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Former Idaho governors blast Otter's nuclear waste deal

Phil Batt and Cecil Andrus say Gov. Otter is turning Idaho into a nuclear waste repository.
Former Idaho Govs. Phil Batt and Cecil Andrus spoke with the media Thursday.

BOISE -- Two former Idaho governors are furious and say their work keeping nuclear waste out of Idaho could be erased by a recent deal backed by Gov. Butch Otter.

Cecil Andrus and Phil Batt were so upset over the recent deal with the Department of Energy that they held a press conference Thursday morning.

They say the deal goes against an agreement made back in 1995, concerning spent nuclear waste at the Idaho National Laboratory.

"It's a travesty as to what has taken place under their watch," said Andrus.

Back in 1995, the spent nuclear fuel coming in to the Idaho National Laboratory was huge concern for many and a highly debated issue that crossed party lines.

It was that year that former Gov. Cecil Andrus' work to keep the waste out came together in an agreement drafted by then Gov. Phil Batt, and passed by voters.

The one-of-a-kind deal between Idaho and several federal agencies said commercial nuclear waste could not be shipped into the Idaho National Laboratory.

"That agreement was designed specifically to keep nuclear waste from coming in to Idaho, they want to bring more in, it's a total revocation of what we were trying to do in this agreement," said Andrus.

Batt and Andrus were emotional about the letter, sent last week from Gov. Otter and Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden to the Department of Energy. It expressed support for a new research project that would bring two shipments of spent fuel rods into Idaho.

"It's going to be that they've created a Yucca Mountain in Idaho. That the two of them have done to this state what every other state has opposed and what we have opposed to this date," said Batt.

Andrus and Batt fear the deal would open the door for more waste to be brought in, and say it could hurt the Snake River Aquifer.

But Gov. Otter disagrees, and says there would be no negative impact to the environment.

"I think the positive impact of that decision is that it could be upwards of $20 million a year for the next five years for the lab," said Otter.

But Andrus and Batt had another complaint, that they say they were not notified of the decision.

Otter said he thought they'd been told, and if not, it was an honest oversight.

"My fault, if we didn't reach out to them and let them know before we sent the letter then guilty, I am guilty, but I felt that we had," said Otter.

Wasden says there's another important document involved in the discussion -- a memorandum from 2011 acknowledging that the INL was not in compliance with the 1995 agreement.

Wasden says the deal now under fire will only happen if the INL cleans up waste materials already at the facility.

"I'm very committed to maintaining the integrity of the '95 agreement, holding their feet to the fire and saying, 'you have to comply with that '95 agreement, you have to clean up the stuff you agreed to clean up,'" said Wasden.

As for the proposed deal, Wasden says it would involve two shipments, each totaling about 110 pounds of spent fuel rods.

Those roads are the core from a reactor that generates electricity with compounds still inside.

Wasden says if the Department of Energy comes up with a clean up plan, the shipments would in be June of this year and January of next year.

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