June 07, 2000
Las Vegas Sun

SC Clear To Join Nuke Waste Compact

ASSOCIATED PRESS COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolina no longer will be the final resting place for most of the nation's low-level nuclear waste, Gov. Jim Hodges said Wednesday as he signed legislation to join New Jersey and Connecticut in a disposal agreement.

The first-term Democrat had pledged to end what he said was the state's reputation as the "nation's nuclear dumping ground."

A landfill in Barnwell County now takes nuclear waste from throughout the nation.

South Carolina withdrew from the Southeast Compact Commission in 1995 after then-Gov. David Beasley said he was fed up with North Carolina's failure to build a replacement for the Barnwell landfill. South Carolina reopened Barnwell to all other states, intending to use the increased revenue for education, but the amount of money never reached projections.

New Jersey and Connecticut are expected to grant South Carolina's petition to join the Atlantic Compact, said John Clark, a senior aide to Hodges. The state would be admitted July 1.

By joining the compact, South Carolina can accept shipments from only those two states also in the compact.

With about 3 million cubic feet of storage remaining, state officials say the Barnwell site would fill in eight to 10 years if waste kept coming at current rates.

The new law limits New Jersey's and Connecticut's disposal space to a total of 800,000 cubic feet to ensure enough space for waste generated when South Carolina's nuclear power plants are decommissioned in about 30 years.

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