Nuclear waste setback for S.C.

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a court ruling against disposal facility

pose problems for our state, nation.

Congress and a federal appeals court recently handed a nuclear headache to South Carolina and the rest of the nation. The House of Representatives slashed funding for the Savannah River Site near Aiken and gutted the budget for the planned national nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The federal appeals court, meanwhile, placed the future of the Yucca Mountain project in jeopardy by ordering the government to develop a new plan to protect the public against radiation releases beyond the proposed 10,000 years.

The upshot is that Yucca Mountain is unlikely to accept nuclear waste, as planned, by 2010 — if ever. That's a tremendous concern because the nation's nuclear stockpile, awaiting disposal, amounts to 80,000 tons — and growing.

Almost 2,000 nuclear fuel rods, for instance, are stored fewer than 30 miles from downtown Greenville at Duke Energy's Oconee Nuclear Station in Seneca. Without a permanent, safe storage facility for the rods, the highly radioactive material would be stored indefinitely at the Duke facility. Likewise, thousands of tons and millions of gallons of nuclear waste at the Savannah River Site would have no place to go if Yucca Mountain doesn't open.

House lawmakers, by cutting funding for the Savannah River Site, also are threatening the future of two major plants at the site that were to create up to 5,800 jobs and invest $12.8 billion in South Carolina's economy over the coming decades. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and 3rd District Rep. Gresham Barrett said they expect the funding to be restored by the Senate.

South Carolina's congressional delegation can, and should, play a important role in restoring funding for the Savannah River Site and in getting the Yucca Mountain facility back on track. Federal lawmakers may have to amend the law to overturn the federal appeals court ruling on Yucca Mountain.

Yucca Mountain is the only viable option for nuclear waste disposal as spent nuclear fuel and materials pile up at reactors across the country and throughout South Carolina. Yucca Mountain is important not only in dealing with the nation's waste woes but also in helping to secure the nation against terrorist attacks. Burying the nation's nuclear waste stockpile would render the material less vulnerable to accidental leakage or terrorist attack.

The nation's hodgepodge of existing storage sites poses a security concern: Currently, nuclear waste is stored at 131 above-ground sites in 39 states. Those facilities, scattered throughout the country, are not built for permanent storage.

The Yucca Mountain site is particularly important for the future of South Carolina, which has five nuclear waste sites. Congress should reaffirm that Yucca Mountain and the Savannah River Site are important parts of the effort to secure the nation's volatile nuclear waste.