State Senators Threaten to Stop Payments

(AP) _ South Carolina lawmakers want to stoppaying the federal government if it doesn’t open a nuclear wastestorage site in Nevada. South Carolina legislators said Thursday they had to dosomething to put the federal government on notice that it can’tcollect cash for storage and not deliver a site. Every state senator signed onto a bill Wednesday to stop theutilities’ payments to the federal government and instead directthe money to a state nuclear waste account. The bill calls for themoney to go to the U.S. Department of Energy if a federal siteopens. Otherwise, the state would begin spending the money by 2012on its own system. Legislators delayed action on the bill Thursday after utilitiessaid they were worried about losing their licenses if they didn’tmake payments to the federal storage program. (Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)