Batt Picks Engineer For Inel Oversight

Republican Gov. Phil Batt has appointed an Idaho Falls engineer to head the state’s Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Oversight Program, but two Democratic lawmakers question the move.

Robert Ferguson has been senior engineer at Science Applications International Corp. since 1993. He was selected Friday to succeed Steve Hill, who contributed $500 to the gubernatorial campaign of Batt’s Democratic opponent in last year’s election, Larry EchoHawk.

Batt asked for Hill’s resignation and it was submitted on Thursday.

Ferguson has been a member of the team preparing the environmental impact statement for U.S. Department of Energy handling of radioactive waste at the INEL. Since 1981 he also has been vice president of LRS Consultants Inc., working with nuclear utility companies to improve their operating safety.

But in light of Batt’s Jan. 12 decision to allow eight additional shipments of spent Navy reactor fuel into Idaho under the provisions of a 1993 federal court agreement, two Democratic state senators were skeptical about Ferguson’s connections with the INEL.

“I thought the INEL Oversight Program was designed to be the watchdog for the state of Idaho, not a political position,” Sen. Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, said.

Sen. Mary Lou Reed, D-Coeur d’Alene, hinted that Batt may be preparing for a possible finding in the environmental impact statement that Idaho faces no danger if it accepts even more nuclear waste for storage at the INEL.