South Carolina seeks $100 million from U.S. over plutonium removal
Source: Reuters
#POLITICS AUGUST 8, 2017 / 3:50 PM / 18 HOURS AGO
South Carolina seeks $100 million from U.S. over plutonium removal
Harriet McLeod
3 MIN READ
CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - South Carolina is suing the U.S. government to recover $100 million in fines it says the Department of Energy owes the state for failing to remove one metric ton of plutonium stored there, state Attorney General Alan Wilson said on Tuesday.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday, is the state's largest case ever against the U.S. government, Wilson said in a news release.
Congress approved fines of $1 million per day for the first 100 days of each year through 2021, beginning last year, if the weapons-grade plutonium was not removed from the Savannah River Site at the state's border with Georgia, the attorney general's office said.
The lawsuit seeks money owed this year. The state is still working on a claim for 2016 fines as well, Wilson said.
The federal government cannot break its obligations and "leave South Carolina as the permanent dumping ground for weapons-grade plutonium," Wilson, a Republican, said in the complaint.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-south-carolina-plutonium-idUSKBN1AO29N
