Uranium
Plant to Shut Down
Paraphrased
by Steve Waldrop
June 28, 2002
Columbia,
South Carolina- The emergency shut down of Starmet CMI Inc. began Tuesday
evening as armed guards hired by DHEC began to patrol the site.
Siting contamination and security concerns, including unguarded material
that could be used to make a "dirty bomb," The state's Department
of Health and Environmental Control ordered the shut down of the Barnwell
uranium processing plant.
The order to close the plant stated that the company which makes counterweights
used in airplanes among other metal products didn't provide enough security
for the site.
The
company's president and chief executive, Bob Quinn said that politics
and Governor Jim Hodges were behind the plant's closing.
"We think DHEC is playing political football with the lives of
75 (employees) in an economically depressed area," Quinn said.
A spokesman for Hodges said that the governor has always taken a strong
stand against nuclear waste industries that want to use South Carolina
as a dumping ground.
DHEC's order said that for the past two years the company has repeatedly
violated state environmental laws and improperly stored approximately
3,000 metric tons of low-level radioactive waste. The company also contaminated
air, soil and groundwater with radioactive and hazardous waste.
DHEC also said that the lack of security at the site was "a threat
to homeland security," however, an official with the Nuclear Control
Institute said the uranium at the Barnwell facility is not desirable
for weapons.
Starmet
has pledged $3 million in the effort to clean up and keep the company
open. Employees feel that the evaluation by the state was overblown,
and they want to keep the company open and clean it up themselves.
Starmet has appealed the order, and a hearing is scheduled next week.
