In the state Senate’s latest plan to split the baby, counties surrounding the Savannah River Site would get about 65% of the mega-settlement South Carolina struck with the Department of Energy in 2020 over plutonium storage.
State senators on Tuesday unanimously approved sending some $341 million of the settlement to Allendale, Barnwell and Aiken, the three nearest the former plutonium production site and proposed future home of what would be the largest U.S. nuclear-weapon core factory since Rocky Flats near Denver closed in 1992. The rest of the state would split the remainder, according to the text of Joint Resolution S0956.
The settlement, the largest in state history, was for $600 million. Attorneys assisting the state with its case, which centered on DOE’s inability to remove several metric tons of surplus plutonium from South Carolina’s borders before a legally binding deadline, took some $75 million for themselves.
The South Carolina House of Representatives still has to approve the state Senate’s plan. The South Carolina legislative session runs through May 12.
