Craig Says Idaho Will Be Forced To Accept N-Waste

Despite overwhelming public opposition, Republican Sen. Larry Craig on Friday said more nuclear waste will be dumped at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. The only question is what the state will get in return.

“I don’t know that there’s any way to stop it,” Craig said after the taping of KTVB-TV’s “Viewpoint” program.

Congress will not turn its back on the Navy’s claim that national security is jeopardized if waste from its nuclear warships is not dumped at the INEL, Craig said during the half-hour public affairs show.

That leaves Gov. Phil Batt with little choice but to try to cut his own deal for an enforceable deadline for removing any new waste, continued cleanup of existing waste sites and the protection of employment and economic opportunities at the INEL.

Those negotiations resume Wednesday in Salt Lake City.

Craig conceded there are no ironclad guarantees that any promises Batt wrings from top Energy Department and Navy brass will not be broken - as the government has repeatedly done in the past. But he was optimistic because any deal would become part of a court order in the existing legal battle the state is waging against new waste shipments, and that order is a “stronger enforcement process” than a mere promise.

“It’s the best you can get,” Craig said, “and it’s a lot better than any we’ve ever had” even though it is a federal court order the Congress is on the verge of ignoring right now at the behest of the Navy.

The senator, who is up for re-election next year, said that while he objects to dumping any new commercial nuclear waste at INEL, he would support whatever agreement the governor can reach - even if it includes precedent-setting provisions for dumping commercial as well as naval waste.

“In all fairness, the governor is the one that is negotiating this,” Craig said. “He’s got a good team of people put together, and what he can come up with I’ll back.”

The government wants to dump another 1,940 shipments - 165 tons - of high-level nuclear waste at the INEL during the next 40 years. About 600 of those shipments would come from the nuclear warships that are either being refueled or deactivated.

The Energy Department already has rejected a proposal under which the state would have accepted the shipments from the Navy and the department would have to find someplace else to dump the other 1,300.

Energy Undersecretary Thomas Grumbley reportedly refuses to accept any deal that does not include waste for which the department is responsible. A congressional mandate requires the Energy Department to take over all commercial nuclear waste in 1998.

Recognizing the fix he is in, Batt has spent the past six weeks trying to get the public used to the idea that more waste is on the way. Polls show more than 80 percent of Idaho residents oppose resumed dumping and that the state should try to get something in return.

“We understand what Idahoans want, and I appreciate that,” Craig said, but closing the borders is out of the question.

“I’m confident that if Idaho appears in any way to block access to that in any permanent basis, a federal judge and the United States Congress will say, ‘I’m sorry, Idaho. Years ago you accepted this with an open arm. Now you cannot block us from an issue of national security and not allow us to refuel our nuclear Navy and keep it at sea in defense of this country.”