In the latest move in the ongoing lawsuit over disposition of Department of Energy plutonium stored in South Carolina, the federal government submitted documents on Monday demonstrating its intention to advance downblending at the Savannah River Site and to send the processed material to the soon-to-be reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.
The federal filing came in response to a Sept. 17 filing from South Carolina intended to buffer the state’s argument that deficiencies at WIPP make downblending an inferior method of plutonium disposition. But in the Oct. 3 response, the Energy Department suggested that the reopening schedule should not hinder downblending operations at SRS.
South Carolina sued the Energy Department, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz on Feb. 9. It Is seeking $100 million and removal of 1 ton of plutonium due to DOE’s failure to meet a Jan. 1, 2016, deadline set in a federal-state agreement to process 1 metric ton of SRS plutonium through the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) or remove a ton from South Carolina.
State Attorney General Alan Wilson filed the lawsuit on the same day that the Obama administration made clear in its fiscal 2017 budget request it intends to terminate the MOX project, which includes ongoing construction of the MFFF. The facility is intended to meet the terms of a 2000 bilateral agreement that requires the United States and Russia to each dispose of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. DOE now favors a downblending process it says would be much cheaper and faster, through which the plutonium would be diluted at SRS and then shipped to WIPP.
Both sides have made multiple filings in the case. In its September filing, the state said that while WIPP is scheduled to reopen later this year following two accidents in February 2014, that doesn’t mean much if DOE still doesn’t know when the facility will be ready to accept more nuclear waste from other sites. South Carolina referenced an Aug. 4 notification from the DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, which oversees WIPP, to a number of recipients. The notification says there are no currently scheduled shipments to WIPP from Aug. 31, 2016, to July 31, 2017.
But in the Monday response, the Energy Department reasserted that WIPP will restart operations this year. “It appears that South Carolina is suggesting that the Notification is inconsistent with statements Defendants have previously made to the Court,” lawyers representing the federal government wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs. “That is incorrect. As Defendants’ own filing acknowledges, the declaration submitted by [SRS plutonium program manager] Henry Allen Gunter states that ‘WIPP emplacement operations are currently planned to resume in late calendar year 2016.’”
The Energy Department also provided a copy of a Sept. 30 press release that notes the start of SRS downblending operations for 6 metric tons of plutonium. Though it is not part of the 34 metric tons covered by the U.S.-Russian agreement, the material would undergo the same downblending process that NNSA has proposed as an alternative to the MOX approach, according to the release.
On June 30, Childs heard arguments on the DOE’s motion to have the case dismissed and South Carolina’s request for summary judgment of its lawsuit. She has yet to rule on either motion.
As both sides continue battling over MOX-related fines, Russia announced on Monday that it is suspending its involvement in the agreement. This comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin said in April that the U.S. attempt to terminate MOX breaches the agreement and that his country would have to figure out the best way to respond.
