Watchdogs question plans for excess plutonium
Posted at: 08/22/2012 12:02 PM
By: JERI CLAUSING Associated Press
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - Nuclear watchdogs are questioning a proposal to ship tons of plutonium to New Mexico, including the cores of nuclear warheads that would be dismantled at an aging and structurally questionable lab atop a major earthquake fault zone.
Opponents are voicing their opposition at a series of public hearings that opened this week on how best to dispose of the plutonium.
One plan being studied by the Department of Energy calls for the shipment of 7 metric tons from the Pantex plant in West Texas to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and a Savannah River site in South Carolina for disassembly and processing into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors.
The plan also calls for another 6 tons of surplus plutonium to be buried at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, N.M.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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