Archives
Buy photos
Contact the Globe
Send us feedback
Globe services
Subscriber services
Search the Globe

Electronic edition
Headlines e-mail
Low-graphics version
Most e-mailed articles
Front page [JPG]   [PDF]
Today's paper A to Z

  David Shribman

Special Reports
    Beyond the Big Dig
    Globe 100

Spotlight investigations
    Scandal in the church

Health | Science (Tue)
    Judy Foreman
    Chet Raymo
Food (Wed)
    Recipes
Calendar (Thur)
Life at Home (Thur)

City Weekly
Globe South
Globe West
Globe North
Globe NorthWest

Automotive
Books
Education
Focus
Magazine
Real Estate
Travel

Columns
Comics
Crossword
Horoscopes
Death Notices
Lottery
Obituaries
Personals
TV listings

Cars, trucks, SUVs
Jobs (BostonWorks)
MarketBasket
Real Estate

S.C. closes borders to plutonium

By Jacob Jordan, Associated Press, 6/15/2002

OLUMBIA, S.C. - Governor Jim Hodges ordered state troopers and other authorities yesterday to stop federal shipments of plutonium that could begin arriving in South Carolina from Colorado as early as this weekend.

''I order that the transportation of plutonium on South Carolina roads and highways is prohibited,'' Hodges said. ''I order that any persons transporting plutonium shall not enter the state of South Carolina.''

Hodges, who has vehemently opposed the shipments, read a statement declaring a state of emergency, but refused to answer questions about specific plans for roadblocks or other barricades at South Carolina's Savannah River Site, a nuclear weapons complex near Aiken.

On Thursday, a federal judge refused to block the shipments of weapons-grade plutonium. Hodges appealed the ruling and asked for a delay until the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals could hear the case.

The US Energy Department plans to move the material from the Rocky Flats weapons installation in Colorado, which is being cleaned up and closed, to the Savannah River Site, where the material would be converted into nuclear reactor fuel over the next two decades.

But Hodges has said he fears that the government will leave the plutonium in South Carolina permanently, making the state a target for terrorists.

''The Department of Energy has broken promises, offered no assurances, and left few options,'' Hodges said. ''Once plutonium arrives, it will never leave. They want South Carolina to quietly become the nation's plutonium dumping ground.''

The shipments could legally begin as early as this weekend, but US Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr. said that Energy Department officials told him they would not start until after June 22.

A message left for an Energy Department spokesman was not returned yesterday afternoon.

This story ran on page A5 of the Boston Globe on 6/15/2002.
Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.