03/5/08

This week, Idaho Governor Butch Otter approved two tax breaks for a French company that wants to build a uranium enrichment plant here in the Gem State.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed a 1995 agreement between the state of Idaho and the federal government.

That means the radioactive waste still here in Idaho will have to be removed by the year 2018.

Dr. Peter Rickards, Spokesman for Idaho Families For Safest Energy says, "We're actually importing waste from Hanford, that will take it's place in the WIPP facility, have a little bit more waste here to bury after the treatment. But really for Idaho, we should be protecting our water supply first."

Brad Bugger, U.S. Dept. of Energy Spokesman says, "We continue to work with our regulators, the State of Idaho and the Environmental Protection Agency, to develop a final remediation approach for all of the buried waste here in Idaho."

Bugger says there's enough storage room at the 'waste isolation pilot plant' in New Mexico to handle all of the radioactive waste in Idaho right now as well as any waste that the Idaho National Laboratory will have to treat.