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Possible New Ownership for Barnwell?
Utility companies could take over Barnwell nuclear waste site
Source: The Herald Rock Hill, SC
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The state's largest utilities
would consider joining to form a nonprofit consortium
to run the Barnwell County low-level nuclear waste
site, a member of the governor's Nuclear Waste Task
Force says.
''A user-operated consortium is a good way to meet
our needs,'' said Belton Ziegler of Scana, a member
of the task force that met for the third time Monday.
Appointed by Gov. Jim Hodges in June, the task
force is studying ways the state can end its role as a
dumping ground for the nation's low-level nuclear
waste. The group will present its recommendations
to the governor and the General Assembly on Nov. 1.
Scana would join Carolina Power & Light and
Duke Energy, who between them operate most of
the commercial nuclear energy generators in the
state, to take over Barnwell from current operator
Chem-Nuclear.
If the consortium takes over, one option would be to
close Barnwell until they decommission their South
Carolina reactors starting in 2031, Ziegler said. That
would be beneficial because it would ensure Barnwell
will have space when they decommission. There is
no guarantee of that now.
''If that comes to fruition, it will be a judgment made
by private companies as to what the best way to
operate it is, but since most of those private
companies serve in part or in whole, South
Carolinians, we would hope and trust that their
decisions would be in the interest of South Carolina,''
said task force member Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter.
Another option is rejoining a nuclear waste compact.
South Carolina was a member of the Southeast
Compact until 1995 when former Gov. David Beasley
withdrew because North Carolina did not fulfill its
obligation to build a replacement site for Barnwell by
1992.
Representatives from the Southeast Compact, the
Central Compact (Louisiana, Kansas, Oklahoma,
Arkansas) and the Northeast Compact (Connecticut,
New Jersey) attended Monday's meeting.
''Certainly, I don't think there's anything that would
prohibit us from joining another compact, and part of
what we've been doing is negotiating or at least
discussing that with other compacts around the
country,'' said Rep. Joel Lourie, D-Columbia, a
member of the task force's compact negotiating
team.
Although by joining a compact the state might find
itself in a situation similar to when it was in the
Southeast Compact where it was the only state
accepting waste, that is still a better than the current
situation where Barnwell accepts waste from most of
the country, Lourie said.
Completely shutting Barnwell off from the rest of the
nation may violate the U.S. Constitution's commerce
clause concerning interstate trade, said Jim
Stuckey, the governor's chief legal counsel.
A utility consortium would take the state out of the
process and prevent legal challenges based on
interstate commerce laws, Leventis said.
''The state at that point in time wouldn't be in a
decision-making mode,'' he said. That would prevent
a conflict of interest and interstate commerce
concerns.
Leventis said he thinks there is a way for the state to
get out of its lease with Chem-Nuclear and turn the
facility over to the utility consortium.
(Copyright 1999)
*********************************************************
Greg Sackett
Health Physicist
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Division of Industrial and Medical Nuclear Safety
(301) 415-7237
gds@nrc.gov
*********************************************************
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