South Carolina

["Thomas J Savin " <tjsav@LYCOS.COM>]

Thought this might be of interest to some - Enjoy!



SOUTH CAROLINA THREATENS TO BLOCK PLUTONIUM SHIPMENTS



AIKEN, South Carolina, August 14, 2001 (ENS) - The governor of South Carolina is threatening to set up roadblocks to keep federal trucks from transporting radioactive materials across his state, "The New York Times" reports. 



Governor Jim Hodges sent a memo to the South Carolina Highway Patrol last week ordering the agency to develop plans for blocking state highways to federal shipments of plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons. 



Hodges told the newspaper that the Bush administration has abandoned a plan developed by the Clinton administration to remove weapons grade plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, after converting it into fuel for power plants or encasing it in glass. 



Unless the Bush administration guarantees that the plutonium will be removed from South Carolina, and that no new plutonium will be brought in, Hodges told the "New York Times" he will "do whatever it takes" to bar federal shipments. 



"I'll stand squarely in front of the trucks, if that's what it takes to protect the health and safety of our people," Hodges said. "In the meantime, we've got a range of options, including roadblocks. We are not going to be stuck with permanent storage of plutonium in our state." 



Hodges ordered the state's public safety director to review the possibility of setting up highway roadblocks. The governor warned that if plutonium from across the country is shipped to South Carolina for reprocessing, it will be difficult to get the material back out of the state, because other states will also not wish to accept the radioactive material for permanent storage. 



"We will be left holding the proverbial bag," Hodges wrote in his memorandum. 





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Tom Savin





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