By admin 
The U.S. Department of Energy has left South Carolina off a list of finalists for a multi-billion dollar nuclear campus that officials had sought as part of their efforts to revive and expand the state’s nuclear capabilities.
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Five other states – Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Idaho – were announced as potential host states for nuclear lifecycle campuses. These campuses would be developed to strengthen and modernize the country’s nuclear fuel cycle, according to a DOE news release Tuesday, July 28.
South Carolina was among 26 states that had sought consideration for nuclear campuses. Not making the list is a blow to those who said a nuclear lifecycle campus could produce thousands of jobs and result in billions of dollars in investment in South Carolina.
The DOE release did not say what factors left South Carolina and other states out, but one lawmaker said it may have been the state’s opposition to taking nuclear waste from other places as part of the campus plan.
In addition to focusing on developing facilities to support making nuclear fuel, as well as enrichment, the campuses would support reprocessing used fuel and potentially be sites for nuclear waste disposal.
The State reported last week that South Carolina’s proposal for a life cycle campus included support for “boreholes,’’ deep cuts in the ground where high level radioactive waste could be stored. The state Commerce Department submitted the proposal. But the state Senate has passed legislation against taking the nation’s nuclear waste.
“There was no interest in South Carolina opening itself up or being the receptacle for nuclear waste outside of its existing legal obligations,’’ state Sen. Tom Davis said, recalling his discussions with the Commerce Department about taking atomic refuse.
Politico reported this week that President Donald Trump is seeking changes in the law that would make it easier for states to become repositories for nuclear waste. Plans are underway to revamp the classification of nuclear waste to provide more flexibility, Politico reported, basing its story on a government document obtained by its journalists.
Spokespeople for the Commerce Department and Gov. Henry McMaster were not available.
The federal government has been searching for years for a permanent solution to high level waste disposal. The material, the byproduct of making nuclear power and atomic weapons, contains deadly contaminants that can linger in the environment for thousands of years.
Former President Barack Obama shut down a planned high-level nuclear waste burial ground in Nevada more than 15 years ago as environmental concerns in that state mounted. Since then, atomic waste that was supposed to be disposed of in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain has been building up at nuclear power plants across the country. Waste from weapons complexes like South Carolina’s Savannah River Site also was to go to Yucca Mountain.
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Tom Clements, a critic of nuclear weapons and atomic energy, said last week South Carolina could have become a dumping ground for the nation’s high-level atomic garbage if the boreholes disposal concept went through.
“That was the implication,’’ Clements said Tuesday of the Commerce Department plan. “They didn’t say we’ll deal only with our own state’s waste. They left it open-ended.’’
The South Carolina nuclear campus would presumably have been at the Savannah River Site, a 310-square mile atomic weapons production facility near Aiken.
Aside from the waste issue, landing a nuclear lifecycle campus in South Carolina was projected to be an economic boon for the state.
“These campuses will be massive generators of economic growth, create thousands of high-paying jobs, and be crucial to unleashing America’s nuclear renaissance,’’ Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in Tuesday’s news release. “The innovative concept is a direct result of President Trump’s leadership and ambitious directives to restore the domestic nuclear fuel cycle and get America’s nuclear industry growing again.”
In South Carolina, the Department of Commerce said a nuclear innovation campus could contribute to $60 billion in private investment and 15,000 direct jobs for South Carolina.
The department said little to explain why it had included the support for boreholes in its nuclear campus plan when there is ample opposition in the state for importing waste.
South Carolina was once a repository for a variety of noxious and toxic waste, with a low-level nuclear waste dump, a hazardous landfill, a medical waste incinerator and multiple “mega’’ garbage dumps.
Officials in the five states chosen as contenders for nuclear lifecycle campuses were ecstatic Tuesday over their selection by the Department of Energy. Those states signed memorandums of understanding with the DOE to continue exploring a chance to have a campus, the news release said.
“As the global epicenter of nuclear energy, Tennessee is honored to be selected as a potential host for a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus,” Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said in the news release. “As our state answered the call during the Manhattan Project and helped shape the course of history, Tennessee stands ready once again to advance the safe, reliable energy solutions our nation depends on.’’
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