b'P ROVING THE P RINCIPLEgroup when it convened for the first The Snake River Alliance, continued as ing window of a hot cell, where she hadtime in 1994 and continued to receive an INEEL watchdog group. News some lessons to learn.its advice. 20 reporters faithfully consulted its repre-sentatives in order to balance waste- The technicians were prone to makingThe IDO continued to enjoy the support related news stories. In 1999 the each new engineer open a tool box andof its irrepressible eastern Idaho sup- Alliance (among others) opposed remove its contents using the remoteporters, which never had abandoned the INEELs proposed Advanced Mixed manipulatorsa procedure that tookSite. Nuclear protesters had scorned the Waste Treatment Project, a facility me, an amateur, all day. They taught meIdaho Falls Chamber of Commerce as a intended to treat certain Rocky Flats the concept of a non-recoverable situ -jobs-are-our-only-concern outfit, but waste to prepare it for shipment to ation in a hot cell, that is, a situationthe Chamber had in fact not ignored the WIPP. A feature of the Settlement that cannot be fixed, like dropping afindings of science in its reaction to Agreement, the facility had the support piece of radioactive material on theevents affecting the Site. In looking for of the governors office, which was floor where it cannot be reacheda stable regional economy, traditional then staffed with a nineteen-member remotely. It was a valuable lesson:Site supporters were aided by new INEEL Oversight Office monitoring Analyze all of the job to completioninstitutions, notably the Eastern Idaho waste management. 23 before beginning, and do it right theRegional Development Alliance. first time.24Organized to distribute DOE Settlement In 1999 a member of the generationAgreement grants intended to promote that had arrived at the Site in the envi-regional economic diversification, the ronmentally exuberant 1970s becameAlliance hoped to retool part of the Site the new and first woman IDO manager.as a spaceport for launching rockets Beverly A. Cook, metallurgical engi-and space-travel vehicles. 21 neer, joined the INEL in 1975 with Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson addresses theAerojet Nuclear. She spent her first crowd attending the INEEL 50th anniversaryAnother new organization, Coalition days on the job behind the glass shield- celebration.21, worked to revitalize the nuclearresearch mission of the Site. The non-profit group attracted Site retirees, ISUfaculty members, business owners, andothers who believed that nuclear tech-nology had much to offer the nationand the world in the 21st century. Thegroup had supported the SettlementAgreement and helped defendGovernor Batt against PropositionThree in 1996. Coalition 21, whosemotto was supporting tomorrowstechnologies with facts, not with fears,advocated continued research on theIFR and other technologies promotingsafe nuclear reactors and innovativesolutions to the management of spentfuel. 22INEEL 99-0409-3-1325 4'