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Former Governor On Holding the Department of Energy Accountable In Idaho (thebulletin.org)

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-sir-I-don't-like-it dept.

Lasrick writes: "I have been involved in government at the state and federal level for a long time and have had my share of political and legal run-ins with government agencies, but rarely in more than 50 years in politics have I encountered a government agency more committed to secrecy—perhaps even deception—than the US Department of Energy." So writes former governor of Idaho Cecil D. Andrus in this account of the U.S. government's plan to ship commercial spent fuel to the Idaho National Lab for what the feds call "research" but what the Andrus (and his predecessor) feel is an attempt to store high level nuclear waste in Idaho. According to him, despite Freedom of Information Act requests, the federal government is not sharing its plan for the waste once it gets to Idaho. This is a disturbing tale of government secrecy and stonewalling, and the problem with nuclear waste: no one wants it in their backyard.

3 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Re:If I were the DOE I'd do it to. by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 4, Informative
    They are only talking about a two shipments for research purposes. Not all the fuel from anywhere, and not any more shipments. They are clear in their intentions, but in the light of political hyperbole, I guess its OK to assume there is some big secret, after all, how can you prove there isn't some big secret. Ignorance and irrational fear drive too much bullshit these days. This fuel is absolutely nothing compared to the Cold War waste many of these facilities are dealing with already.

    One shipment would be used to research fuel recycling techniques. The other would be used to research what happens to the fuel when it is placed in storage casks for years or decades.

    INL is the perfect place to do this work.

    http://www.idahostatesman.com/...

  2. Re:Dirty weapons by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 4, Informative

    Over top of the Snake River Aquifer is to you a perfect place? Which is upstream of 3 different states and supplies water for significant percentage of the U.S. Agriculture.

    http://pubs.usgs.gov/ha/ha730/...

  3. Re:If I were the DOE I'd do it to. by imidan · · Score: 4, Informative

    One of the issues that we deal with in the Northwest is that the federal government, particularly the DOE, has generated (and shipped in) a lot of hazardous nuclear waste in the area over the years and has horribly mismanaged its disposition. The epic levels of contamination at the Hanford site are mind boggling--and right on the banks of the Columbia River. They buried toxic waste on the reservation at the Idaho National Lab that we now have no records of--we don't know what it was or exactly where it's buried.

    They keep promising to clean up their mess, but then they never seem to quite get around to fulfilling their promises. We end up having to sue them to get them to take action. Even then, they try to shirk as much responsibility as they can. There isn't a lot of trust of the DOE in this area of the country.