March 9, 2008

* Air Force considers n-plants for Cannon AFB (NM) and Mountain Home AFB (Idaho)

November 10, 2007

* Idaho - uranium levels high in Bonners Ferry water supply

* [2006-03-16] Idaho Governor Named Interior Secretary
David Espo, Guardian

December 28, 2005

* DHL Express can't find 48 mCi gauge being shipped from Sioux Falls SD to Idaho Falls ID

April 16, 2005

* Crapo to offer bill for victims of testing: First he wants to see federal fallout study
Dan Boyd, Idaho State Journal (Pocatello ID)

The Radiation Compensation Exposure Act pays $50,000 to those exposed to harmful radiation during a series of above-ground atomic weapons testing in the Nevada desert in the 1950s. Currently only Utah, Arizona and Nevada counties are included, but a 1997 study indicated the four Idaho counties have among the highest radioactive iodine levels in the nation. And in southeast Idaho, many residents have come forward who believe that they, too, were exposed to the radiation and later contracted cancer as a result. Last Friday, Sen. Mike Crapo sent a letter to the director of the Board on Radiation Effects Research. It said he is committed to introducing legislation in Congress on behalf of the so-called Downwinders, a group that believes they were exposed to harmful radiation as children as a result of atomic testing in Nevada. A report by the Board, which will make recommendations on whether Idaho counties should be included in the federal Radiation Compensation Exposure Act, was supposed to be released in March. Now well into April, it's still under wraps. Crapo said the study is "pivotal" in determining whether only four Idaho counties - Gem, Custer, Lemhi and Custer - are included in the legislation or whether the scope is expanded. In his letter, Crapo said he also expects the report to show that other counties should be included. "There wouldn't be anything served by introducing (legislation) now," he said. "We're just kind of in a holding pattern."

March 18, 2004

INEEL: Underground grouting proposed around buried waste to isolate aquifer from C14 contamination

Carbon-14 contamination was identified in 2002 near buried blocks of irradiated beryllium at INEEL. As an immediate risk reduction measure, before completing investigation and remediation plan for the entire Subsurface Disposal Area at the lab, officials have proposed injecting grout into the soil to isolate the blocks from water percolating down from the surface, and to isolate the contamination from the Snake River Plain aquifer.

[Ref: Associated Press, "Underground nuclear waste threatens aquifer", The Times-News (Twin Falls, Idaho), March 17, 2004]

March 12, 2004

* Rep. Otter's (R-ID) contrasting of Bush v Kerry on Yucca Mountain may swing Nevada into a Kerry state this election

August 13, 2003

West Valley spent fuel shipment last month prompts question of how adequately-informed the local officials along the way are required to be

Shortly after midnight on July 13, a seven-car train carrying 125 irradiated fuel assemblies left the West Valley site in New York, headed for disposal site in Idaho. The shipment arrived in Idaho four days later, apparently without incident. DOE officials have said that security and emergency preparedness were coordinated with state and tribal officials along the 2,360-mile route before and during the shipment, and the danger of the materials warranted secrecy from the general public. Public Citizen, a non-governmental organization, confirms that officials in Missouri were notified of the shipment and that it passed smoothly through that state, but the group is concerned that other localities which should have been informed were not.

Public Citizen cited Bill King, a town supervisor in Ashford, N.Y., where the West Valley facility is located, as saying local volunteer firefighters were not informed of DOE's schedule to ship the radioactive waste. Here's how the Las Vegas Sun editorial today told King's story: "Bill King certainly had good reason to be upset about being kept out of the loop. King... oversees the police force in the New York town where the nuclear waste was being stored, and he very likely would have been first on the scene if there had been an accident as the waste was first being moved. 'My own people, these volunteers that I have, could have been taken right into something that could have killed them,' King said. Other officials in nearby towns weren't told about the shipment, either, he added." And the local congressman, Rep. Amory Houghton, R-N.Y., has complained to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that he was not informed.

Public Citizen doesn't claim to know if any laws or regulations were violated, but have asked a National Academy of Sciences board that is studying nuclear-waste transportation to evaluate the issues involved. Public Citizen analyst Lisa Gue told reporter that "...it gets back to the question of whether existing regulations are sufficient to protect the public interest and we think not." The Las Vegas Sun editorial notes, with the disgust born of the prospect of 77.000 tons of spent fuel aimed at Nevada, that Congress is considering legislation permitting DOE to restrict the public's access to unclassified information about nuclear waste activities, such as transportation. The Sun recommends the opposite approach: forcing the Energy Department to be more open -- and not shut out the public -- when it comes to the transportation of man's deadliest waste, which is nuclear waste.