Bart Stupak: “It concerns the shipment of nuclear material containing weapons-grade plutonium from Los Alamos, New Mexico, to Chalk…”

“It concerns the shipment of nuclear material containing weapons-grade plutonium from Los Alamos, New Mexico, to Chalk River, Canada. The Department of Energy has proposed to ship fuel rods manufactured from plutonium, formerly used in nuclear weapons, across the West and the Midwest including St. Louis, Chicago, and a number of other population centers. At the outset let me say that it is, it is in the United States strategic interests to decrease the oversupply of weapons-grade plutonium in this country and Russia. Furthermore, I agree that it is important to maintain a partnership with Russia to encourage the destruction of their plutonium. However the process, the process that has been used to determine a route which the MOX fuel will take has been completely inappropriate and without congressional or public input. The DOE prepared an environmental assessment, an EA, on the project which was distributed to only 52 residents in the State of Michigan for comment, none of whom live near the two bridges where the material will be transported.”