Nevada Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen have sent a letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry saying how outraged they are at the Department of Energy for shipping plutonium without notifying the state first.
They went on to say “It is imperative for you and your Department to course-correct in order to avoid a complete erosion of public trust.”
The letter also contains 18 questions about the shipment and asked for a briefing to discuss the matter further.
The department revealed this week that it trucked 1,000 pounds (453 kilograms) of plutonium from South Carolina to Nevada sometime before November when Nevada sued to block the shipments.
The department insists appropriate notice was provided in August when it approved plans to temporarily store plutonium in Nevada to meet a court-ordered deadline to remove it from South Carolina by 2020.
The senators say department officials lied to a federal judge about the status of the shipments during a Jan. 17 hearing in Reno.
In a statement Thursday the Energy Department said it was transparent as it could have been, as per the guidelines of operational security.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
