South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday she still expects the Department of Energy to pony up $100 million for missing a plutonium disposition milestone at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). South Carolina sued the federal government on Feb. 9 because DOE had failed for more than a month to acknowledge missing milestones at the MFFF, a key facility in the nation’s MOX project. The United States would use the facility to carry out its part of a deal with Russia under which each nation must dispose of 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium. The MOX method would convert the plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel.
In a separate agreement made between the federal government and the Palmetto State, DOE agreed to either process 1 metric ton of the plutonium through the MFFF, or remove a ton of the plutonium from the state, by Jan. 1, 2016. Since neither occurred, the department was supposed to begin paying $1 million a day to the state, per the 2003 agreement. Haley on Feb. 9 made good on her threat to have the state sue for the money. In an email Tuesday, she re-emphasized her skepticism in dealing with the federal government because “the Department of Energy has not lived up to promises made in the past. We will not back down from our lawsuit until the DOE pays the $1 million a day fine they are required to under federal law.”
The 2003 agreement puts a $100 million cap on the $1 million a day payout. The 2016 calendar shows that April 9 is the 100th day of the year, but it is unclear if the agreement refers to consecutive days or business days. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Tuesday said it would not comment on ongoing litigation.
The state lawsuit arrived on the same day as President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget request, which called for shuttering MOX due to cost overruns and schedule delays. Initially projected to cost $17 billion, the Energy Department believes the program will now cost $51 billion over its lifetime, including the $5 billion already spent. The federal government wants to move forward with a downblending alternative that would dilute of the plutonium using H Canyon and other facilities at SRS and send the resulting material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, N.M.
The plutonium outlined in the MOX agreement is separate from the 6 metric tons of surplus plutonium at SRS that recently made headlines. Haley reported last week that Moniz assured her in a telephone call that DOE would remove 6 metric tons of non-MOXable plutonium from SRS. Similar to the federal government’s desired fate of the 34 metric tons under MOX, the 6 metric tons would first be diluted at SRS to ensure it could not be used in nuclear weapons, and will then be shipped to WIPP. That process was confirmed Tuesday in the Federal Register. The processing of the material is expected to take five years, at which point shipments to WIPP will commence.
MOX Stakeholder Wants in on S.C. Lawsuit
South Carolina is not expected to allow a regional economic development group near the Savannah River Site to join in on the state’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit. The economic group, the Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance, represents four counties of the most rural, impoverished counties of the state, including Barnwell and Allendale counties – which house parts of SRS.
With SRS being in Barnwell’s backyard, Development Alliance President Danny Black said his area deserves some portion of any money South Carolina may collect from the federal government. Black filed papers last week to intervene in the lawsuit that state Attorney General Alan Wilson filed on Feb. 9.
Black believes Barnwell County and other rural areas that have housed the site since the 1960s should be guaranteed part of the money if DOE must pay. Black said the state has verbally denied the organization’s attempt to intervene and has until April 18 to formally submit a denial. “Aiken, Barnwell, and Allendale (counties) have had SRS in our backyard for 65 years,” he said. “It’s only right that we reap some of the benefits after putting our families and surroundings at risk.”
Wilson’s office declined to comment on pending litigation.
Aiken County, which houses the majority of the site, has a similar economic group – the Economic Development Partnership. Will Williams, the partnership’s president and CEO, said neither the group nor Aiken County has considered joining the lawsuit, but that he does agree with Black’s stance. “If the lawsuit is successful, and the State of South Carolina receives money from DOE, we would hope the Governor would provide a portion of the settlement to the three counties that are contiguous to SRS,” Williams said.
The economic groups aren’t the only ones seeking the money. State Rep. Chip Limehouse, a Charleston Republican, prefiled a bill in December that would redirect any MOX penalty money to the State Highway Fund to be used “exclusively for highway, road and bridge maintenance, construction and repair.” The bill was referred to the state House Ways and Means Committee in January and has not received any action since then.
The 2003 DOE-South Carolina agreement specifically states that money can only be collected under the deal if it is available in the DOE budget. U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said in January the issue could be solved with a line item shift, but no such action has occurred during early budget deliberations.
