Attorney General Alan Wilson files for injunction to stop shutdown of MOX project in SC

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – May 25, 2018 - Attorney General Alan Wilson today filed a motion in federal court asking for an injunction to stop the U.S. Department of Energy from shutting down the mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, project being built at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

“MOX is another example of a long and tortured history of promises broken by the federal government,” Attorney General Wilson said.

According to a memorandum in support of a preliminary injunction, for more than 20 years, the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration have recommended that the U.S. dispose of its surplus weapons-grade plutonium by converting it into mixed oxide fuel to be used in commercial nuclear reactors. Congress then ordered and paid for the construction of the MOX Project at SRS.

But now, DOE Secretary Rick Perry is ordering the shutdown of MOX, without consulting with the Governor of South Carolina as required by law and without any analysis for the indefinite storage of defense plutonium at SRS, also required by law.

“Because of the serious consequences this action will have on the environment, economy, and safety of the State, her citizens, and the Nation’s public in general, and the affront to federal laws, South Carolina, by this motion, asks this Court to bar the Federal Defendants and those under their supervision from terminating or stopping work on the Project,” the filing says.

You can read the motion for preliminary injunction here.

You can read the full complaint here.