Sometime next year, a convoy is expected to begin delivering shipments of highly radioactive liquid waste containing weapons-grade uranium from Canada to the Savannah River Site near Aiken.
It’s not so unusual for SRS, once home to the manufacture of nuclear weapons parts, to receive nuclear materials or to process radioactive waste.
What makes these shipments controversial, and according to one environmental activist, unprecedented, is that they are being shipped so far and with such a lethal cargo.
Tom Clements, who has long monitored activities at SRS for various environmental groups and is currently southeastern nuclear campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth, told The Greenville News he is not opposed to the returning of the highly enriched uranium to the United States, since it was made there. But he said he doesn’t understand why the two nations are taking the dangerous step of shipping the waste so far when it could be disposed of in Canada.
Clements said he believes money is at the heart of the decision, with the U.S. Department of Energy being paid to take the waste.
“This is being driven by waste dumping on Canada’s side and DOE wanting to get the money on the U.S. side because of budget pressures increasing,” he said.
Canadian officials disagree with Clements' characterization. DOE officials could not be reached for comment.
Details of the shipments, including the route, amount of the waste shipped, security or when they will begin, cannot be publicly disclosed, Canadian officials say.