U.S. Delays Spur German Firm to Ship Nuclear Rods to Britain

A German company, frustrated with U.S. delays in accepting spent nuclear fuel rods at the Savannah River Site weapons complex, has decided to ship the controversial cargo to Scotland for reprocessing.

The 52 fuel rods eventually will be put on the commercial market, an attorney for the Germans said Wednesday.

Berlin-based Hahn-Meitner Institute signed a contract with Britain to process the highly enriched uranium. It had waited months for clearance to send the fuel rods to the United States, Washington lawyer John Kyte told the Augusta Chronicle in Georgia.

The Energy Department’s unwillingness to proceed with the latest shipment to South Carolina left the Germans with no other choice, Kyte said.

The Clinton Administration has asked the 42 nations that received uranium for research to send the 24,000 spent fuel rods back to the United States. Officials fear the highly enriched uranium otherwise could end up in terrorists’ hands.

But South Carolina continues to fight in the courts, maintaining the U.S. government has no long-term plans for nuclear waste storage.

The decision by the German company not to send the material to the United States “is a disaster for U.S. non-proliferation policy,” said Alan Kuperman, a senior policy analyst with the Nuclear Control Institute in Washington.

“If the U.S. reneges on its commitment to take the fuel . . . the non-proliferation policy will come tumbling down like a house of cards,” Kuperman said.

Energy Department spokeswoman Jayne Brady acknowledged Wednesday that the agency has yet to schedule more shipments to Savannah River.

Lawyer Joseph Egan, whose firm represents European countries with the rods, said the department fears South Carolina might thwart the shipments.

In September, 1994, two shipments totaling 153 fuel rods waited off the North Carolina coast until the courts turned down South Carolina’s challenges.

A federal appeals court panel Tuesday reiterated a June decision allowing a shipment of 157 rods to be stored temporarily at Savannah River.

However, the state has asked the full U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case.