Letter to the Hon. Ernest Moniz, Secretary of Energy - Prioritize Idaho For Nuclear Waste Removal as WIPP Reopens

Letter

Dear Secretary Moniz:

On behalf of the Idaho congressional delegation, we appreciate the Department of Energy working to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) in New Mexico as expeditiously as possible after a nearly three-year closure following a radiation accident in February 2014.

As you are aware, Idaho is home to the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Plant (AMWTP)--a one-of-a-kind facility that processes nuclear waste for shipment to WIPP, our nation's only deep geological repository for transuranic waste. Although WIPP has been shut down, the men and women who work at the AMWTP have continued to prepare waste to be shipped in order that the Department of Energy may fulfill its goal to move this waste out of the state per the 1995 Settlement Agreement, an agreement between the state of Idaho, the Department of Energy, and the U.S. Navy.

Idaho and other Department of Energy Environmental Management sites rely on WIPP. Moving forward, we want to make certain that the Department of Energy is doing everything possible to safely allow WIPP to run at full capacity so that it can expeditiously receive shipments of nuclear waste. Furthermore, since Idaho has the largest backlog of waste due to WIPP's untimely closure, we also ask that the Department of Energy prioritize shipments from the AMWTP.

We look forward to continuing to work with the Department of Energy to ensure that all of the remaining nuclear waste from the AMWTP is removed and stored at WIPP.