Routes identified by the Canadian government in September 1999 for the transport of U.S. and Russian weapons plutonium fuel en route to Chalk River, Ontario.

On January 14, 2000, American weapons plutonium fuel clandestinely crossed the U.S.- Canada border by land transport to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. On the Canadian side it was secretly flown by helicopter to Chalk River, Ontario. It is generally believed that the federal government allowed MOX plutonium to be moved by air in order to avoid protests expected in many communities along the land transport route from Sault Ste. Marie to Chalk River.

The possibility of transporting MOX plutonium from the United States by aircraft was never discussed in any of the AECL plans submitted to Transport Canada and made public in September 1999. (With regard to the test burn, American law prohibits the air transport of MOX plutonium over U.S. territory because of the risks involved in the event of a crash. Even the lead U.S. agency responsible for promoting the plutonium test burn project, the Department of Energy, explicitly rejected the option of transporting MOX plutonium to Canada by air.)

Map of Plutonium Fuel Transport Routes, 2000

Back to Issues page

Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout
cnp@web.net