South Carolina governor protests Yucca termination

WASHINGTON -- South Carolina's governor is protesting the Obama administration's planned termination of the Yucca Mountain Project, including asking the state's attorney general to "pursue every legal action possible" to stop the shutdown.

Gov. Mark Sanford is scheduled to hold a news conference today in Columbia, S.C., alongside two members of the state's congressional delegation, where they are expected to broadcast their unhappiness with steps the White House is taking to end development of a Nevada nuclear waste repository.

"The governor will not be announcing any specific legal action tomorrow, at least as of right now," said Sanford's spokesman, Ben Fox.

Sanford, a Republican, will call for President Barack Obama "to recommit to Yucca Mountain, to put it bluntly," Fox said.

It was unclear what options South Carolina could pursue. But Sanford's reaction reflects what is being described as a mixture of bafflement, anger and resignation to the planned Yucca termination in several of the 38 states where radioactive spent fuel figures to remain stored at reactor sites for decades longer while the government considers alternatives to underground storage in Nevada.

"They are frustrated obviously," said David Wright, a South Carolina public service commissioner.

Wright predicted that within a month, one or more states will seek to intervene with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to protest the administration's plan. "And once something like that is filed, there is no telling who else would get involved," he said.

Sanford, whose state is home to an estimated 4,000 metric tons of nuclear waste from seven commercial nuclear reactors and defense nuclear waste stored at the Savannah River processing center, asked Attorney General Henry McMaster in a letter Thursday to start researching options for the state to pursue.

In his letter, Sanford said the decision to end funding for the repository and withdraw a pending license application at the NRC "is spectacularly misguided" and "breaks a promise" the government made almost three decades ago to dispose of the radioactive material produced by 104 commercial reactors.

He said the decision to terminate Yucca Mountain was "nothing more than what many would see as a Chicago-style political payoff" to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who secured such a pledge from Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Sanford sent a similar letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and other members of his state's congressional delegation last week. He asked them to do what they could "in pushing the Obama administration and Congress to complete the permanent repository."

A Reid spokesman said Obama was right to shelve the Yucca Mountain repository because Nevada did not have the clout to prevent its selection years ago and now has the power in Reid, the Senate majority leader, to force a new direction. "Because of Harry Reid, a scientific panel is going to determine how best to dispose of nuclear waste," spokesman Jon Summers said, referring to a commission established by the Obama administration.

Reps. Joe Wilson and Gresham Barrett, both Republicans, are scheduled to join Sanford at the news conference today, along with other state officials and residents near the Savannah River complex, Fox said.

At a conference of state utility regulators in Washington on Monday, officials debated but could not agree on how states holding nuclear waste should respond to the Obama administration's decision.

"What do we really want? We want the waste moved," said Brian O'Connell, nuclear waste adviser to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

Department of Energy officials met over the weekend with utility regulators and staff but could not answer why DOE wanted to withdraw the Yucca license application "with prejudice," a legal term that signifies the application cannot be refiled at a later date. The decision was made at the White House, the regulators were told.

"It was interesting to watch them squirm," Sarah Hofmann, a public utilities staff member from Vermont, said in a presentation. Regardless, Hofmann said, "the ground has shifted beneath us, and we need to readjust."

A National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners subcommittee considered an official resolution that expressed frustration with the proposed ending of the repository program but pledged to work with the commission to study alternatives.

Lauren McDonald, chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, called for something stronger. He said states should demand that DOE produce all of the documents that supported its decision to find the Yucca site unsatisfactory and to have them examined in congressional hearings.

McDonald said the association of utility regulators should formally oppose the withdrawal of the repository license application and call for the NRC to complete its evaluation of the project.

Dusty Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, said the Yucca Mountain issue "is a lot more about politics and always has been, than it has been about good policy."

"Leadership is not dithering and delaying until you can pass the buck onto the next generation," Johnson said. "While we may have 40 years to deal with this problem, 25 years has gone by, and we are not a whole lot closer. Forty years might as well be tomorrow."

But Greg Jergerson, chairman of the Montana Public Service Commission, said states should be "constructively engaged" with the administration, rather than critical of it.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.