N-Waste Dumping Pact Near How To Enforce Removal Date Is Final Barrier, Governor Says
Gov. Phil Batt said on Thursday that the state is very close to finalizing an agreement with the federal government that would permit resumption of nuclear dumping in Idaho in exchange for enforceable guarantees that all high-level radioactive waste will eventually be removed.
“I think we’re about to break through the final barrier - that’s the enforcement provision,” the governor said following a ceremonial proclamation signing in his office. “I’m anticipating we will soon complete a deal.”
Batt declined to provide any specifics beyond saying that the tentative deal, if finalized, would call for more than 1,000 radioactive shipments to be dumped at the INEL over the next 40 years.
That is slightly higher than the 963 shipments Batt offered to take in August when he made what he called his best final offer to settle the long-running controversy out of court.
But he said the deal would still preclude any shipments of spent nuclear fuel from the nowdismantled Fort St. Vrain commercial power plant in Colorado.
The agreement on the number of shipments, still barely half of those the Energy Department originally wanted to dump at INEL, was reportedly reached some time ago with the remaining stumbling block being the mechanism to enforce the guarantee that all high-level waste - new and old - and half the low-level waste would be moved out of Idaho by 2036. The rest of the low-level waste is covered by a 1991 agreement reached with the government by former Gov. Cecil Andrus.
Batt was not specific about how a final agreement might modify his proposed enforcement scheme that called for the government to pay daily fines of $100,000, adjusted for inflation, until all waste remaining in the state after the end of 2035 was removed. And the deadline would be enforceable by a federal judge, which would subject federal officials to contempt of court citations - and possibly jail - if it was missed.
But the governor has been adamant about getting an enforceable guarantee as part of any deal following a generation of broken federal promises and missed deadlines for waste removal from INEL.
The possibility that a settlement was near came as attorneys prepared for next Thursday’s federal court argument on the state’s claim that the government used faulty procedures to conclude that more waste could be safely dumped at INEL, where 261 tons of highly radioactive material is already stored.
The governor said a deal could be announced before that hearing takes place.
The nuclear Navy has been pressing on both the legal and congressional fronts for authority to immediately resume dumping waste from its warships, claiming that the 28-month-old federal court ban on shipments is seriously undermining national security.
It suffered a setback on the judicial front last week when an appellate court refused to lift the ban, and state officials are optimistic that U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge will side with them after next week’s hearing and keep the ban in place.
And while the Navy has built significant support in Congress for legislative relief from the shipment ban, Republican Congressman Helen Chenoweth of Idaho said earlier Thursday that the congressional move could be derailed as well.
Chenoweth said during an appearance on KIDO radio in Boise that she was working with Republican Congressman Michael Crapo, whose district includes the INEL, to block further consideration of a rider to the defense budget that would authorize immediate resumption of Navy dumping.
Even so, Batt concedes that the state really has no chance to do anything more than delay the inevitable resumption of waste shipments.
“We’re vulnerable to importation of nuclear waste sometime if we don’t get an agreement that protects us, and this agreement does,” he said.