WASHINGTON — Fearing South Carolina would become a dumping ground for tons of homeless nuclear waste, U.S. Rep. John Spratt won assurances this week that the federal government would not send the waste to the state without Congress’ permission.

Spratt, D-S.C., worried about a report accompanying a $29.7 billion energy bill, which passed the House on Tuesday. The report suggests that the Energy Department set up interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel because the nation’s long-term storage site — Nevada’s Yucca Mountain — will not be finished until 2012.

Aiken’s Savannah River Site is one of the suggested interim depositories.

There are more than 54,000 tons of highly radioactive waste at commercial nuclear plants around the country that cannot yet be sent to Yucca Mountain.

“The problem with interim storage is that it is not built to last forever, yet interim could very well become permanent,” Spratt said.

The York Democrat filed an amendment to the bill that would have specifically prohibited sending the waste to SRS. He noted that federal law prohibits interim storage sites before Yucca Mountain is complete.

He also pointed out that the report attached to the House energy bill — even if the bill is passed by the Senate and signed by President Bush — would not amount to a change in law, and so could not legalize interim storage.

U.S. Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Committee, asked Spratt to withdraw his amendment in exchange for several assurances.

Spratt agreed, and Hobson entered into Congress’ official record that it would take a change in the law to set up interim storage sites and that his committee’s guidance on interim storage was not actually part of the energy bill itself.

“It’s an important concession, which says that the law must be changed before interim storage facilities can be sited at Savannah River,” Spratt said.

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com.