Feds to ship toxic radioactive metal out of SC after years of disputes with the state
The U.S. Department of Energy, after years of legal disputes with South Carolina officials, says it will haul away tons of deadly atomic material it had shipped to the Palmetto State for use in a nuclear fuel factory that was never built.
In a public notice late last week, the Energy Department said it plans to send 7.1 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium from the Savannah River Site nuclear complex near Aiken to a disposal ground in rural New Mexico.
That is the bulk, if not all, of the plutonium shipped years ago from other nuclear sites to SRS for use in the proposed mixed oxide fuel factory, according to organizations critical of the factory. The federal government quit building the fuel project, known as MOX, in 2018 after spending billions of dollars and more than a decade on the effort.
U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette is expected during a news conference Monday in Columbia to address the plutonium issue and settling a lawsuit the state of South Carolina has against his agency for failing to remove plutonium from SRS.
Attorney General Alan Wilson sued the Department of Energy three years ago, seeking to force the agency to remove the plutonium or pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. By federal law, the DOE is required to complete the MOX project or get rid of the plutonium it sent to South Carolina. But it has done neither.
It was unknown Sunday how the plan to ship the 7.1 metric tons to New Mexico plays into any settlement of a lawsuit or whether a settlement would provide fine money Wilson’s office says the federal government is liable to pay the state of South Carolina.
Nuclear safety watchdogs said they expect Brouillette to discuss settling the lawsuit. Court records show the state and the Department of Energy have been in settlement negotiations for the past month, including over penalties the DOE would have to pay the state for failure to remove the plutonium.
The energy department said late Saturday afternoon that Brouillette’s appearance would be to make a “historic announcement.’’
“Yes, it is very important and historic is a good word for it,’’ Robert Kittle, a spokesman for Wilson, said.
Brouillette will be at the news conference with Wilson, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., and Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, according to the attorney general’s office.
According to the DOE’ plan, published in Friday’s federal register, the plutonium at SRS would be processed into a form that would allow safe shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, NM. The analysis did not say when the 7.1 metric tons would go to New Mexico.
The DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration, an arm of the agency, said plutonium would be sent to the pilot plant “rather than using this non-pit plutonium to manufacture MOX fuel.’’
The DOE’s plan to ship out the 7.1 metric tons brings to about 13 metric tons the amount of plutonium the federal government has agreed to remove from SRS since 2015.
Plutonium is a toxic, radioactive material that can sicken people who are exposed to it. Plutonium is a key ingredient in nuclear bombs made by the United States government.
South Carolina’s issue with plutonium and the now failed nuclear fuel plant has a colorful and tense history dating back decades.
The government planned as far back as the 1990s to ship 34 metric tons of the nation’s surplus weapons grade plutonium to SRS for processing in the mixed oxide fuel plant. The plutonium-blended fuel, unusual in the United States, was to be available for use in commercial nuclear power plants. The plan was to render surplus weapons grade plutonium useless for nuclear weapons as part of a 2000 agreement with Russia.
In 2018, the federal government scrapped plans to build the mixed oxide fuel plant as costs for the project skyrocketed. The unfinished project was at one point expected to cost under $5 billion. That amount had been spent by 2016, and the government estimated another $12 billion would be needed to finish the work. Project supporters wanted the MOX plant to be built because it would bring thousands of jobs to SRS.
The slow pace of the MOX construction project sparked legal disputes between the DOE and state leaders over what to do with the plutonium that had been shipped to South Carolina. But some leaders had worried about shipping the plutonium to South Carolina in the first place.
In 2002, then-S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges filed a lawsuit and threatened to lie down in the road to stop the shipment of plutonium to South Carolina. At the time, Democrat Hodges said the government did not have a clear plan to either process the material, render it useless or remove it from SRS. He and others questioned whether South Carolina would become a dumping ground for the nation’s excess plutonium if the MOX project wasn’t completed.
The DOE moved ahead with the plan after winning approval from a federal court. Republican leaders in South Carolina, including Sen. Graham, supported building the fuel factory as a way to provide potentially thousands of jobs and to comply with the international nuclear non proliferation accord with Russia.
The Department of Energy’s plan to remove the 7.1 metric tons, announced in the federal register notice, is part of the 34 metric tons that had been targeted for interim storage and feedstock for the fuel plant at SRS, said Ed Lyman, who tracks SRS issues for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, DC.
Lyman and Tom Clements, who heads Savannah River Site Watch, estimated the amount shipped to SRS as part of the nuclear non proliferation effort was 7 to 10 metric tons. The remainder of the 34 metric tons have not been shipped to SRS, much of that still at the Pantex nuclear weapons site in Texas, Lyman and Clements said.
While the government’s plan to ship the plutonium off of SRS is sure to be hailed by state leaders Monday, Lyman and Clements said it doesn’t explain what will happen with the remainder of the 34 metric tons that was to go to Savannah River Site for use in mixed oxide fuel.
Clements said he thinks much of the remaining 34 metric tons still is destined for SRS. He’s also worried more plutonium will come to SRS for use in a new plutonium pit factory that has been proposed by the federal government. That factory is controversial and may not be built, which would put South Carolina in the same position of having plutonium with no apparent use, Clements said
“I want full answers on what is going on,’’ Clements said. “This is just a piece of the pie. It reveals a bigger issue.’’
Five years ago, the DOE said it would take 6 metric tons from SRS and ship it to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. That material was not part of the 34 tons to be shipped from weapons complexes around the country as part of the MOX program, Lyman said.
This story has been updated from an earlier version. Staff Writer John Monk contributed.
This story was originally published August 30, 2020 at 6:06 PM.
