Criticism Of N-Waste Deal Persists Leroy, Stallings Agree Penalties Too Weak

Two new voices, a Republican and a supporter of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, have joined criticism of Idaho’s deal with the federal government on nuclear waste storage.

Former Republican Lt. Gov. David Leroy and former Democratic Congressman Richard Stallings - the only men to lead the federal government’s search for a long-term, temporary radioactive dump - both agree the penalties if the government violates provisions are not strong enough.

In the meantime, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes on Tuesday lifted their blockade of the first trainload of waste under Gov. Phil Batt’s agreement after six hours.

Batt agreed with the federal government to exchange further radioactive dumping in Idaho for promises that most waste will be removed in 40 years. The agreement limits new waste shipments and assures all waste - nearly 400 tons - will be removed by 2035.

“I think a weakness of this particular agreement is the penalties are arguably low and should have been indexed for inflation,” LeRoy said. Failure to remove waste on schedule carries a fine of $60,000 a day in 2035 - or $20 million a year.

Democratic critics claim that is peanuts to the federal government and a bargain to keep waste in Idaho compared to the cost of building new storage facilities at another dump site.

“It’s almost a joke,” Stallings said.

As the Bush administration’s nuclear waste negotiator, trying to cajole some local government to accept the temporary dump, Leroy was concerned that the agreement was not more specific and tightly scheduled on waste processing and removal.

“They should be suspicious of the federal government,” Leroy said. “And therefore when they deal with the federal government on nuclear waste issues, they should do so by testing the federal government’s performance early and often.”

Stallings, whose congressional district included the INEL and who was a big supporter of the facility as the Idaho Falls area mainly is, said the benefits to that region are outweighed by overall problems with the deal.

“It would settle some concerns for Idaho Falls. They’ve been nervous about their future there,” he said. But “for the rest of the state, this document is flawed.”

Shoshone-Bannock officials late Tuesday allowed the train carrying six loads of spent nuclear fuel from Navy submarines to reach the INEL. The subs were deactivated at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash.

Tribal leaders also said three more shipments - including the most imminent from the naval shipyard in Norfolk, Va. - would be permitted to pass through the reservation while talks with officials are under way.

Although federal officials expressed surprise that the tribes disrupted Tuesday’s shipment, Tribal Chairman Delbert Farmer said he had advised Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary by letter in both May and August about Shoshone-Bannock concerns over transportation of radioactive material across the Fort Hall Reservation.

Those letters went unanswered, Farmer said, until last Monday when the tribes received a letter from O’Leary saying the Energy Department would decide by next Wednesday whether to recognize the tribes’ authority as a regulatory agency.

But Energy spokeswoman Jane Brady said the department responded to the May request for a meeting on the issue and that tribal leaders met in mid-June in Washington with Assistant Energy Secretary Thomas Grumbly, O’Leary top lieutenant on nuclear waste.

The tribes expressed the same safety concerns four years ago when they went to court to halt further shipments of radioactive material to the INEL. Tribal leaders then ordered the reservation closed to a shipment of commercial waste from a decommissioned commercial power plant in Colorado and turned it back. That waste is specifically excluded from being dumped at INEL in Batt’s new agreement.