Batt’s N-Waste Plan Gains Support Some Key Senators Back Off Plans For Mandatory Dumping In Idaho

Senate supporters of the nuclear Navy on Tuesday dropped their proposal to force resumption of radioactive dumping in Idaho in the wake of Gov. Phil Batt’s offer to voluntarily resume limited dumping in return for eventual removal of all waste from the state.

Instead, Republican Sens. Larry Craig and Dirk Kempthorne won support of key Republicans and Nebraska Democrat James Exon - who had been pushing a dumping mandate - for a resolution essentially endorsing the negotiations between Batt and the Clinton administration.

The resolution, to be incorporated into legislation setting out a general framework for defense spending, would require Defense Secretary William Perry to report back to Congress next week on the status of the talks.

Batt has given the administration until noon Friday to accept or reject his offer to allow 968 more shipments of high-level radioactive waste into the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory over the next four decades in exchange for all waste - new and old - to be removed from INEL by 2036.

The deal allows more new waste than polls indicate most Idaho voters would accept but only half what the Energy Department wants to dump at INEL and none of the commercial waste the department must assume responsibility for in 1998.

Batt offered the deal under the growing pressure that Congress would pass an amendment like Exon’s authorizing the Navy to resume dumping waste at the INEL next month so it can keep its nuclear warships at sea in support of the nation’s security.

But even with Exon backing off, the prospect of a congressional mandate remains should Batt’s deal be rejected as some expect.

The House is scheduled to vote later this week to add to its version of the defense budget for the coming year legislation authorizing the Navy to resume shipping waste to the INEL on Oct. 1.

That provision could be incorporated into the final defense budget should Batt’s deal fall through or the federal courts refuse to modify the existing court ban on new waste shipments to Idaho. U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge could rule in the next few weeks on the state’s claim that more waste cannot be safely dumped at the INEL, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments in two weeks on the Navy’s request to make at least 24 waste shipments right away.

Batt concedes his deal may not be acceptable to many of his constituents, but he maintains that it at least includes court-enforced milestones that must be met on the way to removal of all waste in 40 years. And the governor argues that his proposal would require the government to make the kind of investment in INEL that will help shift its focus from waste management back to research and development so it remains a major economic force in the state.