The U.S. Department of Energy has given Idaho a two-month deadline to waive parts of a 1995 agreement to clean up nuclear waste at a federal facility in southeast Idaho or lose doing important research work on spent nuclear fuel, says Idaho Department of Commerce Director Jeff Sayer. AP reporter Keith Ridler writes that in a letter to Gov. Butch Otter dated Monday, Sayer said the federal agency plans to send a 2016 shipment elsewhere if it's not allowed into the Idaho National Laboratory, and Idaho is in danger of losing the research work that would bring millions of dollars to the state. "What was an earlier speculation is now a definitive reality," Sayer wrote.

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in a letter to Otter dated Dec. 16 said funding for the research associated with the nuclear waste could bring up to $20 million annually through the end of the decade. However, the Department of Energy is in violation in two areas of a 1995 agreement hammered out with Idaho officials who were concerned the 890-square-mile federal site was being turned into a nuclear waste dump. Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has told federal officials that the state won't accept the spent fuel rods until the Department of Energy shows it can successfully process the liquid waste, and he objected to Sayer’s characterization of his stand in the letter; you can read Ridler’s full report here.