Andrus: Batt Opening Doors To Nuclear Waste

Idaho is again on track to be an unwilling repository for federal nuclear waste, former Gov. Cecil Andrus warns.

Gov. Phil Batt agreed Thursday to allow eight new shipments of Navy nuclear waste, a move Andrus sees as a “deeply disappointing” setback of his crusade to keep radioactive waste out of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

Andrus said the pressure he has been exerting for years on the federal government to solve its nuclear waste problems is off again.

“I’m afraid that (the federal government) has gone back to business as usual, that Idaho becomes the de facto repository.”

The Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, the eastern Idaho nuclear and research facility, is one of five Department of Energy sites under consideration by the department for 5,100 shipments of spent fuel from Navy nuclear-powered ships. They would be moved by rail from various Navy yards between now and 2035.

Batt said he had little choice but to take the shipments, which could begin within six weeks. He said the Navy would have prevailed in court on grounds of national security.

The Navy has publicly agreed it does not believe Idaho should be a permanent repository for the highly radioactive spent fuel, Batt said.

“I believe that gaining the cooperation of the Navy is the first step in opening a permanent repository for spent fuel outside of Idaho,” he said.Other facilities are available in and near the shipyard, Andrus contends, but Sen. John Warner, R-Va., does not want the waste there.

Andrus said he has no intention of continually second-guessing Batt’s actions, but said, “What they’re promising Governor Batt is what they promised Idaho 30 years ago. They’ve never lived up to it.”