OPINION: Is Idaho getting ready to buy a nuclear waste pig in a poke?
Back in the early 1990s, Idaho’s former Attorney General and Lt. Governor, Dave Leroy, was a very lonely nuclear waste salesman. During his three years (1990-93) as United States Nuclear Waste Negotiator, he wandered the country and beyond, trying to find some state, tribal or territorial government willing to become the nation’s nuclear waste repository. He was treated as a pariah. The New York Times reported Leroy as saying that all the people with whom he needs to negotiate will not be caught dead talking to him. My, how times have changed. Now, five states, including Idaho, are begging to be one of three repositories of high-level nuclear waste in exchange for undefined and unfunded future benefits.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the country has more than 90,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and about 90 million gallons of radioactive waste from the nation’s nuclear weapons program. That makes it easy to calculate Idaho’s one-third share of the nuclear waste pie. There is no indication of the benefits to be bestowed on the three states and absolutely no money available in the federal till to pay for them. It’s all a matter of faith — just commit up front to take the waste and the feds will tell you the payoff sometime down the road.
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