-Anderson act, and calling the plutonium stored at NNSS a “nuisance,” Nevada wants wants Du to order DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to remove the plutonium from the site, then bar the agency from transferring any more plutonium from South Carolina.
The Energy Department moved the plutonium from the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., to comply with a 2017 court order in a separate lawsuit. That order required the agency to remove 1 metric ton of plutonium from South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020. The agency said it had complied fully with that court order by August.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry has told Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) and Nevada’s U.S. Senate delegation that DOE will remove the plutonium sent to NNSS by 2026.
