"Libertarian Republican" Gov. Butch Otter brings Energy Research jobs to Idaho

Carter Interior Sec. and fmr. Democrat Gov. Cecil Andrus objects

From EngergyCollective.com, "Andrus blasts Idaho spent fuel R&D plan" Jan. 30:

Cecil Andrus is a big man, politically, and physically, which means that when he stands up and starts shouting a lot of people pay attention. The former Idaho governor did just that earlier this month in opposition to a plan by the Department of Energy to bring 400 kg (880 lbs) a year of spent nuclear fuel to the Idaho National Laboratory for R&D purposes...

In what looks like a ray of sunshine in the historically tense relationship between the Idaho National Laboratory and the State of Idaho, a new agreement expands the lab's ability to conduct tests on commercial spent nuclear fuel in small quantities.

The objectives of the tests on about 900 pounds a year of commercial irradiated fuel will be to assess its reliability and to discover any previously unobserved characteristics of the fuel while it was in a commercial nuclear reactor.

What’s significant about the new agreement is the strong support the lab is getting from Idaho’s current governor Butch Otter, who served at Lt. Governor under Andrus for eight years. Andrus is a liberal democrat and Otter is a libertarian republican. Otter put his own stamp on moving nuclear waste cleanup ahead in Idaho in 2008.

Photo h/t Idaho Business Review.