BOISE, Idaho - A federal judge ruled Thursday that the U.S. Energy Department must remove all high-level radioactive waste stored at federal nuclear research compound in southeastern Idaho.
U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge rejected the DOE's argument that a 1995 agreement with the state only covered waste that had been stored in barrels on asphalt pads at the Idaho National Laboratory.
The federal government had claimed it was not required to dig up and remove other rotting containers of waste that was indiscriminately dumped into open pits and buried prior to 1970.
The judge said the waste — whether buried or stored above ground — has to be shipped out of state for disposal by 2018. He wrote, "The words of the contract could not be clearer."
The DOE said leaving the buried waste where it is may be safer than trying to exhume it, since some of the radioactive materials can spontaneously explode when exposed to oxygen.
State leaders have said they oppose abandoning the waste, since some studies have shown that buried radioactive materials are seeping toward the underground aquifer that feeds the Snake River, which runs across and almost the entire length of Idaho.
Jeremy Maxand, director of the Boise-based nuclear watchdog group The Snake River Alliance, hailed the ruling as a victory for Idaho's residents and farmers who depend on the river aquifer for drinking water, recreation and agriculture.
"This is a step in the right direction to getting some accountability and cleanup at the INL burial grounds," he said.Judge: DOE must remove nuclear waste - Yahoo! News