Plutonium Headed to South Carolina

Paraphrased by Steve Waldrop
June 27, 2002

The federal government probably won't give South Carolina officials a warning when scheduled plutonium shipments begin to cross the state's borders. The first warning may come when the truck carrying the radioactive material has already entered the state after passing by the weigh station. According to Public Safety Department spokesman Sid Gaulden.

Because of security reasons, the departure of the shipments from the facility in Rocky Flats, Colorado to the arrival at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina will not be announced.

According to court documents, federal agents will be traveling with the tractor-trailer rigs containing barrels loaded with smaller cans of radioactive plutonium and will be authorized to use deadly force to protect the shipments.

But one way authorities might know the plutonium has crossed the border, besides the convoy, is when the tractor-trailers pass a weigh station along a major highway or interstate.

Gaulden said the plutonium trucks won't stop. Instead, the lead vehicle will pull into the weigh station and notify officers the plutonium truck will be passing through. "By that time, it would already be in the state," Gaulden said.

The shipments have been delayed since last fall because of an ongoing dispute between Governor Jim Hodges and the DOE. Hodges has sued the DOE and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham because he fears a federal program to dispose of the plutonium will not be funded and the plutonium will be left at SRS. But the DOE has said it will build facilities to convert the plutonium into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors.