Funding for SRS

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The Bush administration is following through with its pledge to build a facility at the Savannah River Site to convert weapons grade plutonium into fuel for commercial nuclear plants. President George Bush's budget calls for spending $402 million at SRS next year for the facility.

That line item in the budget is the culmination of a year's worth of verbal battles and negotiations by state and federal leaders and former Gov. Jim Hodges to ensure that South Carolina would process the nation's surplus plutonium but would not become a permanent dumping site for the weapons material.

Sen. Lindsey Graham ushered through a law, signed by Bush, that would award the state up to $100 million a year if the federal government failed to remove the plutonium from South Carolina on schedule.

But the money Bush has allocated is just a small portion of the $4 billion required to build the SRS facility. With plutonium already being transported to SRS, South Carolina's congressional delegation will have to work together to make sure Bush and Congress maintain their commitment to complete the facility.