The Nation - News from Oct. 20, 1988

Idaho Gov. Cecil D. Andrus banned further shipments of low-level radioactive wastes to the state until the federal government opens a permanent waste repository, saying Idahoans’ patience was at an end. “I have notified the secretary of energy and the appropriate state officials in Idaho that no more radioactive waste will be accepted in Idaho from any location outside this state until they have a location where this waste will be stored,” Andrus said. The ban, effective immediately, came after the Democratic governor returned from a tour of the proposed Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico without any firm date for when that facility will begin taking waste now stored above ground in eastern Idaho.