Feds, Tribe To Resume Talks On N-Waste

Members of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and federal negotiators plan more talks later this month on an agreement to allow resumption of nuclear waste shipments across the Fort Hall Indian Reservation to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

Federal officials are slated to return to Fort Hall on Nov. 20. The next day, negotiators and Indians will tour INEL.

Brad Bugger, spokesman for the Department of Energy, said the agency and the Navy plan public hearings on nuclear waste shipments at Fort Hall sometime in November.

After Gov. Phil Batt signed an agreement Oct. 16 to allow the resumption of nuclear waste shipments to INEL, the Shoshone-Bannocks halted a Union Pacific Railroad shipment for about six hours.