By Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, April 17, 2002 (ENS) - Several tons of plutonium could begin arriving in South Carolina in less than 30 days, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Monday. Abraham notified South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges that he intends to begin shipping the plutonium from the agency's Rocky Flats facility in Colorado, despite the governor's threats to block the shipments.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham at his desk (Photo courtesy Office of the Secretary)

"The department intends to begin shipping plutonium from Rocky Flats to Savannah River no sooner than 30 days from today," Abraham wrote Monday. "It is essential that we begin shipments of materials from Rocky Flats to South Carolina by approximately May 15, 2002 in order to meet the nation's goal of closing the facility."

The DOE plans to ship a total of 34 metric tons of plutonium from various DOE weapons facilities around the nation to the Savannah River Site, where it will be turned into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors.

The plutonium, pure enough to be used in nuclear weapons, is now located at Rocky Flats, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, and at the PANTEX Facility in Amarillo, Texas. About 76 trailer loads of plutonium are expected to be shipped from Rocky Flats alone.

After receiving Abraham's letter, Governor Hodges again pledged to block the shipments until he receives assurances that the plutonium will not be stored in South Carolina after it is processed. Hodges has previously threatened to use state troopers to physically block the shipments from entering the state.

Governor Jim Hodges of South Carolina (Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

South Carolina Representatives Lindsey Graham, a Republican, and John Spratt, a Democrat, are drafting legislation that would require that the plutonium not be permanently store in the state. However, Hodges said Monday that it is unlikely that the bill can be passed by Congress before the DOE begins its shipments.

"While I am open to a congressional solution, the secretary's decision to limit the time frame to 30 days will make this very difficult to accomplish," Hodges said.

In Monday's letter, Abraham detailed a list of concessions that he hoped would persuade Hodges not to oppose the shipments, including a formal commitment to ship the plutonium out of South Carolina if the facility that will convert the plutonium into MOX fuel is not completed on schedule. Abraham said he would support efforts to pass legislation backing that pledge, and would suspend shipments to South Carolina if Congress has not passed such a bill by October.

Last week, Hodges told the DOE that he wanted a federal judge to oversee the enforcement of whatever agreement was reached between the state and the federal government regarding the plutonium shipments. Abraham rejected that request, saying such a court decree would be of "dubious legality and propriety."

Representative Lindsey Graham is one of two South Carolina Congress members working on a legislative solution to the plutonium controversy. (Photo courtesy Office of the Representative)

"The courts are an appropriate forum for handling lawsuits, not for performing such Executive Branch duties as overseeing and implementing the U.S.-Russian nuclear non-proliferation agreement," Abraham added.

In January 2002, the Bush administration announced it would dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium by turning it into MOX fuel, as part of a join U.S.-Russian program to eliminate surplus nuclear weapons materials. The decision overturned a proposal by the previous administration to use a portion of the plutonium as fuel, while permanently immobilizing the remainder in glass to prevent its potential use in nuclear weapons.

MOX fuel is a mixture of about three percent plutonium oxide with about 97 percent uranium oxide, which can be used in nuclear reactors to produce electricity. Such fuel is routinely used for power generation in Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland.

Critics of the MOX fuel proposal charge that burning MOX in nuclear reactors increases the public health risks from nuclear accidents, particularly when the reactors were not originally designed to burn MOX fuel.

Sunset at the Savannah River Site (Photo courtesy DOE)

More deaths would result because the quantities of plutonium and other highly radiotoxic elements in the cores of MOX fueled plants are greater than in plants fueled only with conventional low enriched uranium, the NCI study says.

The Energy Department plans to construct two major facilities at the Savannah River Site to process the surplus plutonium: the nation's first MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility (FFF), to be in operation by July 2007, and a Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility, to be in operation by October 2009. Pits are the radioactive materials and other classified components at the core of nuclear weapons.

But the DOE's MOX program has been plagued by escalating costs, legal challenges and delays. In February, Duke Power, the utility selected to use the MOX fuel in its McGuire and Catawba reactors, testified before a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) proceeding that "the future use of MOX fuel at McGuire and Catawba reactors is not a certainty. Substantial uncertainties and contingencies continued to surround the program."

The NRC agreed in an April 12 ruling that "the mere possibility that Duke might" in the future seek to amend its reactors' licenses to permit MOX use is "speculative by its very nature."

The McGuire Nuclear Power Plant in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina is one of two that could be converted to burn MOX fuel (Photo courtesy NRC)

An "unknown but substantial amount" of the Rocky Flats plutonium is now considered by DOE to be unsuitable for use in MOX fuel, Lyman added.

"In the wake of the cancellation of the immobilization program, DOE has no plans and no appropriate technology to dispose of this 'orphan' plutonium," Lyman said. "If Secretary Abraham knows when or if this plutonium would ultimately leave Rocky Flats and what would be done with it, he hasn't told anyone."

"Given the Department's ill considered decision to kill off its immobilization program - which offered the cheapest, safest and fastest way to dispose of excess plutonium - it is highly likely that tons of Rocky Flats plutonium will be stranded at the Savannah River Site for years or even decades," Lyman concluded.

Jay Reiff, a spokesperson for Governor Hodges, said the governor may consider suing the federal government to block the plutonium shipments if legislation is not passed to offer assurances that the plutonium will not remain in the state.

In a letter sent to Hodges on Friday, Secretary Abraham noted that he wants to keep the controversy out of the courts to avoid involving other parties in the dispute, including groups like NCI.

"Once this matter is in litigation, other parties will be entitled to try to intervene and gain status to influence current and future decisions on these issues," Abraham wrote. "Even groups who oppose the objectives or the particulars of our non-proliferation programs, for example those who oppose construction of any MOX facility, could inject themselves into the process. The result would be to turn over to the courts decisions that are integrally related to the foreign policy of the United States."