Idaho Republicans Begin Counterattack On N-Waste

Idaho Republicans have begun their election-year nuclear waste counteroffensive.

In Washington, D.C., Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, got a bill passed to open a temporary nuclear-waste storage site in Nevada. In the face of a promised veto, Craig’s Democratic rival Walt Minnick called the bill election-year posturing and began airing a TV commercial poking holes in it.

But Craig may have checkmated Minnick on the issue that got him to run in the first place.

Gov. Phil Batt is working on a campaign to defeat a voter initiative aimed at repealing his agreement to allow more shipments of spent nuclear fuel but requiring the federal government to remove wastes from Idaho within 40 years.

Batt said he has seen polls showing support for the measure falling as voters become more familiar with the issue. But a spokeswoman for Stop the Shipments, which carried out a successful petition drive placing the measure on the Nov. 5 ballot, said she has seen no evidence of a decline.

Between the U.S. Senate and initiative campaigns, Idaho residents may be bombarded with conflicting messages about nuclear waste storage at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. How it shakes out may decide not only who sits in the U.S. Senate but the future course of Batt’s administration, as well.

Craig’s bill, passed on a 63-37 vote Wednesday, requires Nevada to begin accepting about 55,000 to 75,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from more than 40 states on Nov. 30, 1999.

Included in that total is 70 metric tons of naval fuel stored at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory near Idaho Falls.

The bill next heads to the House, where U.S. Rep. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said it will pass easily when Congress reconvenes in early September.

Despite promises of a veto, Crapo and Craig said they believe President Clinton will be swayed by electionyear appeals from fellow Democrats in states eager to get rid of nuclear waste.

A separate measure added to the defense appropriation bill would require the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., to open in 1998.

Plutonium-contaminated materials, such as gloves, pipes and bottles, including some stored underground at the INEL, are destined for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.