8 March 1999
The Dallas Morning NewsW. Texas loses nuclear tug of war
S. Carolina politicians help beat Pantex out of plutonium contract
By Scott Parks
Gather 'round the campfire, and I'll tell you a tale about an old-fashioned political whipping Texas is taking from South Carolina."It never would have happened if one of the George Bushes had been president," lamented Jerome Johnson, a longtime Amarillo lawyer and political operative.
Here's what happened:
A big hunk of pork - a thousand jobs and millions of dollars - was on the table in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Department of Energy needed to dispose of 50 tons of excess weapons-grade plutonium, a highly toxic and radioactive material that helps set off nuclear bombs. The plutonium, some in metal form and some mixed in soupy pools of radioactive waste, had built up during 50 years of atom-bomb production in the United States.
The United States decided that part of the plutonium should be destroyed through vitrification, an industrial process that encases hazardous waste in ceramic logs to render it harmless. The rest of it will be converted to powder and manufactured into nuclear reactor fuel to generate electricity.
The Savannah River Site, a cog in the nuclear weapons complex that sits on the South Carolina-Georgia border, has a long history of experimentation with vitrification technology. SRS was a shoo-in to get the vitrification part of the pie.
But Texas thought its own cog in the nuclear weapons complex, the Pantex plant near Amarillo, should get the 900 to 1,000 jobs that would be created by a new government-subsidized nuclear fuels plant.
Pantex has been an important part in the Texas Panhandle economy since it opened as a bomb factory during World War II. Workers there assembled nuclear weapons until the Cold War ended.
Today, an estimated 2,800 Pantex workers take apart old nuclear bombs and store the plutonium cores in bunkers on a 17,000-acre site surrounded by Panhandle farmland. Amarillo boosters thought it made good sense to take that plutonium and turn it into fuel right there at Pantex instead of hauling the cargo 1,200 miles to South Carolina.
So, they scraped up $600,000 to finance a campaign to persuade the Department of Energy to bring the fuel-fabrication plant to Pantex, which generates the Panhandle's largest industrial payroll.
Without the new jobs, forecasters said, Pantex would eventually fade away when there were no more bombs left to disassemble. In 1996, Amarillo began a two-year fight for new jobs.
First, the Texans argued the merits of their case. Second, they enlisted the political power of the Lone Star State's vaunted congressional delegation - 30 House members and two U.S. senators.
At first glance, it wasn't much of a match. Tiny South Carolina - 3.5 million people represented by six House members and two U.S. senators - could not outgun mighty Texas.
A closer look revealed otherwise.
U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee. U.S. Rep. Floyd Spence, R-S.C., chairs the House Armed Services Committee.
U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., is a staunch ally of President Clinton, whose administration controls the Department of Energy. U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., another Clinton friend, also supported SRS because much of its workforce lives in and around Augusta, Ga.
U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, a junior Republican who represents Amarillo, was not positioned to help much in the fight. Republican Texas Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Phil Gramm tried hard but failed to sway the Democrat administration.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has announced the preliminary decision that SRS will get all the new jobs. Mr. Richardson said the decision was based on SRS' long experience with manufacturing and handling plutonium.
The announcement made no mention of politics, but Amarillo backers smiled sadly.
"To be fair, we exerted political influence, too," Wales Madden Jr., an influential Panhandle Republican, told the Amarillo News. "We lost."
Experts say it will be at least five years before heavily armed government truck convoys or trains begin transferring plutonium from Texas to South Carolina.
In the past, environmental groups have protested the transportation of toxic, radioactive cargo by rail and truck. No one is talking yet about what routes may be taken.
Energy Department trucks or trains could haul the plutonium eastward to South Carolina through parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
A bill banning plutonium transportation through Georgia already has been filed in the Georgia legislature.
One ironic footnote: The Clinton administration rewarded South Carolina and SRS with the new plutonium missions during the height of the impeachment debate late last year.
The facility sits in U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham's district. He is one of the Republican House managers who led the call for Mr. Clinton's head.