COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) — South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced May 22 that he plans to sue the United States, the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Nuclear Security Administration, and their respective officers in their official capacities over allegations the U.S. plans to terminate the MOX (Mixed Oxide) Project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The MOX plant was created to develop fuel for nuclear reactors by converting weapons-grade plutonium. Wilson drafted a letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry to notify him of the plan to file the lawsuit.
“South Carolina is disappointed that DOE continues to move forward on a path that fails to comply with governing law and fails to honor the commitments made to the State,” Wilson said in his letter. “Instead, DOE has chosen a path that would render South Carolina the nation’s ‘dumping ground’ for plutonium.”
In 2003, the DOE agreed to remove or recycle 1 ton of plutonium from the Savannah River Site by Jan. 1 2016. Wilson claims, however, that the DOE has failed to reach this goal.