A regional economic development group representing rural South Carolina counties that house DOE’s Savannah River Site (SRS) may not join the state’s $100 million dollar plutonium lawsuit against the Energy Department, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
The Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance filed its motion to intervene in March, a month after the state filed suit against DOE seeking $100 million and the removal of plutonium from the Aiken, S.C., site.
Danny Black, president of the Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance, said the Wednesday order from judge J. Michelle Childs was “not surprising news.”
“I’m sure the intent of all involved is to work the issue without interference from anyone locally,” Black said. “We’re used to that. Our board will review their options on the next step. We plan to continue our involvement, and voice our concerns where we can.”
Per a 2003 agreement between DOE and South Carolina, the state maintains DOE had until Jan. 1, 2016 to either remove the plutonium from South Carolina or turn it into commercial reactor fuel in the SRS Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, which remains under construction.
When neither of those things happened, the state claimed financial penalties against the federal government of $1 million a day. The overages capped in April at $100 million. DOE, which has not paid up, disputes the terms of the agreement, writing in court papers the pact required the agency only to set goals for removing plutonium by Jan. 1.
DOE wants Childs to throw the state’s suit out of court and says South Carolina should have brought the case in the Court of Federal Claims, not the U.S. District Court. Childs has not yet ruled on that motion. However, the judge has scheduled a June 30 hearing to rule on the state’s request to dispense with a jury trial and produce a quick ruling in the case.
