RENO, Nev. -- Nevada wants a federal judge to declare illegal what it calls the U.S. government's “secret plutonium smuggling operation” and order the removal of weapons-grade material already shipped to a security site north of Las Vegas over the state's objections.
The latest filing in a yearlong legal battle asks U.S. District Judge Miranda Du in Reno to reject the government's motion to dismiss the state's lawsuit. Nevada is challenging the Energy Department's covert shipment of the highly radioactive material from South Carolina last year.
The department insists the issue is moot because it already has promised that no more plutonium will be brought to Nevada.
“DOE's decision to transport plutonium from South Carolina to Nevada has been consummated and cannot be ‘undone,'” the government said in a motion to dismiss the lawsuit last month.