Legislation has yet to be filed, but S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley already is taking a stand against reopening a Barnwell waste dump to trade out one class of radioactive waste for higher classes of waste.
Haley called a Thursday morning news conference after news broke earlier this month that a bill could reach the Senate to reopen the Barnwell Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility.
In 2008, the 235-acre site was closed to all but three states: South Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut. The three states secured the deal under the Atlantic Compact, a group initially approved by Congress in 2000.
Now, EnergySolutions, the owner of Chem-Nuclear, who is leasing the dump site from the state of South Carolina, is behind the push for new legislation to reopen the site with promises of continued income, jobs and educational opportunities for Barnwell. The site, however, already is leaking tritium into the groundwater and a nearby creek that flows into the Savannah River - a fact not lost on Haley and others.
"We don't sell our soul for jobs and money," Haley said. "Yes, I'm the jobs governor, and, yes, we want to go and improve the economy. But you have to look at what cost do you do that, and I'm not willing to go and take in nuclear waste that our kids and grandkids are going to have to deal with."
The current proposal is to take Class A waste from the Barnwell site and store it at the Clive Containerized Waste Facility in the western part of Utah, where only Class A waste is accepted. That site also is run by Chem-Nuclear.
In exchange, the Barnwell site would receive shipments of Class B and C waste, both of which would have to meet more rigorous requirements to ensure stability, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Commission wrote in a breakdown that Class C waste not only has to meet more rigorous requirements, but requires additional measures at a disposal facility to protect against environmental threats.
Earlier this month, reports surfaced that EnergySolutions was in talks with Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, to get a bill through the legislature to open the site. In addition to creating more jobs and cash flow, a waste transfer would reportedly help pay for managing the dump site, a task that Barnwell officials and EnergySolutions have said has been an ongoing concern.
Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken, said he has not seen a bill yet but has concerns about bringing more waste into the state.
"I have significant concerns with the issue and am studying the history of the Atlantic Compact," Young said.
Conservation Voters of South Carolina Executive Director Ann Timberlake released a statement shortly after the news conference applauding Haley for her stance.
"Conservation Voters of South Carolina commends Governor Haley for her resolve to uphold the terms of the Atlantic Compact that ended the use of Barnwell as the nation's nuclear dumping ground," Timberlake wrote.
Though Haley, Timberlake and others are talking about opposing the measure, many who work in the community near the site have voiced their approval.
Barnwell County Councilman Charles Lowell Jowers Sr. and two other council members recently appeared in EnergySolutions commercials that support allowing a waste trade-off with states outside of the agreement.
"When it was in full operation, it was producing a lot of income for the state and community," Jowers said. "When they decided to shut it down, it stopped a lot of revenue. So I know a lot of people are afraid and talk about the tritium leak, but that hasn't proven to be a major problem, and EnergySolutions has it under control."
Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the paper since June 2013. He is originally from Vidalia, Ga., and a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Follow him on Twitter @DerrekAsberry.