A federal judge dismissed Tuesday part of South Carolina’s lawsuit in which it alleged the federal government had breached an agreement with the state by not processing plutonium through the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility.
Specifically, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs dismissed the state’s assertion that the government’s failure to meet the terms of the 2003 agreement constituted a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Childs, meanwhile, denied the government’s motion to dismiss the state’s request for an order requiring DOE to remove 1 ton of plutonium from South Carolina.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson last February sued the Energy Department, then-Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz. The lawsuit says the plaintiffs had violated the agreement in failing by January 2016 to remove 1 ton of plutonium from DOE’s Savannah River Site, either by processing it at the MOX plant or by taking it out of the state.
The DOE did not do either, so the state imposed a daily fine of $1 million – capped at $100 million annually – which the DOE had agreed to under the 2003 deal. Childs already dismissed a third part of the state’s case, in which it sought a requirement that the government pay it $100 million per year in fines. However, she noted the request for monetary compensation could be refiled in the Court of Federal Claims.
An amended scheduling order filed Friday directs the state and federal governments to begin settlement discussions on the plutonium issue, which will end by July 31.
