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U.S. NEWS Thursday 2 May 2019
Energy Department says it will remove plutonium from Nevada

By SCOTT SONNER wants to store at nearby
Associated Press Yucca Mountain.
RENO, Nev. (AP) — U.S. En- A U.S. Senate pan-
ergy Secretary Rick Perry is el planned a hearing
pledging to expedite the Wednesday on proposals
removal of weapons-grade to restart the licensing pro-
plutonium secretly hauled cess for Yucca Mountain,
to Nevada last year as the which was formally sus-
state and Trump adminis- pended under the Obama
tration remain locked in a administration.
court battle about whether "The one-half metric ton of
the shipment was legal. weapons-grade plutoni-
The Energy Department in- um that was shipped from
tends to start removing the South Carolina to Nevada
highly radioactive material before November 2018 is
in 2021 and finish by the not nuclear waste; it is ma-
end of 2026, Perry said in terial essential for the main-
an April 24 letter to U.S. Sen. tenance of the U.S. weap-
Catherine Cortez Masto, a ons stockpile," Perry wrote
Nevada Democrat. in the April 24 letter to Cor-
He also assured her in the tez Masto.
letter released Tuesday In this Nov. 20, 2013 file photo, radioactive waste, sealed in large stainless steel canisters, is stored But he acknowledged con-
that his department won't under five feet of concrete in a storage building at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. cerns from the Nevada
ship any more plutonium Associated Press congressional delegation
from South Carolina to the and vowed to remove the
Nevada Nuclear Security but the senator said she U.S. government to remove the plutonium to the state. plutonium and not ship the
Site north of Las Vegas. wanted Perry's assurances a metric ton (2,204 pounds) The department disclosed other half-ton of material
As a result, Cortez Masto in writing. of plutonium from the Sa- in January that it already from South Carolina.
said she would drop all Sen- Nevada still is seeking a vannah River site by Jan. 1, had shipped half a metric "Nevadans didn't create
ate holds she had placed formal court order prevent- 2020, and haul out an addi- ton (1,102 pounds) of the this waste and we shouldn't
on pending nominations to ing any shipments because tional 5 metric tons (11,020 material before Nevada be on the hook for storing
fill vacancies in the Energy it says the agency's track pounds) in future years. sued but kept it secret for it in our state against our
Department. record shows it cannot be Nevada sued in Novem- national security reasons. will," Cortez Masto said in a
The agency already said trusted. It also has a related ber, accusing the Energy It says critics in Nevada statement Tuesday.
in court filings earlier this case before the 9th U.S. Cir- Department of failing to do have incorrectly catego- She thanked Perry for work-
year that it wouldn't ship cuit Court of Appeals. the necessary environmen- rized the material as the ing with her on the issue but
any more plutonium from A federal judge in South tal reviews before adopting kind of nuclear waste that said the state "will have ad-
South Carolina to Nevada, Carolina has ordered the a plan last August to ship the Trump administration ditional fights ahead."q