Plutonium Talks with DOE Still in Progress

COLUMBIA-- South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges says he supports a federal proposal to start shipping plutonium into the state, but he won't allow shipments of the weapons grade material to enter South Carolina until the plan is written into law or is legally bound.

An agreement has apparently been reached between Hodges and the U.S. Energy Department, 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, Colorado, to a $3.8 billion plant at SRS near Aiken into fuel for nuclear reactors.

Long Fight

Hodges has long fought against the shipment and even said that he would lie down in front of trucks carrying the plutonium into the state. The governor wanted the Energy Department to provide a document outlining schedules to fund the construction on 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.

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 nest 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.

U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., said he would introduce the legislation and U.S. 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.