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The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) formerly called the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), is a US Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear site located in southeastern Idaho. Over INL's fifty year history, massive quantities of radioactive and chemical wastes were released into the environment as a result of its operations. INL's designation as a Super-Site is due in part to its relative remote location and in part to the fact that it is the single largest employer in the state which means an inordinate amount of economic and local political clout.
INL is part of the U.S. Department of Energy nuclear weapons production complex that is also a nuclear reactor test site. Fifty-two reactors have been built at INL, which represents the largest concentration of reactors at any single site in the world. Currently, only three reactors operates on a regular basis. Ten reactors are operable but are currently shutdown. Four reactors (two submarine prototypes and two aircraft carrier prototypes) are located at the Naval Reactors Facility.
INL is designated as one of only two DOE "Super-sites." EDI is challenging new INL projects that include:
- Expansion of the Naval Reactors Facility that processes all the Navy's spent fuel at INL;
- Expansion of existing unsafe reactor and a new reactor to produce plutonium-238 for space power;
- Development and testing of nuclear rocket propulsion for space applications;
- Building new facilities for processing spent reactor fuel;
- DOE's designation of INL as a national nuclear waste dump;
- DOE's waste disposal practices that are not compliant with environmental laws or protective of the environment and continues to contaminate Idaho's sole source Snake River Plain Aquifer;
- Development of new military and/or commercial nuclear reactors when safe permanent disposal of nuclear waste has yet to be established.
INL formerly called INEEL is currently undergoing Superfund cleanup of its 368 contamination sites estimated to cost $21 billion. INL has released over 40 million curies of radioactivity into the environment over its history. Hundreds of millions of curies of radioactive waste are in unsafe dumps and storage facilities at the site. The State and EPA are not fully exercising their enforcement role. Consequently, public participation is essential to keep the enforcement agencies from allowing DOE to take cleanup short cuts. EDI is advocating for INL environmental restoration through its interaction with federal (EPA) and state (Idaho Department of Environmental Quality) enforcement agencies to ensure substantive public participation and oversight throughout the cleanup and restoration process.
DOE and enforcement agencies are not providing candid information upon which the public can make informed decisions. EDI is filling this gap by providing accurate and timely information to the public through its EDI News letter, Citizens Guide to INL, and INL Cleanup analysis reports.
EDI is gaining documents through the Freedom of Information Act that are providing a profile of the fifty-year INL operating history. This information was previously unavailable to the public. Two years of intensive negotiations resulted in partial release of these records.
EDI led a collective effort of thirteen organizations to petition US Health and Human Services to conduct independent health studies at INL formerly called INEEL. Responding to the petition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are currently studying affected populations at the site. It is hoped that this INL Historical Environmental Dose-Reconstruction study will quantify the radioactive and chemical emissions to the environment from the site.
EDI actively monitors the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) INL Dose Reconstruction health study process to ensure the best possible science is applied throughout the studies. Critiques on CDC health study Based on available CDC reports the CDC INL health study is more compromised "science" akin to that conducted at other DOE sites designed to limit the federal government's liability.
EDI is advocating for a new openness policy by the Bush Administration, however, the veil of secrecy continues. DOE's information door was slightly opened by the Clinton Administration but closed again by President Bush. Information on current and future operations must be publicly available to ensure accountability.EDI advocates that the public be told the whole truth about what contaminates were released, what quantities were released, and what the probable dose / health impacts were to the regional populations. This likely will only occur when a major INL down-winder lawsuit is filed and through discovery, and the DOE is forced to release radioactive and hazardous chemical releases to the environment. Tragically, CDC is allowing DOE to destroy thousands of documents related to these emissions.