ISSUES IMPEDING GLOBAL RECOVERY AND TRANSPORTATION OF DISUSED PLUTONIUM SOURCES: LIMITED TRANSPORT OPTIONS AND DENIALS OF SHIPMENT

This paper discusses challenges faced by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Off-Site Source Recovery Project in its mission to recover U.S.-origin plutonium sealed sources from foreign sites for repatriation to the U.S. Examples of transport options and instances of denials of shipment experienced by the Project are provided. It is insisted that when packages containing plutonium sealed sources are prepared and carried out in accordance with IATA, ICAO, IMO, and/or IAEA1 Safety Standards, there is no reason for denying the shipment on safety grounds. In addition, if regulations regarding air shipments of plutonium into, and within, the U.S. were harmonized with international regulations the movement of plutonium during recovery operations would be even more simple and efficient. This is most important when retrieving excess, unwanted, or abandoned sources from foreign locations for risk mitigation purposes as directed by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Repatriating disused plutonium sources from countries outside North America is most easily and efficiently accomplished by shipping the packages by air from the source location directly into the U.S. This would decrease transit times (compared to maritime carriage) and improve security by avoiding use of third party countries as the landing point of plutonium air shipments for continued overland shipment of the packages into the U.S. for repatriation, secure storage, and disposition.