By CHRISTOPHER SMITH, Associated Press Writer

Mon Aug 29

BOISE, Idaho - The state of Idaho is supporting a U.S. Department of Energy proposal to start producing plutonium-238 for NASA and national security agencies at the federal nuclear research compound in eastern Idaho.

But in comments submitted Monday to the Energy Department, the state called on the Bush administration to spell out a plan to transfer the highly radioactive waste created at the Idaho National Laboratory to disposal sites out of state. And the state wants the DOE to allow independent monitoring of air emissions and workplace safety at the proposed $300 million production facility.

With those caveats, the administration of Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said it will endorse the federal government's plan to consolidate U.S. production of plutonium-238 "space batteries" at the 890-square-mile complex outside of Idaho Falls.

"It's a concept we can support, but there are some details that still need to be worked out and DOE needs to improve some of its evaluation and communication," said Kathleen Trever, Kempthorne's coordinator for INL oversight.

During a series of hearings earlier this summer around the state, public comment was generally opposed to the plan to begin the first U.S. production of plutonium-238 since the Energy Department shut down a weapons reactor at the Savannah River complex in South Carolina in the mid-1990s.

Unlike plutonium-239, plutonium-238 is not used in nuclear weapons. But because of the heat it generates during a lengthy decay period, the highly toxic material is used as a long-lasting power supply for deep-space satellites and in surveillance devices that are placed underwater or on land.

Because existing U.S. stockpiles are dwindling and treaties prevent the use of Russian-made plutonium-238 in national security applications, the Bush administration wants to use the existing Advanced Test Reactor at INL to make 11 pounds of plutonium-238 annually for 35 years, beginning in 2010.

The federal government wants to consolidate all the production, manufacture and development of the space batteries at the Idaho complex to reduce the security risk from shuttling portions of the batteries among existing assembly and production facilities at national laboratories in Tennessee, New Mexico and Idaho.

The production process would create about 95 55-gallon drums each year of "transuranic" waste - plutonium-contaminated gloves, tools, rags and other radioactive rubbish.

In the state's 19-page letter, sent Monday to the Energy Department's Washington, D.C. headquarters, Trever said DOE officials have offered conflicting statements on whether the Idaho waste would be classified as a byproduct of nuclear defense activities and therefore eligible for burial at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) in New Mexico. The confusion over disposal plans has been "damaging to DOE's credibility on a matter of key interest to Idaho," she wrote.

Idaho officials want written assurances from the agency that any waste created by the plutonium project will be shipped out of state rather than left atop the Snake River Aquifer, which is the major source of irrigation and drinking water for more than 10,000 square miles of southeastern Idaho. The state won't issue the necessary environmental permits for the plutonium project until the exit strategy for the nuclear waste is clearly outlined, Trever wrote.

The state also told DOE construction can't begin until a formal plan for independent monitoring of the plutonium battery project is in place.

"Even when the balance between open government and national security favors secrecy, we need independent oversight to protect human health and the environment," the state's letter to DOE said.

Trever said the state will review its own environmental monitoring and detection systems to determine whether it has the equipment and expertise necessary to independently verify DOE's own claims of safe operation.