The South Carolina Attorney General is considering taking legal action in response to the Administration’s plans to put the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility into “cold standby” and analyze alternatives to the program. “The Attorney General’s office is examining all possible avenues for legal action should the need for action arise,” South Carolina AG spokesman Mark Powell said yesterday. Current law requires the Department of Energy to begin processing surplus plutonium at MOX by 2016 or remove some of the material from the state, or face fines of up to $100 million per year.
Late last week, members of South Carolina’s Congressional Delegation urged South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) to consider legal action. A letter from members of the delegation indicates that plans to suspend the MOX program “will likely lead the federal government to violate the terms of the U.S.-Russia Plutonium Disposition Management Agreement and will almost certainly lead to a failure” in DOE’s commitments to address the plutonium by 2016. “We ask that you work with the South Carolina Attorney General to explore any legal avenues the state may have to address this injustice,” states the March 7 letter from Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott and Rep. Joe Wilson (R).
