Budget cuts put SRS jobs in jeopardy

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Environmentalists vilify the thousands of tons and millions of gallons of nuclear waste being stored at the Savannah River Site near Aiken. But the prosperity of an entire region of the state also relies on the continued operation of SRS, which supplied plutonium for the nation's nuclear arsenal during the Cold War.

Two months ago, SRS had a rosy future. Two new plants were to be built there, the environmental cleanup would be continued and it was designated a National Laboratory. All of that seemed to ensure cutting-edge scientific research would continue indefinitely.

But the U.S. House of Representatives slashed funding for three programs vital to its future — the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada and the two plants expected to extend the site's operation to 2070. That has thrown an ongoing environmental cleanup and the future of the site into question.

"It was remarkable to see," said Robert Alvarez, a former senior adviser in the Department of Energy. "It looked like they went out of their way to whack the budget of SRS."

The site currently is in a cleanup stage, and residents were counting on the new plants to create up to 4,000 jobs and contribute $8.4 billion to the Aiken area. The plants mean a future. Cleanup means an end.

"It's a disappointment," said Bill Clyburn, a Democratic state representative who lives in Aiken and works at the site. "We're in the cleanup stage. You're going to lose employees and cut back on economic growth."

The cuts also hit the Upstate, where uranium rods are being stored on site at the Oconee Nuclear Station in Seneca, waiting for Yucca Mountain to open.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-Seneca, and 3rd District Rep. Gresham Barrett said they expect the funding to be restored. Graham, long a champion of the Savannah River Site, said he expects the Senate to restore all of the programs when it takes up the same spending bill in the fall.

"There is too much at stake," Graham said.

Graham said the cuts probably were made to get the attention of the Department of Energy. Congress no longer wants to give the department "a blank check," he said.

Alvarez said, "This kind of action shows a growing degree of displeasure and frustration with the department."

Politics vs. reality

Many residents who live near SRS, both in South Carolina and Georgia, have a love-hate relationship with the nuclear site. Nearly 14,000 people work there, and nearly all of them live in the surrounding five counties.

The government spends nearly $1 billion in payroll each year and an additional $254.6 million purchasing goods and services in the community.

The first proposed plant in jeopardy would create mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel for commercial nuclear reactors from weapons-grade plutonium. SRS was selected as the site for that plant in 1998.

The program came about through a parallel nuclear arms reduction agreement with Russia. The MOX plant is expected to cost $4 billion and would create 500 jobs for 20 years and up to 2,000 construction jobs.

But the Russian side of the program is delayed because of construction delays and problems with funding from the cash-strapped Russian government, analysts have said.

SRS is widely considered to be the leading candidate for a new plant to create plutonium pits — the triggers on nuclear weapons. That plant is expected to create 1,800 jobs in the Aiken area and cost $4.4 billion.

In 2001, The Greenville News reported that the Clinton administration promised the state three years earlier that plutonium wouldn't be stored here permanently if the state agreed to host the MOX plant.

Former Gov. Jim Hodges opposed plutonium shipments into the state two years ago but said he never wants to see a day when SRS won't have future missions. But he said the Bush administration's Department of Energy isn't playing fair.

"There is a disturbing pattern by DOE that if there's something they want you to do, like if they want you to take the plutonium from Rocky Flats (Colo.), they intimate that if the state agrees to that, you'll get these projects. Then they're mysteriously pulled off the table," he said.

"If you're dealing with the DOE, you'd better have it in writing and enforceable in court."

Local residents thought they had a written, enforceable written promise to remove the SRS plutonium stocks with a federal bill that imposed a timetable to remove it and penalties if it isn't removed on time.

It was revealed last week that there are no plans to destroy or remove up to 13 tons of the deadly metal — 26 percent of what is, or will be, stored at SRS. That came in letters sent from Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to Congress.

"I have a great deal of confidence in Sen. Graham. I believe him," Clyburn said. "The question is: Why aren't we getting any of this?"

Democratic Rep. Lonnie Hosey, who represents the Barnwell and SRS area in the state House, was more blunt.

"Whether you push for it or not, the main thing is whether you accomplish what you push for," he said. "If the federal government is having financial problems, where are you going to get the money from?"

Strange bedfellows

In June, nuclear opponents, fiscal conservatives and Nevada's legislators united to persuade the House not to provide money in 2005 for building the Yucca Mountain dump or the nuclear trigger plant. In addition, the House provided only about half of the funding requested for the MOX plant.

Leading the charge was Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House's Energy and Water subcommittee.

He wrote that the Department of Energy "needs to take a 'time-out' on new initiatives until it completes a review of its weapons complex in relation to security needs, budget constraints and this new stockpile plan."

"He has a philosophical disagreement and he is a non-proliferation person," Graham said. "At the end of the day, I expect to work with (Hobson) to resolve these disputes."

A step toward that is an invitation from Barrett for Hobson to visit SRS. Hobson has accepted the invitation, according to Barrett.

On Yucca Mountain, the House provided one-sixth of what the Bush administration requested. The $131 million approved would go toward designing facilities for Defense Department dumping.

Cleanup

The environmental cleanup of SRS is continuing according to plan or has taken a disastrous turn, depending on which side you are on.

The site is home to 51 tanks that contain 37 million gallons of nuclear waste, most of which will be pumped out for eventual shipment to Yucca Mountain.

A federal appeals court cleared legal challenges to the construction of the dump, but the House hasn't appropriated the money.

"Congress established that Yucca Mountain will serve as a high-level waste repository," said Joe Davis, spokesman for the Department of Energy. "We need cash to build it and operate it."

Graham said the liquid waste in the tanks is the "biggest threat to the environment" in South Carolina. The linchpin to cleaning it up, and to national security, is Yucca Mountain, he said.

"It is near completion and to take money away now is ill-advised," he said. "The biggest threat to the country is having nuclear materials scattered around the country in a haphazard fashion."

Waste from a few of those tanks already has been pumped out and turned into 10-foot high by 2-foot diameter glass rods that weigh about two tons each. More than 1,650 of those rods have been created, according to Rick Ford, spokesman for SRS, and are ready to be shipped to Yucca Mountain.

The Energy Department says a few thousand gallons of residual sludge can't be removed, and it wants to leave the material in the tanks after filling them with concrete. A federal judge in Idaho stopped the practice last year, ruling that the department was illegally reclassifying the waste.

Environmental groups claim the residual sludge — the last 1 percent of the waste — contains most of the radioactive material.

Environmental groups have criticized the decision to leave the last remaining sludge in the tanks made by the U.S. Senate and led by Graham.

The decision came only weeks after Arjun Makhijani and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research issued a report about risks to the groundwater for cities near the nuclear facility because of the leaky tanks.

"South Carolina is a Bush state, and I don't see what he's doing so great for us," Hosey said. "This will be a major issue for us this year. It is something that will change our community."

Until the storm clouds subside, residents will scratch their heads and wonder what is coming for the largest employer in the state while the state's political leaders pledge to continue to fight for the future of SRS.

"Without new missions, you're beginning to look toward the day when the gates will be shut," Hodges said.

Jason Zacher covers the environment and natural resources. He can be reached at 298-4272.