In a federal court filing on Wednesday, National Nuclear Security Administration General Counsel Bruce Diamond stated that the agency sent about half a metric ton of the substance sometime before November 2018, prior to Nevada suing over the proposed move. The transfer was done after a U.S. District Court in South Carolina ordered the material be removed from that state.

Gov. Steve Sisolak accused the government of lying to the state and said he was irate over the move, which was first reported by national defense reporter Dan Leone.

“I am beyond outraged by this completely unacceptable deception from the U.S. Department of Energy,” he wrote. “The Department led the State of Nevada to believe that they were engaging in good-faith negotiations with us regarding a potential shipment of weapons-grade plutonium, only to reveal that those negotiations were a sham all along.”

Sisolak said at a press conference in Carson City that the state doesn’t know exactly when the plutonium came, how many states it passed through or what route it took before arriving at its destination. It also doesn’t know whether anyone suffered adverse effects as a result of the shipment.

“To put the health and well-being of millions of people at risk due to the transportation into Nevada, without giving us the opportunity to prepare in case there would’ve been a mishap along the way, I think it was irresponsible and reckless on behalf of the department,” Sisolak said.

Concerned that the shipment is a bad precedent for the decades-long effort—now supported by President Donald Trump’s administration—to ship nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, Democratic Rep. Dina Titus pledged to fight any such effort.

“Time and again, we have seen Trump Administration officials treat Nevada as the dumping ground for the nation’s nuclear waste,” Titus said in a release. “In this latest injustice, Trump’s Department of Energy misled the courts and refused to give notice to Nevada’s elected officials.”

“If the Trump Administration thinks that making such a reckless decision under the shroud of secrecy will allow them to move forward with Yucca Mountain, they are mistaken,” she continued. “I will work tirelessly with Governor Sisolak and the Nevada Delegation to fight the U.S. Department of Energy’s unchecked and unethical activity.”

[link to thenevadaindependent.com (secure)]