b'C H A P T E R 21B Y T H E E N D O F T H I S D E C A D EKent Just thought that Andrus perhaps The RWMC pamphlet told the publichad used the Blue Ribbon Commission that a number of years will be neces-to deflect pressure from himself during sary to retrieve, treat, and repackagethe election campaign. He deeply these wastes. The idea of digging upregretted that Andruss position had no the old Burial Ground had become atechnical basis. Equally, he was dis- well-articulated IDO practice and policy.mayed that the IDO had chosen toemphasize the dollar value of the pro- The evolution of this policy seemedject in Idaho instead of its technical or laced with irony. No investigations hadscientific merits. 23 said that NRTS waste practices hadposed any risk to the Snake River PlainIn the next few years, Andrus over- A q uife. The IDO had not acknowledgedrlooked no opportunity to remind the the old practices as a miscalculation ofIDO and its Washington counterparts risks, nor had it qualified or quantifiedthat they had committed to start remov- the nature of future risks. Governorsing radioactive wastes from Idaho by the committees and IDO citizen advisoryend of the 1970s. His staff scrutinized committees since the early 1950s hadevery AEC and IDO message, press not raised doubts about the safety of Siterelease, and report for evidence of an practices. Kent Just had hinted that theagency careless of its commitments. 2 4 new AEC/IDO policy was a capitulationto public sentiment. If so, it was a trib- In the end, the AEC did not go forward ute to A n d rus s effectiveness. The taskswith the WASH-1539 proposal, for rea- of retrieving, processing, and movingsons other than the events in Idaho. Still, TRU waste continued to be goals of thethe IDO took several steps to redeem AEC, the IDO, and the State of Idahoitself in the eyes of a doubting Idaho for the rest of the centuryandpublic. It held an open house and invited b e y o n d . 2 6visitors to examine the waste retrievalf aclii t y. Among its usual annual outputof public relations pamphlets andbrochures, the IDO produced one specif-ically about the RWMC for the firsttime. It reached out to groups such asthe League of Women Voters, which hadopposed any expansion of waste man-agement facilities. Andrus hinted toBradley that he should venture onto theturf of the potato growers and otherNRTS opponents. It was the same sortof work that IDO managers had doneever since 1949 when Bill Johnstonbegan with the Kiwanis and Rotary clubcircuit, but Andrus thought the relevantcircuit had grown far larger; he worriedthat Bradley didnt venture far enough. 25 21 1'