Feds to pay SC $600 million in settlement over deadly atomic material at weapons site
The U.S. Department of Energy says it will pay South Carolina $600 million for the government’s failure to remove bomb-grade plutonium from a nuclear weapons complex that was stuck with the material after a major government construction project unraveled.
U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the deal Monday to settle legal claims by South Carolina that the federal government had not removed the deadly plutonium from the Savannah River Site as required by law.
The agreement not only requires the government to make the $600 million payment this fall, but it says the Department of Energy must remove nearly 10 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium from SRS during the next 15 years.
Both the energy secretary and Wilson praised the deal as the best way to resolve long-standing legal disputes over the bungled mixed oxide fuel plant at SRS — but not everyone was happy, including Gov. Henry McMaster and anti-nuclear activists.
In a recent letter to Wilson, the governor said the settlement does not ensure removal of the plutonium in a timely manner.
McMaster said the Department of Energy was required by law to get rid of the plutonium by 2022, but the deal gives the federal agency until at least 2037 and possibly longer.
“I cannot support a compromise that extends the existing removal deadline by up to 20 years,’’ the governor said.
He also questioned paying $75 million of the $600 million to private attorneys involved in legal action the state had brought against the U.S. Department of Energy. Among those providing outside legal services were Willoughby and Hoefer, a firm with offices in Columbia and Charleston, and Davidson, Wren and DeMasters of Columbia.
The issue of moving plutonium off the Savannah River site is of concern because plutonium is a toxic metal and a key ingredient in nuclear weapons. The material can cause cancer. Some forms of plutonium can take tens of thousands of years to break down when they are released into the environment.
Wilson said the deal is unprecedented and is the right path for South Carolina after years of lawsuits that sought to force construction of the mixed oxide fuel project and protect the state from becoming a permanent storage site for weapons-grade plutonium.
“Today’s announcement is historic,’’ Wilson said during a news conference at the State House. “The $600 million settlement with the Department of Energy is a record breaker for South Carolina. It represents the single largest settlement in South Carolina history. It ends years of contentious litigation with the United States government.’’
Despite the governor’s concerns, Wilson said the settlement agreement prevents the government from making the Savannah River Site “a nuclear dumping ground. And it brings in well over half a billion dollars to the state at a time that South Carolina needs it the most.’’
Brouillette, Wilson and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the Energy Department needs more time to remove the plutonium than 2022, when the material was supposed to be hauled off. The DOE announced last week a plan to ship about 7 metric tons of 9.5 metric tons at SRS to a waste disposal site in New Mexico, but that announcement did not provide a timeline.
“The idea of getting this material out by 2022 is impractical,’’ said Graham, who co-authored the law requiring plutonium to be removed if the mixed oxide fuel plant was not built. “This agreement is as good as anybody could have done.’’
Brouillette said he doesn’t expect it to take the full 15 years to remove the plutonium. If the Energy Department doesn’t remove the plutonium within that time, the agency faces further penalties that could cost federal taxpayers $1.5 billion, Wilson said.
The government planned in the 1990s to ship 34 metric tons of the nation’s surplus weapons grade plutonium to SRS as feedstock for the mixed oxide fuel plant. The plan was to render surplus weapons grade plutonium useless for nuclear weapons as part of a 2000 agreement with Russia. The unusual plutonium-blended fuel was to be available for commercial nuclear power plants, but utilities didn’t want to use it.
Major benefits in the Aiken area were thousands of jobs the project would create, but some officials were concerned about bringing the material to South Carolina in the first place.
In 2002, then S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges threatened to lie down in the road to stop the shipment of plutonium to South Carolina. Democrat Hodges said the government did not have a clear plan to either process the material, render it useless or remove it from SRS.
The DOE moved ahead with the plan after a federal court blocked Hodges’ efforts to stop the shipments.
Since then, the federal and state governments have gone to court multiple times over construction of the mixed oxide fuel plant. Many state leaders wanted the project completed.
Wilson’s office sued the DOE three years ago, seeking fines the government is required by federal law to pay for failing to complete the mixed oxide fuel plant that would have used plutonium shipped to SRS from other nuclear weapons sites. The law says if the plant was not completed, the plutonium had to be removed.
The plant’s construction was years behind schedule, failing to meet certain construction milestones, when the federal government pulled the plug on the project in 2018. The government quit building the mixed oxide fuel plant amid escalating costs after working on it for more than a decade and spending billions of dollars.
At one point in 2016, the government had already spent $5 billion — the entire plant’s original estimated cost — and was facing an additional $12 billion on costs to build the facility.
All told, the mixed oxide project was supposed to receive 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium and convert it into fuel for commercial nuclear power plants as part of a now abandoned nuclear non-proliferation agreement with Russia. Anywhere from 7 metric tons to 10.5 metric tons of the 34 tons arrived at SRS from other federal weapons sites.
According to the deal as explained at Monday’s news conference, South Carolina will receive the $600 million by Oct. 1.
The money to be provided to South Carolina will come from a national judgment fund, a pot of money set aside to bank payments from lawsuits. U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr signed off on using the judgment fund, officials said.
Brouillette said the deal is good for federal taxpayers. The federal government faces more in fines if it doesn’t remove all or part of the plutonium in 15 years.
The government could have been liable to pay up to $2.1 billion for failing to remove the plutonium, meaning it saves $1.5 billion by providing South Carolina a payment of $600 million, he said.
“As historic as this settlement is for the state of South Carolina, it is equally important to the Department of Energy,’’ he said.
Wilson said the money coming in by Oct. 1 would be available for the state’s general fund, meaning it could be used for an array of purposes. State Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken, said he hopes much of the money goes to the Aiken area near SRS because it has suffered most from the government’s failures.
“My intention is going to be to work with all the other people that are on our Aiken, Barnwell and Allendale county legislative delegation to ensure we get some of the money to go back to our affected community,’’ he said.
Graham, who championed the mixed oxide fuel project for 20 years, said he’s sorry the fuel plant was never built because it would have rendered surplus weapons grade plutonium useless for weapons. As it stands, the government is looking to build a plutonium pit plant at the site of the mixed oxide fuel plant. The pit plant would be erected to produce components for nuclear weapons.
“Thirty four metric tons of weapons grade plutonium can make 10,000 nuclear bombs,’’ Graham said. “This material in Russia and the United States was going to be turned into a plowshare. Now I don’t know what the hell is going to happen, except it’s getting out of South Carolina. That’s sad.’’
Savannah River Site Watch, an environmental group critical of nuclear facilities, worries that the deal not only doesn’t assure the material will be removed in a timely manner, but also that more material may be brought to South Carolina for use in the pit plant and for other purposes.
The group estimates 7.5 metric tons could come here if the state wins approval for the pit plant, which is coveted for the jobs it would produce. The country also has about 27 metric tons of plutonium that were originally scheduled to be shipped to SRS for the mixed oxide fuel plant that still do not have a permanent disposal site, the environmental group’s director, Tom Clements, said.
“While DOE and the state of SC may gloat over the announcement, the behind-the-scenes plan to bring a massive amount of plutonium for processing as waste and into pits for nuclear weapons must be fully revealed and explained by DOE,” Clements said in a news release Monday morning.
While the DOE drew criticism over the potential future use of plutonium at SRS, the agency has in recent years moved ahead with plans to ship the material away from the Savannah River Site.
Days before Monday’s announcement, the Energy Department posted notice that it planned to remove 7.1 metric tons of plutonium from SRS that had been shipped there from other nuclear sites, such as the now closed Rocky Flats facility in Colorado. The 7.1 tons was part of the 34 metric tons that was supposed to feed the mixed oxide fuel plant.
In a federal register notice Friday, the Department of Energy said it would process and ship the 7.1 metric tons at SRS to a disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Officials said Monday plutonium would be removed over the next 15 years.
That brings to about 13 metric tons the amount of plutonium the government has said it would remove from SRS. The Department of Energy said five years ago it would get rid of 6 metric tons from the site, although much of that material is still on the 310-square-mile complex along the Georgia border.
SRS is a 310-square-mile nuclear site near Aiken that was a major part of the Cold War weapons production effort. The site at peak production employed more than 10,000 people but it has left a legacy of toxic waste.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 11:09 AM.
