b'C H A P T E R 24T H E U RA N I U M T RA I L F A D E SFormer governors Cecil Andrus and Phil Batt standbehind Governor Dirk Kempthorne duringceremonies celebrating the first shipment of RockyFlats waste to leave the Site.radioactive waste. After a spirited cam-paign in which Stop the Shipmentsbattled Get the Waste Out, Idaho vot-ers soundly rejected the proposition andsupported Batts action by a margin ofnearly two to one. 31Throughout the Idaho campaign to openW I P P and to fend off the entry of addi-tional waste and spent nuclear fuel forINEEL 99-237-1-15 long-term storage in Idaho, the role oftime mission: to obtain from DOE a sending their aides and lawyers outside science, technical analysis, and riskwritten schedule for removing waste to await developments. After one such assessment had been relatively minor.and now spent fuelfrom the state. Thsession lasting several hours, one of The heart of the problem had been oneecitizens of Idaho had to be assured that them stepped outside and said, We of public perception. Settling itandINEwould not threaten the Snake have a deal. The terms were refined restoring the credibility of the INELas LRiver Plain Aquifer by transforming the throughout September, and an agree- an environmentally sound neighborhadSite into a dump for nuclear waste. 2 7 ment was signed on October 16, 1995. 29 required political risk and eventually acareful collaborationa partnershipThe new governor and his staff still felt The Idaho Settlement Agreement was a between the IDO managers and the gov-that eventually the court would force detailed import/export list itemizing e rnors office. As of 1999, it seemed as if Idaho to allow Navy fuel into the what could enter the state and what must they may have succeeded. The DOE (andINEL. The question was whether Idaho leave and by when. With many interim the Navy) were meeting their Settlementmight obtain any concessions from milestonesincluding shipments of Agreement milestones. WI Popened inPDOE or the Navy. The Navy was run- Rocky Flats waste to WIPPthe fulfill- 1999, and the first barrels of TRU wastening out of options to hold nuclear fuel ment of the Settlement was set for 2035. left Idaho.at its shipyards, threatening its ability to The stored fuel and TRU waste woulddefuel ships and support the fleet, and all be gone. Penalties for DOE failure But a major question about the Sitethe conflict was inhibiting DOE from would cost it $60,000 a day after 2035. remained: With the United States nocarrying out its missions at the INEL. At last, Idaho had it in writing. 30longer testing reactor concepts on theAll parties chose to negotiate. 28 desert and the storage of spent fuel aAfter Batt signed the Agreement, those mission with no long-term future, whatDOE representatives began making who opposed it attempted but failed to exactly was the mission of the Site intotrips to neutral ground, cities like recall him from office. Opponents then the 21st century?Chicago or Minneapolis, to meet their gathered enough signatures to place onNavy and Idaho counterparts. They met the ballot an initiative, Propositionin a law office or hotel rooms; some- Three, to nullify the Agreement andtimes the principals holed up together, require voter approval for the receipt of243'