Don't Waste South Carolina

The news that Duratek, the operator of the Chem Nuclear low level radioactive waste site in Barnwell County has been sold to Energy Solutions Inc., headquartered in Utah, once again raises the periodic issue of site closure. Will the site, now host site for the Atlantic Compact, really shut out all states except compact members Connecticut and New Jersey on the designated date of 2008 or will forces in favor of staying open prevail as they have at least three times in the past? This is an issue the members of the next General Assembly and the next Governor will have to face.

Energy Solutions will be the third operator of the site in the last seven years. The site is state owned and will eventually revert to the state for long term management and security. It is supposed to remain open for an additional fifty years beyond 2008 with only Compact members having access. A 2005 report by the Barnwell Committee of the Governors Nuclear Advisory Council has even suggested that after 2008 the site take B and C military waste.

A controversial issue in recent years has been the tapping of the long term care fund to help with a budget short fall. It was finally restored in the last legislative session. However, the income from the site has not met expectations since it was anticipated that more of the higher level class B and C waste which includes decommissioned nuclear reactors would be coming to the site. With the resurgent interest in nuclear power and less restrictive relicensing procedures fewer of the old reactors are being decommissioned and instead being relicensed. Another factor is the competition from Envirocare in Utah which accepts Class A waste. Envirocare is now one of the component companies of Energy Solutions. After purchasing Envirocare, Mr. Steve Creamer, President and CEO of Energy Solutions, immediately withdrew that company&rsquos license application to dispose of Class B and C waste at that facility, something strongly opposed by the Governor of Utah, and instead supported legislation to permanently ban Class A and B waste from the State of Utah. A comprehensive paper on the history of Envirocare may be found on the LWV Utah web site.

LWVSC has written a letter to Mr. Steve Creamer, President and CEO of Energy Solutions, signed by President Sheila Haney and Assoc. Director Mary Kelly to provide him with some background on the history of the Barnwell site. To quote from that letter:

&ldquoThe South Carolina League of Women Voters has closely monitored this issue for over twenty-five years. We supported the original compact legislation and even agreed to be the initial host state for the Southeast Compact with the caveat that the closure date, then set at 1986, would be held firm and another member of that compact would take over. No new site was ever selected despite an arduous and expensive process. Not only was the 1986 date violated but subsequent closure dates of 1992 and 1996 as well. Each time a deadline approached elected officials for a variety of reasons and under heavy lobbying from the company operating the site found reasons to reverse course and continues to take waste from states across the nation. We supported the 2000 legislation on the assurance by the then Governor, key legislative leaders and even the operating company that this time the commitment was firm. Many of our members, concerned about the environmental unsuitability of the site and the fact that it would not at this time be considered state-of-the art would have preferred a quicker phase out for out-of-compact waste but we reluctantly supported the compromise plan to reduce waste over an eight year period.&rdquo