Talks continue on DOE plan for plutonium shipments to S.C.

Posted 10:12PM on Thursday 11th April 2002 ( 23 years ago )

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - Gov. Jim Hodges says he supports a federal proposal to start shipping plutonium to South Carolina, but he won't allow the weapons-grade material into the state until the plan is written into law or is legally bound. It appeared a standoff between Hodges and the U.S. Energy Department had ended Thursday after the governor agreed to a written proposal from Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that said he would send a 30-day notice of when the shipments would begin. But the DOE rejected Hodges' request to have a consent order filed in federal court that would have allowed a judge to order the department to remove the plutonium if it did not meet the terms of the agreement. ``We're back in the same place,'' Hodges' spokesman Jay Reiff said late Thursday. ``We accepted the secretary's proposal. Let's make it a binding, let's make it legal.'' The Energy Department plans to ship plutonium from a former nuclear weapons site in Rocky Flats, Colo., to a $3.8 billion plant at SRS near Aiken, where it would be converted into fuel for nuclear reactors. Hodges has fought the shipments even vowing to lie down in front of trucks carrying the plutonium into the state. He wanted the Energy Department to provide a document outlining schedules to fund the construction of Mixed Oxide, or MOX, fuel treatment facilities, when to expect the shipments and when they would leave South Carolina. ``All I want to know is whether I've got something I can run down to the federal courthouse if they don't honor the terms and get a judge to stop shipments,'' Hodges said Thursday. Abraham said the agency addressed Hodges' concerns in the proposed agreement by establishing annual funding targets, committing to notify the state of all plutonium shipments and including firm dates that the material would be removed from the state if the Energy Department was unable to come up with the funds to build the MOX facility. President Bush included $384 million to fund the plutonium disposition program in the next fiscal year, beginning July 1. The budget also noted that the project would require funding of $3.8 billion over the next 20 years, Abraham wrote. The issue involves national security and should be a matter for the executive branch, not the judicial, DOE spokesman Joe Davis said. Abraham's proposal wants Congress to require the agency to remove all plutonium brought to SRS after April 15 if the MOX facility fails to operate on schedule. Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., said he would introduce the legislation and Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he would work with the congressional delegation to make sure it becomes law if Hodges signs the agreement. However, Hodges won't allow shipments to come to South Carolina until Congress approves the legislation, his spokesman said. ``We want to have some leverage to get this out of the state,'' Reiff said. ``Everything they've proposed is on paper, but they're not willing to sign it.'' The state and federal governments' inability to reach an agreement has held up cleanup activities at former nuclear plants across the nation, Abraham said. It also jeopardizes the 2000 U.S.-Russian plutonium disposition agreement, he said. ``We need to move forward with the MOX plant that will be used to dispose of the plutonium at issue in order to honor our commitments to the Russian Federation,'' Abraham wrote. Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler, who is vying for the GOP nomination for governor, has fenced with Hodges over the plutonium shipments for months. He says Hodges' adversarial approach with Washington has done more harm than good. Peeler and House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, quickly called a news conference earlier this year when they learned that the Energy Department planned to spend the $3.8 billion on a plutonium reprocessing facility that would create 500 permanent jobs. Peeler kept up the patter Thursday, saying Hodges ``is continuing to play plutonium politics. There is a way to work this out and reach an acceptable solution for South Carolina and the nation.'' And Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., accused Hodges of political gamesmanship and endangering national security by holding up shipments of plutonium from Rocky Flats. Allard said in a congressional hearing Wednesday that Hodges' opposition to plutonium shipments threatens to derail plans to clean up the former nuclear weapons plant by 2006. ``As a result of his dangerous gamesmanship, our national security and our nation's environmental security have been placed at risk,'' Allard said. The federal government is spending $7 billion to clean up Rocky Flats, northwest of Denver, and turn it into a wildlife refuge. To meet the 2006 deadline, the Energy Department needs to begin shipping plutonium soon, although department officials won't give an exact date. Rocky Flats made plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons for 40 years. It closed in 1989 after the end of the Cold War and after a raid by federal agents prompted by chronic safety problems.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/4/196178