Sununu Seeks Place to Put Rocky Flats Nuclear Waste

President Bush’s chief of staff urged the governors of seven states today to accept radioactive waste from the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in order to avert a possible shutdown of the plant next year, officials said.

The facility near Denver is the nation’s only source of plutonium triggers used in nuclear warheads. Colorado Gov. Roy Romer has said that he will not allow the plant to continue operating if alternative sites are not found to store the waste by next March.

Secretary of Energy James D. Watkins has said that closure of Rocky Flats would amount to unilateral nuclear disarmament, since the triggers cannot be made elsewhere.

Sununu Calls Governors

John H. Sununu, the White House chief of staff, was telephoning the governors of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington today to ask for their help and to underscore the importance of keeping Rocky Flats open, said Phil Keif, an Energy Department spokesman.

“He’ll tell them ‘this is a critical thing, we hope you’ll help,’ ” Keif said.

The seven states chosen as possible alternative sites for the Rocky Flats waste were selected because they already host Energy Department nuclear facilities, Keif said.

Some of these states, including Washington, Nevada, New Mexico and Idaho, already have said publicly that they will not agree to take any Rocky Flats waste, even temporarily.

The waste is contaminated with plutonium, which remains radioactive for about 240,000 years.