‘I have no regrets’: SC AG Wilson fires back at Gov. McMaster in plutonium spat

In response to a letter from S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster rebuking him for a $600 million plutonium settlement in which several private attorneys will split a $75 million fee, state Attorney General Alan Wilson on Tuesday fired off his own letter to the governor defending his decisions.

“I was looking for a workable solution that would end years of litigation, bring over a half a billion dollars to the state, and strengthen South Carolina’s legal position if a future (presidential) Administration’s Department of Energy failed to meet its obligations under the agreement. I accomplished all three,” Wilson wrote.

The settlement, announced Monday by Wilson, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, and U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette in the State House lobby, requires the federal government to pay South Carolina $600 million for the government’s failure to remove bomb-grade plutonium from the Savannah River Site nuclear weapons complex. South Carolina was stuck with tons of the poisonous radioactive material after a major government construction project unraveled.

The Department of Energy must remove nearly 10 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium from SRS during the next 15 years, the settlement says. A metric ton is 2,204 pounds, or 204 pounds heavier than a standard ton.

In a letter to Wilson sent over the weekend, McMaster criticized the attorney general on two points: making a deal that gives the federal government some 20 years to remove the plutonium and for agreeing to pay several law firms that worked on the settlement $75 million in legal fees. Those fees will come out of the $600 million, so the state will only get $525 million.

In his Tuesday response to McMaster, Wilson wrote that the contract he used with the private attorneys who will get the $75 million was the same type of contract McMaster used when he was attorney general (from 2003 to 2011) and hired private attorneys.

“While I appreciate your caution, I do not see how South Carolina could have walked away from this opportunity. To paraphrase President Reagan, we have done our best to trust and verify. I have no regrets,” Wilson wrote.

This story was originally published September 1, 2020 at 3:53 PM.