Former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus blasted the Department of Energy this past weekend for failing to publicly disclose details concerning its planned shipment of spent nuclear fuel for research at the Idaho National Laboratory. Andrus’ op-ed, which appeared in
the Idaho Statesman, criticized the department for rejecting his Freedom of Information Act requests for details on the planned shipments. “A careful reading of DOE’s rationale shows that the department wants to consider waste options in secret without involving or in any way consulting Idahoans, and then tell us what it has decided,” Andrus wrote. “I can guarantee that public knowledge of DOE’s ‘open and frank discussions’ about its ‘options’ would be ‘chilled’ by public awareness in Idaho.” He added, “DOE owes all of us a real discussion about those questions — followed by real answers.”
Andrus has joined with another former Idaho governor, Phil Batt, to protest the planned shipments of spent fuel. The former governors both worked to establish the 1995 Settlement Agreement banning additional spent fuel from entering the state; the accord would need to be waived in order for the research fuel to be brought into Idaho. The fuel shipments would be necessary to support the department’s high burnup fuel study, conducted by the Electric Power Research Institute. The research is aimed at better understanding the effects of high burnup fuel aging on dry storage cask systems and to support DOE’s ongoing research and development to advance understanding of the long-term aging of spent fuel. The study plans to look at the technical, economic, and nonproliferation aspects of the fuel while also enabling fuel performance studies for the nuclear industry.
