Stay firm on nuclear waste

If the federal government isn't going to open Yucca Mountain, Nev., to radioactive waste, then South Carolina wants its money back. That was the message Gov.-elect Nikki Haley delivered to President Barack Obama on Thursday.

If only it were that simple.

South Carolinians have contributed more than $1 billion to the federal fund to develop Yucca Mountain. They deserve a return on that investment. The federal government must follow through on its obligation to complete the federal nuclear waste disposal site.

Having a secure, central location for waste disposal is especially important for South Carolina because of the presence of huge quantities of high-level radioactive waste at Savannah River Site. Currently, 37 million gallons of waste from the Cold War era are being slowly processed for storage into metal canisters.

There are already 3,000 canisters in two storage buildings at SRS, and a third building is under construction. Eventually, SRS expects to have 7,000 canisters on site. Because Yucca has been derailed, a fourth storage building may have to be built.

No one should question the danger of SRS becoming the long-term storage site for much of the nation's highly radioactive defense waste -- a role long envisioned for Yucca.

The federal government also is building a facility at SRS to turn excess weapons-grade plutonium, as well as spent fuel from research reactors, into fuel that can be used by commercial reactors. That reprocessing -- part of a nuclear non-proliferation agreement with Russia -- will produce additional waste that should go to Yucca Mountain.

The geological storage site in a remote area of Nevada would additionally serve 73 commercial nuclear reactors, where waste is being stored on site awaiting Yucca's completion.

So far, about $9 billion has been spent since 1987 preparing for disposal in the interior of Yucca Mountain.

Congress has repeatedly taken action in support of a central, safe geological repository, and in support of Yucca as the best place for it. But President Obama has chosen to play politics with that long-standing and vital plan.

He terminated the Yucca project earlier this year, presumably to help Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid win a tough re-election race in Nevada.

Mrs. Haley reports that the president reiterated his intention of holding to that position during a brief conversation at a meeting in Washington. Mrs. Haley and other governors-elect were there to meet with the president.

South Carolina, Aiken County and Washington state have challenged the administration's ability to close Yucca in the face of previous congressional action.

South Carolina also is challenging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's hatchet work on the administration's behalf. The NRC has ordered the project abandoned, despite the state's pending lawsuit. The NRC is led by Gregory Jaczko, a former Reid staffer whom the president named to head the commission.

Meanwhile, the administration touts an expansion of commercial nuclear-energy capacity as it terminates the site long-planned for disposal of its dangerous byproducts. So much for a coherent, comprehensive energy policy.

The Yucca project has largely been funded by the nuclear power industry through its ratepayers. That fund includes a large contribution from South Carolina, as Mrs. Haley observed.

But South Carolina doesn't need a refund. It needs a permanent disposal site for the high-level nuclear defense and commercial waste. So does the nation.

As governor, Mrs. Haley should hold the course taken by her predecessors, Republican and Democrat.

South Carolina should not allow SRS to become a permanent nuclear waste disposal site by default.