South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley told Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz this week to stop shipments of Japanese weapon-usable plutonium, believed to already be en route, from coming to the Savannah River Site. Haley made her demand following news reports that 331 kilograms of plutonium were being loaded onto two British ships in Japan, will travel to a Charleston port, and will then be delivered to SRS.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) declined to confirm if the shipments are underway. The agency previously heralded SRS as the best location for foreign nuclear materials for the site’s ability to dispose of them using H Canyon and other facilities.
If the federal government can’t stop the shipment, then Haley is calling for the plutonium to be rerouted so that it doesn’t enter her state. Neither option is likely since President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget request includes plans for SRS to receive the plutonium in the near future. The proposal calls for the removal of the plutonium from Japan before the March 31 start of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C.
The plutonium would come from the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency’s Fast Critical Assembly to SRS, where it will be stored while the federal government maps out a disposition strategy at Savannah River and disposal at a facility that has not yet been identified. The conceptual design of a disposition strategy at SRS is expected to cost $3 million to $5 million in federal funding, according to Obama’s proposal. Japan will also contribute funds, though the amount is not clear.
Haley is more concerned about the plutonium and other materials that are either already being stored at SRS or on their way to the site located near Aiken, S.C. In her letter, she reminded Moniz that the state and federal government are already entrenched in a lawsuit for nonpayment of money owed to South Carolina. Under a 2003 agreement, DOE was by Jan. 1, 2016, to convert at least 1 metric ton of plutonium into mixed-oxide nuclear reactor fuel via the still-unfinished Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF), or to remove that same amount from the state.
Neither occurred, which means the department is supposed to pay South Carolina $1 million a day until one of the actions happens. “DOE’s failure to uphold its commitments and now continued shipments of plutonium into our state puts South Carolina at risk for becoming a permanent dumping ground for nuclear materials,” Haley wrote. She added that DOE has yet to file a response to the lawsuit, which seeks payment of the money and removal of MOX-able plutonium out of South Carolina.
The MFFF is the primary facility under the nation’s MOX program, which is intended to dispose of 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium under a U.S.-Russian agreement finalized in 2010. However, the Obama administration has proposed to cancel the program, which it says would cost more than $50 billion, in favor of a method it claims would be cheaper, safer, and get the job done years earlier – using inhibitor materials to dilute the plutonium at SRS and then sending the material for storage at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
The MOX effort is separate from the Japanese plutonium shipment, which falls under the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), a 12-year-old program to secure dangerous nuclear and radiological materials worldwide. Both programs, however, are overseen by the NNSA, a semiautonomous branch of the Department of Energy.
As issues over MOX and Japanese plutonium continue to mount, SRS is still in line to continue collecting plutonium from across the globe. Earlier this month, the NNSA lauded the site’s acceptance of plutonium from Switzerland. In December, the agency reiterated its plans to bring about 900 kilograms of plutonium to SRS under the GTRI. The plutonium is expected to come from countries in Asia and Europe.
Overall, the Savannah River Site houses 13 metric tons of surplus plutonium, the NNSA reported during a recent Senate subcommittee hearing.
