Andrus Blasted For Backing Nuke Deal Peavey Says Former Governor Working For Firm That Runs Inel

A one-time ally of Cecil Andrus during his battle to halt radioactive dumping in Idaho shot back at the former Democratic governor on Thursday for endorsing Republic Gov. Phil Batt’s nuclear waste deal with the U.S. government.

Former state Sen. John Peavey of Carey contended Andrus and former GOP Sen. James McClure failed to address the Batt agreement’s real problems when they endorsed it because it promotes cleaning up radioactive waste at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

“It’s great to have their help in moving that effort to the federal government’s front burner after all this time,” Peavey said. “However, their press releases doesn’t address the need to stop the shipment of the 1,133 additional loads of radioactive waste that this new deal is bringing into Idaho.”

Peavey also raised questions about Andrus’ motive, saying that Andrus is now working for Lockheed Martin, whose subsidiary runs INEL for the government. The Batt deal benefits Lockheed by keeping cash flowing to INEL to implement the agreement.

He contended Lockheed Martin should open its books to show how much the company was spending to defend the agreement. A year ago, McClure was reportedly being paid $250 an hour for his work and Andrus was getting $200 an hour.

Peavey is one of the leaders of the initiative drive to put the agreement to a voter referendum in November.

Batt agreed to the additional shipments in return for promises and a court-enforceable timetable for cleaning up and eventually removing the most waste from the INEL by 2035. He argued that deal provides more assurance than Idaho has ever had that cleanup will occur and that no commercial nuclear waste will be dumped in the state.

Andrus and McClure acknowledged that Batt’s deal was not perfect. But they maintained the agreement puts Idaho on the right course relocating all nuclear waste away from the major underground water source it is stored above now.

Peavey conceded that existing waste stored at INEL must be moved off the aquifer, but he said allowing over 1,000 more shipments to be dumped on the eastern Idaho desert was grossly irresponsible.

As other deal critics have, he contended the agreement was not enforceable even though it is part of a federal court order and leaves adjudication of its provisions to U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge.

Peavey quoted a recent federal publication as saying the agreement’s deadlines for processing and removing waste are “non-enforceable target dates.” But the agreement as adopted by Lodge specifically states that Energy Department waste shipments will cease if any part of the cleanup timetable is missed.

Failure to comply with the timetable would not, however, affect continued waste shipments from the nuclear Navy, which account for about half of the new waste being allowed into INEL. Batt argued that Congress would force Navy shipments to continue as it was about to do when he was negotiating the agreement last summer.

Andrus and McClure sided with Peavey’s declaration that no more waste should be shipped into Idaho. But they argued that the situation had moved beyond that stage and the issue was now whether dumping at INEL would be held to the 1,133 shipments Batt accepted for cleanup considerations or whether even more would be shipped in with no specific commitment for any cleanup.

But Peavey was uncompromising.

“All this talk about cleanup is nothing more than a front to cover up the fact that the Feds are shipping more waste and dumping it on top of Idaho’s aquifer,” he declared. “None of it ever leaves, and we get more waste.”