Sanford backs MOX for Savannah site

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The endorsement comes a day after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a report recommending preliminary approval of the plans but warning that a serious accident at the site would most likely harm or kill those in nearby minority or poor communities because of the direction of prevailing winds.

"The governor does support the project," Spokesman Will Folks said Tuesday. "Given the new cooperative relationship with the Bush administration and the folks at the U.S. Department of Energy, we're confident that it will be a successful process."

The nearly $4 billion project by the U.S. Department of Energy would convert weapons-grade plutonium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel, called mixed-oxide, or MOX. The program, part of an American-Russian weapons agreement, would turn 34 metric tons of the military plutonium into MOX, which would then be used at two Charlotte-area nuclear power plants.

Folks said the NRC has put together a "solid" list of recommendations dealing with the issue of the project's potential impact on minority communities and has conducted public hearings on the matter.

"Ultimately, you can't control which way the wind blows but we're confident they're doing everything they can to minimize the risk," he said.

Mildred McClain, executive director of Citizens for Environmental Justice, a Georgia environmental group, said Sanford's support of the project is not surprising but his spokesman's comments about a possible accident are disappointing.

"That's the type of very arrogant comments that we are used to hearing from people who support the MOX option at the Savannah River Site," she said. "Given that he is a Republican, I don't expect him to think any differently."

Sanford said the day after he defeated former Gov. Jim Hodges' re-election bid in November that he would likely not continue Hodges' legal efforts to keep the government from bringing military plutonium to the state for the project.

Sanford met with DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham in November but has not publicly disclosed his MOX views until Tuesday.

Hodges, a Democrat, had threatened roadblocks to keep the plutonium out of the state unless the federal government agreed to a legally enforceable timetable on removing it. A federal judge ordered Hodges not to use roadblocks and denied his request to stop the shipments, a decision he unsuccessfully appealed during the last months of his term.

The president of the state NAACP conference said Tuesday his organization will monitor the MOX project because of concerns over the project's impact on minorities.

James Gallman, president of the state conference of the NAACP, said he was concerned about the report released Monday and hoped the government and contractor for the project would work with surrounding communities to inform them about the risks involved.

"We're certainly concerned with how the wind blows and what would happen in regard to our people," he said. "The most important thing is to make sure the health of these people is taken care of."

McClain said her group has sent "emergency" letters to federal officials expressing concerns about the report. She said the group also would ask scientists for their opinions to help create "substantive recommendations" on the issue.

Monday's report found any catastrophic accident involving the plant to be "highly unlikely." But a serious accidental release of tritium from one of the proposed facilities, the report estimated, might cause 400 latent cancer deaths within a year's time.

"The communities most likely to be affected by a significant accident would be minority or low income, given the demographics and prevailing wind direction," the report stated.

The issue of the project's implications for nearby minority communities was raised in public hearings two years ago, according to a summary of the hearings included in the report released Monday.

"Another commenter pointed out that most African-American workers in the area are a captive work force since few companies are willing to move near SRS; the same is true for poor whites," the summary stated.

Others at the hearing said they did not believe information about the MOX project was reaching minority communities and suggested officials use churches or the NAACP to communicate to such groups.

The NRC recommended Monday that the contractor for the project, Duke Cogema Stone & Webster, conduct an information campaign to educate minority and poor communities about the project and risks involved. The staff also recommended DCS work with emergency agencies to see that the communities were prepared in the event of an accident.

Tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen gas and a component of nuclear weapons, has been accidentally released at SRS many times during the past decade, federal safety records show.

The Greenville News reported last July that officials had reported 283 incidents over the past decade at the SRS tritium facility, which unloads and recycles gas from nuclear weapons. The incidents ranged from contamination to release of the gas to outside air. More than a dozen reports filed by other facilities at SRS have noted suspected or measured tritium releases or contamination.

In 1999, tritium was released into the air by the tritium facility after a gasket failed. Officials decided it was more economical to use the gaskets until they failed than to begin a costly preventative maintenance program.

Sen. Phil Leventis, a Sumter Democrat and environmentalist, said he was surprised at Sanford's support of the project because of Sanford's reputation as an independent thinker.

"This governor prides himself as being against boondoggles," he said. "This really almost falls into that category. If we're going to spend $4 or $5 billion on the nuclear industry, we probably need to do it some other way."