Andrus Eases Ban on Nuclear Waste Shipments in Idaho

Gov. Cecil D. Andrus on Thursday partially lifted his 4-month-old ban on shipments of nuclear waste bound for temporary storage at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, citing national security concerns.

However, shipments will be allowed only from the Department of Energy’s Rocky Flats weapons plant in Colorado and only for the next six months, he said.

“We have not thrown the borders open, and we will not,” the governor said.

Andrus said he had agreed to allow the department to transfer two railroad boxcars a month from the Rocky Flats site near Denver. An average of four boxcars a month were shipped from the Colorado plant to the laboratory before Andrus closed Idaho’s borders to waste shipments on Oct. 19.

Lifting the ban on shipments will allow Rocky Flats to remain open and give the Energy Department time to clear up problems that have delayed opening of its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a permanent waste storage site near Carlsbad, N.M.

“I do not relish the job of once again pulling their chestnuts out of the fire,” Andrus said. “But it is obvious to me that DOE has no alternative short of closing Rocky Flats and precipitating a national security crisis.”