Idaho ex-governors say U.S. wants state
to be nuclear waste dump
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[March 06, 2015]
By Laura Zuckerman
SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Former Idaho
Governors Cecil Andrus and Phil Batt threatened on Thursday to sue the
U.S. Energy Department to prevent what they said was its efforts to turn
the state into "a nuclear waste dumping ground."
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In a letter notifying the Energy Department of a possible lawsuit,
the pair accused it of violating a federal environmental law by
planning to ship spent nuclear fuel from elsewhere for study at the
Idaho National Laboratory, the department's flagship nuclear
research facility.
A 1995 agreement hammered out between Idaho and the Energy
Department bans shipments of commercial spent nuclear fuel. The deal
stemmed from previous lawsuits by Andrus, a Democrat, and Batt, a
Republican, that charged the U.S. government with seeking to turn
the sprawling lab complex near Idaho Falls into a de facto dumping
ground for radioactive waste.
In January, Idaho's current governor, C.L. "Butch" Otter, and state
Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, both Republicans, expressed
conditional support for the shipment of some spent nuclear fuel to
the lab for a research program, which would raise the facility's
profile and boost the eastern part of the state's economy.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Mar/06/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png) That support was contingent on the Energy Department complying with
the 1995 accord, which had ordered it to remove from the state
nuclear waste materials stored at Idaho National Lab to reduce
impacts on the Snake River Plain aquifer, which supplies drinking
water to tens of thousands of Idaho residents.
In Thursday's letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Andrus and
Batt alleged the agency had violated a federal law that requires
detailed analyses of the environmental impact of activities proposed
by the U.S. government. They said it had failed to disclose the
scope of its plans for shipping spent nuclear fuel to the state.
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"It is vital that the citizens of Idaho be fully informed before the
federal government again tries to turn Idaho into a nuclear waste
dumping ground," the former governors said.
Otter said Andrus and Batt wrongly wished to clean up Idaho National
Lab, only to shut it down.
"Continuing the valuable research at the lab with its world-class
facilities and people is the future and one we should all work
towards," Otter said in a statement.
The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Mohammad
Zargham)
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