Batt Resists Taking More Nuke Waste State’s Position Clarified In Letter To Clinton

Gov. Phil Batt sent President Bill Clinton a blunt message on Tuesday: Don’t plan on sending a lot of nuclear waste to Idaho for indefinite storage.

In a letter to the president, Batt said Idaho, a state which never has had a commercial nuclear reactor, for many years has stored commercial radioactive waste from other states.

As defense spending is dropping in Idaho, the state is being asked to take more waste.

“Secretary (Hazel) O’Leary evidently plans to send us vast quantities of different kinds of spent fuels,” Batt said.

“We cannot, and will not, accept this assignment.

“The promise that Idaho will not house a final depository over this aquifer must be kept,” he said.

In an earlier letter to the governor, the president said his administration “remains committed to developing a plan for permanent nuclear waste disposal.”

The president said Energy Secretary O’Leary is working “to create a strategy that is technically and economically feasible and that will ultimately lead to the safe and permanent disposal of high-level waste.”

Batt said he was happy to see that Clinton recognizes the importance of dealing with nuclear waste.

“I have serious doubts that Congress will ever muster the collective political courage to secure adequate permanent repositories,” Batt told Clinton.

He said the state has been forced to store a large amount of spent nuclear fuel from the military, and despite many promises, there is no sign it will be moved from Idaho.

He said if the president takes an active interest in the problem, that could lead to “rational, definitive planning and execution of final longterm storage of nuclear waste.”