By Josh Long
Jackson Hole Guide

Gov. Jim Geringer opposes the strategy national trial lawyer Gerry Spence is advocating to kill a proposed nuclear incinerator in Idaho.

Geringer said last week that Spence - who asked residents here for $1 million last week to litigate - is playing upon the "fears" and "ignorance" of people. The governor said Spence's public efforts last week to raise money to fight the incineration project "sounds like a fund-raising campaign to assure Gerry Spence can litigate further."

Spence declared in front of hundreds of spectators last week that residents in Jackson Hole were not given sufficient notice to comment on an air permit to build the incinerator. He threatened litigation to kill the incineration proposal.

"Industry and government will always lie. The standards they set are what industry can meet, not what's safe," Spence said Monday.

The comment period has officially closed on the air permit despite requests for an extension, and government officials expect the state of Idaho to award the permit this month.

The governor said residents still will get an opportunity to comment on a hazardous waste permit, also referred to as a Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) permit, in the fall.

Gov. Geringer said "something needs to be done" with the waste and added that residents already are entitled to the most complete information and best processes to secure a safer environment. He scorned Spence's threat to litigate.

"What does that do to minimize anyone's risk? I don't see it," Geringer said. But Spence said the governor "ought to have the courage to come over here and tell us what to do."

In the wake of fears that dangerous emissions will be carried by prevailing winds to Jackson Hole and cause environmental hazards, a non-profit organization has formed: Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free. Last week the group held an anti-nuke rally during which residents pledged some $500,000 to kill the proposed incinerator.

Government officials and the contractor involved with the project said they were not invited to speak at the meeting.

Officials at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab have a proposal in the works to treat and burn 65,000 cubic meters of nuclear and hazardous waste.

Roughly 22 percent of the materials - PCBs, highly carcinogenic elements and other organics - must be incinerated to meet requirements for disposal at a permanent site in New Mexico, according to officials. The INEEL is located 50 miles northwest of Idaho Falls.

Opponents said there are alternatives to incineration, although a Department of Energy official responded that he is not aware of any other options. Funds have been dumped into technologies to find alternatives to incineration for decades, but officials at the INEEL are not aware of a closed system to treat all the materials, said Mike Bonkoski, project manager for the Advanced Mixed Treatment Project.

Various agencies connected to the INEEL have been embroiled in litigation. For example, there were a series of lawsuits from 1989 to the mid 1990s between the state of Idaho and the federal Department of Energy over the shipment of spent nuclear fuel, said Kathleen Trever, coordinator-manager for the INEEL Oversight Program. On various occasions, she said, the shipments of nuclear fuel from Colorado to the INEEL were temporarily halted.

In 1995, the state of Idaho settled a lawsuit directed at the Department of Energy. The settlement requires removal of transuranic waste - waste with significant levels of radioactivity - from the facility in Idaho by 2015 "and in no event later than Dec. 21, 2018," the settlement agreement states. Trever said she has received e-mails and voice mails from residents in Jackson, although no one has identified themselves as being affiliated with Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free.

Commenting on residents' pledges last week to litigate, Trever responded, "I think it shows how understandably angry people can become if they aren't given adequate information on a project."

Andrew C. Kadak, Ph.D., president of the American Nuclear Society, said he is not familiar with the technicalities of the project, but sided with government officials that stringent, regulatory processes are in place to protect the environment.

Kadak is among hundreds of world-wide nuclear experts involved in a technology conference - Global '99 - being held at the Snow King Center this week. Moreover, Kadak said, "legal actions never help in general" and litigation "doesn't mean you automatically win."