Nuclear-fuel proposal gains traction in Idaho

BOISE — In 1995, Idaho signed an agreement with the federal government to try to bar the Department of Energy from shipping any more nuclear waste to the state.

Twelve years later, Idaho lawmakers are throwing their support behind a Bush administration proposal touted as a means to safely expand nuclear energy in the United States, despite opposition from a watchdog group that contends it would break the 1995 settlement.

The Bush administration proposal would reverse the country's long-held policy banning the reuse of spent nuclear fuel, which currently is stored at nuclear power plants around the country. The strategy envisions that the United States and other nuclear powers would sell reactors and fuel to developing countries to improve their energy supplies, with the fuel returning for reprocessing.

Proponents say the program will allow countries to increasingly rely on nuclear energy while reducing the amount of waste generated by nuclear power plants. At the same time, rogue nations and terrorists could be denied access to plutonium for nuclear weapons.

Critics have argued that resuming fuel preprocessing, which was abandoned in the 1970s for proliferation reasons, could make it even easier for enemy states to build weapons.

The initiative hasn't garnered much attention outside of energy circles. Earlier this year, the Energy Department awarded more than $10 million to 11 companies or economic development groups to examine the potential for fuel recycling facilities in their areas.

They include a proposal at Idaho National Laboratory and another by a Utah company seeking to do business in Atomic City, just outside the INL property.

The 1995 settlement agreement was born out of Idaho residents' concerns their state would become a national nuclear waste dump, and any proposal to bring spent fuel to Idaho violates that agreement, said Jeremy Maxand, executive director of the Snake River Alliance.

The Energy Department has challenged in court the validity of some parts of the 1995 agreement.

"We have a legacy of contamination at Idaho National Laboratory that we still have to clean up," Maxand said.

Lou Riepl, INL's regional manager of communications and public affairs, said the measure does not suggest that the settlement agreement has to be set aside.

"This is a research initiative," he said, adding that to imply anything else is inappropriate.