The state of South Carolina has filed a new lawsuit against the Department of Energy seeking another $100 million it says the federal government owes for missing a deadline to remove 1 ton of plutonium from the Savannah River Site.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. Court of Federal Claims, represents half of the total amount the state is seeking in the dispute. The other $100 million is covered in a suit South Carolina filed early last year.
“This lawsuit seeks the recovery of the $100 million the United States currently owes South Carolina for the economic and impact assistance payments that DOE has failed and refused to pay for calendar year 2017,” according to the latest lawsuit.
In a 2003 deal with the state, DOE agreed to remove 1 ton of plutonium from South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2016, or to process it at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility that remains under construction at the Savannah River Site. A congressionally mandated stipulation directed the federal agency to pay $1 million per day, up to a maximum of $100 million annually, upon breaching the deadline.
When payments did not begin early last year, state Attorney General Alan Wilson in February 2016 sued DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in U.S. District Court. The lawsuit requests that DOE remove plutonium from SRS and pay the penalty, which reached the full $100 million in April 2016. The state added another $100 million to that pot this year.
In February of this year, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs ruled South Carolina should pursue the money in the Court of Federal Claims. Childs also ruled that the sides should hash out the plutonium removal issue, but the parties told her last week they were unable to resolve their differences on the process. The parties are required to issue separate statements detailing what they want out of the negotiations; the state submitted its statement last week, and DOE has until Friday to do the same.
In a press release Tuesday, Wilson said his office also intends to pursue the court case for the first $100 million from 2016.
