The Associated Press
9/21/01 5:40 PM

PIKETON, Ohio (AP) -- Nuclear shipments have been halted from the government's uranium plants here and in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a U.S. Department of Energy spokesman said.

"These actions were taken as a precaution in light of the terrorist attacks against our nation," Steven Wyatt, a spokesman in DOE's Oak Ridge office said.

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon stopped all waste shipments from its cleanup of soil and buildings at the site, spokesman Walter Perry said. The waste was being shipped to Utah.

Perry said the shipping stoppage will cause no major long-term slowdown in cleanup at the plant.

The embargo, put in place last week, restricts the transportation of all nuclear materials. Included are the warhead parts made at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge.

However, deliveries of radioactive isotopes for cancer treatments and other medical purposes were exempted at Oak Ridge.

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Department of Energy: http://www.doe.gov/