From Savannah River 33 tons of plutonium in mixed oxide fuel would be transported across hundreds of miles of isolated countryside to utility reactors in North Carolina and South Carolina. This overland transport link presents a unique opportunity to those who might intercept and divert the fuel for weapons use. The freshly fabricated fuel rod assemblies would be the most desirable form for groups who would go after the plutonium for unlawful use in their own explosive devices. Higher actinide inventories increase the public health risks. The strategic value of plutonium oxide for new weapons increases the threat of diversion.
Safety depends on adequate personnel and procedures.
Spikes had been removed from the rail bed, a metal bar connecting the rails had been removed, and the missing section wired to circumvent the electronic warning system. A terrorist group, Sons of the Gestapo, left a note at the scene claiming credit and criticizing law enforcement agencies, citing the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents. The George Washington Bridge has been used for shipments of irradiated fuel and plutonium from Brookhaven National Laboratory to the Savannah River Site. The willingness of terrorists to kill or injure large numbers of Americans, demonstrated in the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings, compels any current assessment to focus on incidents that are clearly intended to cause, or could cause, radiological sabotage. Halstead and Ballard state that risk assessments must consider direct attacks on transport casks using high energy explosive devices with or without capture of the shipments.