THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280428
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WILMINGTON LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Ships carrying nuclear waste from Europe will remain several miles offshore here while South Carolina challenges the U.S. Energy Department's right to bring the waste ashore, officials said Tuesday.
``Secretary Hazel O'Leary, as a courtesy to the state, has for a short time delayed delivery,'' said DOE spokeswoman Jayne Brady.
South Carolina wants a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision allowing the spent nuclear fuel rods into the United States, contending that the federal government misled the state.
State Attorney General Travis Medlock on Tuesday said papers have been sent to the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case there if the 4th Circuit rejects the state's appeal of the federal court's decision.
``We will. . . use all means at our disposal to keep South Carolina from becoming the dumping ground for the world,'' Medlock said.
The state contends that the Energy Department used negotiations to delay a lawsuit, then allowed the ships to sail. As a result, the department now improperly claims the matter is an emergency, the appeal says.
The Energy Department says accepting the waste is crucial to keeping control of the world's weapons-grade uranium. The state says a more detailed environmental study should be conducted, which could take two years to complete.
Last week, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a lower court ruling blocking the shipment.
The ships late Tuesday afternoon were three to five miles off the North Carolina coast, said Ron Shackelford, executive director of a Wilmington-based environmental group, the Coastal Alliance for a Safe Environment.
``They did come in closer overnight,'' he said. ``We are suggesting rather directly that the DOE move them to international waters. It's the safest thing they could do. They're sitting in the mouth of Cape Fear River, which is a very busy shipping channel.''
KEYWORDS: NUCLEAR WASTE by CNB