The two met Tuesday in Washington for what the governor termed "a good, fruitful discussion" on the federal agency's plans to treat the radioactive metal at the nuclear-weapons site.

Both sides agreed to try to resolve the dispute, which began last summer, within 30 days, Mr. Hodges said.

"We're making some progress, but we're not there yet," the governor said. "The next month or so will tell the tale."

An Energy Department spokesman also said the meeting was constructive.

"We did make progress, and we've agreed to a timetable to dot all the i's and cross all the t's so we can move forward," Joe Davis said.

Mr. Hodges said he still doesn't have what he wants: a written document spelling out the federal government's timetable for treating plutonium at SRS and shipping it out of South Carolina.

"I again made it very clear to the secretary that South Carolina must have a definitive plan for when the plutonium will come to the state, how it will be treated and when it will leave," Mr. Hodges said.

"We do not have that yet, but there were some things that came up in discussion that I think showed a little movement."

The plutonium debate reached a fever pitch in August, when Mr. Hodges threatened to lie in the road to block shipments of plutonium to SRS.

At the time, reports indicated that the Energy Department might abandon a plan to build a mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel plant at SRS.

The plant would convert surplus plutonium from nuclear weapons into fuel for nuclear-power plants. SRS is expected to receive more than 30 tons of plutonium from sites across the country in order to make the fuel.

Mr. Hodges and other South Carolina elected officials feared SRS would become a permanent storage site for the nation's plutonium if it accepted the metal and the MOX plans subsequently were canceled.

The Bush administration since has restated support for the MOX plan. The president's 2003 budget proposal includes more than $300 million for efforts to dispose of surplus plutonium.

Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or bhaddock@augustachronicle.com.