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Officials: Missing SC Nuclear Pellets not Risky

AP
Fri, October 02, 2009

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Federal investigators say there is little danger from 25 pounds of radioactive material missing at a nuclear fuel plant in South Carolina.

The State reported Friday that officials with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission think someone at the Westinghouse plant in Columbia deliberately moved uranium fuel pellets without properly accounting for them.

Investigators say there is little danger because the pellets were probably recycled at the plant. They say even if the pellets left the site, they are composed of low-enriched uranium and are in stable form.

NRC investigator John Pelchat says it would be hard to use the material in a dirty bomb.

Regulators say Westinghouse should have kept better track of the material. Westinghouse officials say they are working to better account for the material.

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