(The following article by Douglas Turner was posted on the Buffalo News’ website on July 16.)
WASHINGTON — Shipment of high-level radioactive materials from West Valley to Idaho – postponed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 – apparently has resumed, it was reported Tuesday.
The removal of the two railroad cars on which 126 fuel rod assemblies had been perched for nearly two years was learned from an angry letter sent to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Tuesday by Rep. Amo Houghton, R-Corning.
A Department of Energy spokesman confirmed the cars have left the West Valley Demonstration Project in the Cattaraugus County Town of Ashford under tight security.
DOE spokesman Joe Davis said the cars are secure and are under government control. The rest, he said, dealing with when the transfer began and where the cars are now is “classified” and can’t be discussed.
So classified in fact, that DOE declined to tell Houghton about it, and still won’t. West Valley is in Houghton’s district. Houghton called his being denied information “irresponsible stuff.”
In a letter obtained by The Buffalo News, Houghton reminded Abraham of his continuing, deep interest in the whereabouts and security of the nuclear materials.
“We’ve been in touch several times about the site,” Houghton wrote, “including my repeated requests for information about the movement of high level nuclear waste, which had been stored on railroad cars waiting to be shipped out West.
“So you might imagine my surprise when I heard today that the rail cars moved off the site in the middle of last night headed for . . . God knows where.
“Spencer – really. This is irresponsible stuff, don’t you think?”
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., had voiced concerns about security for the materials – which contain plutonium, uranium, strontium and cesium – which could conceivably be used by terrorists to make a dirty bomb.
Other congressional sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were told the cars left West Valley on Sunday night.
If the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy & Water has its way, the railroad cars are on their way to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Idaho Falls. The committee passed appropriations language mandating the materials be removed from West Valley to the laboratory by Sept. 30, 2004.