Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak tours nuclear security site where plutonium was secretly shipped

Gov. Steve Sisolak on Friday joined Energy Secretary Rick Perry for a tour of the National Nuclear Security Site in Southern Nevada.

The tour followed the department’s acknowledgement that it improperly shipped plutonium waste to that site by mis-characterizing the waste as “low level.”

Sisolak said the secretary and DoE officials provided him with both classified and unclassified briefings on the work the site does and took him on a tour of the Radioactive Waste Management Complex and other parts of the security site.

The governor said he appreciated the tour and the briefings on the critical national security work employees there do every day.

“It is unfortunate that the important national security efforts conducted at NNSS have been overshadowed by the DoE’s recent shipment missteps and I remain committed to holding them accountable and establishing a more transparent working relationship with the state of Nevada and the many local communities impacted by the department’s actions,” said Sisolak.

He said his top priority continues to be the health and safety of Nevadans.

Nevada was told in January that, even as the state was in court to block shipping a ton of radioactive materials to the state, the Department of Energy had already shipped half that amount to Southern Nevada several months earlier.

Special counsel Marta Adams said in a court filing that the Justice Department had assured her no shipment would happen before Jan. 21.

Sisolak and Attorney General Aaron Ford described the secret shipment as an egregious violation of trust.