Group Defends Batt’s N-Deal

A group of Idaho civic leaders is defending Gov. Phil Batt’s nuclear waste deal with the federal government.

Critics say Batt’s deal leaves Idaho wide open to become a dumping ground for the world’s nuclear waste.

But on Thursday, a coalition that includes the president of Hecla Mining Co. and a Benewah County Commissioner announced that it believes the governor’s agreement will protect Idaho in the long run.

The coalition, called “Get the Waste Out,” will take on a group called “Stop the Shipments.” Both groups claim they are trying to protect Idaho from nuclear waste while accusing the other of allowing more shipments into the state.

“Stop the Shipments” is urging Idahoans to vote for Proposition 3, which would cancel Gov. Batt’s deal with the federal government.

Batt’s agreement allows 1,133 new shipments of high-level radioactive waste to be dumped at the Idaho Nuclear Engineering Laboratory over the next 40 years in return for a federal court-enforced timetable for cleanup and removal of most of that waste by 2035.

“Get the Waste Out” contends Batt’s agreement is Idaho’s best chance for cleaning up nuclear waste in the long run.

“Because we were willing to work out an agreement we got all these guarantees,” said Lori Barnes, the North Idaho spokeswoman for the group.

She says the feds have agreed:

That Idaho will receive no more than one-twentieth of the nuclear fuels from foreign countries.

Not to transport commercial nuclear fuel to Idaho.

That liquid waste will be converted to a safer “dry” form before removing it from Idaho.

“No other state has an agreement with that much power,” Barnes said.

But “Stop the Shipments” contends the agreement is riddled with loopholes that will merely allow more waste into the state while never being able to hold the federal government to its cleanup timetable.

The federal government has admitted that the cleanup deadlines are “non-enforceable target dates,” said John Peavey, spokesman for “Stop the Shipments.”

“This deal guarantees nothing except that we will have 1,133 shipments of nuclear garbage from all over the world stored above our aquifer,” Peavey said Thursday.

Peavey also accused “Get the Waste Out” of merely representing big-business interest.

The coalition’s executive board includes Hecla Mining Co. President Art Brown of Coeur d’Alene and Buell Trucking Co. owner Jack Buell of St. Maries - who is also a county commissioner and chairman of the Idaho Forest Products Commission.

“Proposition 3 is the first time in history a state has been able to vote on whether its people want to be the dumping ground for nuclear waste,” Peavey said. “These large corporations don’t want the people to have that kind of power.”

But “Get the Waste Out” coalition joins a long list of powerful people backing up the governor. All four members of the Idaho congressional delegation backed up the coalition on Thursday. The 270-member Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry voted to actively support the governor’s agreement last week.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Winda Benedetti Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this report.