Lawmaker decries uranium travel to Savannah River Site

Jan 19 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Derrek Asberry Aiken Standard, S.C.

A New York congressman has continued advocating against the Savannah River Site receiving a liquid form of highly-enriched uranium from Canada after the Department of Energy concluded transferring the material would be a "low risk" venture.

Rep. Brian Higgins, a Democrat, spoke Jan. 7 on the House floor where he spoke about the dangers of shipping the material, or HEU.

The Department of Energy is planning up to 150 shipments of HEU -- totaling more than 6,000 gallons -- from Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario, Canada, to the DOE Savannah River Site. The route includes leaving the Canadian facility and traveling through Higgins' district by crossing the Peace Bridge and Western New York before heading to South Carolina.

Higgins said the route was approved twenty years ago, pursuant to a pre-9/11 analysis, and for a less dangerous type of nuclear waste.

The congressman crafted a bill that, if passed, would require a threat assessment of a potential terror attack on the shipment. The bill passed 416 to 0 in the House, but DOE is making plans to move forward with the shipment before the bill can be taken up in the Senate and/or reach President Barack Obama's desk.

"Disregarding the terror threat that has increased since then is dangerously negligent, and we won't stand by while our community is at risk," Higgins said.

SRS reported last month that the shipments are expected to reach the site this summer. The material will be processed at the SRS H Canyon facility, the nation's only chemical separations plant still in operation. Processing is expected to take up to two years to complete.

Despite Higgins' concerns, a November analysis of the expected shipment states that there is no need for a more in-depth, environmental impact statement, or EIS.

The Department of Energy released in November a Supplemental Analysis, which concluded that shipping the material to SRS is "low risk" because appropriate precautions will be taken.

The material will be transported in robust containers specifically designed and fabricated for transporting liquid highly-enriched uranium, SRS spokesman Jim Giusti reported in December.

"These containers meet standards established by the International Atomic Energy Agency and were certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December 2014 and its Canadian counterpart, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, in July 2015," Giusti said.

The transaction between the U.S. and Canada is part of an agreement between President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the paper since June 2013. He is originally from Vidalia, Ga., and a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Follow him on Twitter @DerrekAsberry.

http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=38503409