Narrator: Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Davlin: Three decades after a monumental agreement with the Department of Energy over the fate of nuclear waste and spent fuel storage, Idaho's governor has agreed to a waiver that will allow the Department of Energy to send a cask of spent nuclear fuel to the lab.

So what does that mean for the state?

I'm Melissa Davlin.

Idaho Reports starts now.

Hello and welcome to Idaho Reports.

This week we discuss a waiver to the 1995 settlement that limits how much radioactive material the federal government can bring into Idaho each year.

But first, let's get you caught up on the week.

A federal judge has ordered the Idaho Department of Correction to allow reporters to witness IDOC employees prepare lethal injection drugs before executions.

According to the Associated Press, federal Judge Deborah Grasham wrote that the issue concerns the public's First Amendment right of access to the state's administration of the most severe penalty enforced by our state.

The Associated Press, Idaho Statesman, and East Idaho News sued IDOC over the execution protocol.

Earlier this year lawmakers passed a bill that would make firing squads the primary method of execution moving forward.

That law goes into effect July 2026.

Currently, Idaho has nine people on death row and no executions currently scheduled.

On Friday, the Trump administration released its 2026 budget request and recommendations.

And there's a lot in there that will affect Americans moving forward across the nation if Congress signs off, including cuts and changes to education and public health spending.

One note of particular interest to Idaho as we head into fire season a proposal to consolidate federal firefighting programs.

Currently, five federal agencies split between the USDA and Department of Interior.

Handle firefighting responsibilities on federal lands, which the Trump administration says creates significant coordination and cost inefficiencies that result in suboptimal performance.

But elsewhere in the request, the administration proposes hundreds of millions in cuts for National Forest Service management, Forest Service operations, conservation programs, and forest and rangeland research.

Again, spending is up to Congress, so we'll wait and see what's next.

But President Trump's proposals for public lands don't end there.

In March, Trump issued an executive order to streamline federal forest management and increase timber production on those lands.

Here in Idaho.

Governor Brad Little issued his own executive order last week.

Directing the Idaho Department of Lands to expand management partnerships with the U.S. Forest Service.

Brad Little: 40% of Idaho is covered in forests.

And, much of it is, federally managed forests that are not in good condition.

And, for too long, much of these forests have remained totally untouched, like for about 40, 50 years.

And they've created a tinderbox of fuels that threatens communities, air quality and our environment.

In fact, in Idaho, we've got a map of 6 million acres of federal forest land that has been designated as severely at risk of both insect disease and of course, after those two comes catastrophic fires.

The state of Idaho, my predecessor, was a big part of that, has led the country in standing up programs such as Good Neighbor Authority and Shared Stewardship to help federal partners increase the pace and scale of active management on federal ground.

Davlin: And this week, Governor Little declared May to be Wildfire Awareness Month, noting the unprecedented growth of the wildland urban interface that has elevated the need for wildfire prevention and preparedness at both the community and individual homeowner levels, as well as cooperation between federal, state and local agencies for fire awareness efforts.

On Monday, Idaho Department of Lands Director Dustin Miller sat down with Associate producer Logan Finney to discuss IDL's collaboration with the Forest Service under agency chief Tom Schultz, as well as IDL staffing and whether federal budget cuts may impact wildland management and fire mitigation efforts.

when we talk about the situation on federal lands, we're talking about, a crisis.

And, in fact, the last administration called this a wildfire crisis, and they implemented a wildfire crisis strategy.

But the last administration didn't act like it was a crisis, even though they called it that.

What the Trump administration is doing now and with Chief Schultz leadership, we're treating this like a crisis.

And they came out of the starting blocks hot with ideas, on how to expedite the treatment of federal lands to address this forest health crisis and this wildfire crisis in Idaho.

So, I think the president has assembled a lot of the right people, to be, methodical, but act quickly to come up with strategies, engaging states and other partners, to get a lot more of this work done to improve the condition of our of our national Forest System lands.

Talk to me a little bit more about the shared stewardship.

Those partnerships with the local agencies when it comes to places where people are living, where you're suddenly dealing with structure fires, which is not what your Department of Lands firefighters are trained to deal with.

Miller: Right.

Absolutely Logan.

You know, when it comes to the wildland urban interface, a lot of that ground is our primary responsibility for fire suppression.

They’re private acres, private timberland acres.

If you look in north Idaho, you look at Kootenai County and the long corridor between, you know, Coeur d’Alene all the way up to Bonners Ferry.

A lot of that ground is our primary protection, and it's expanding.

You've got about 2 million people, I think, north of 2 million people now in the state, you have an expanding wildland urban interface, you have more human caused ignitions.

We're chasing a lot more fire.

And let alone fire season is now, on average, about 32 days longer than it was ten years ago.

And so we're having more extreme fire behavior, longer seasons, more primary protection in these areas where, you know, humans are at risk.

And so relying heavily on the local fire service organizations, the structure departments, our relationships with the, Idaho Fire Chiefs Association, it's critical.

And I think those relationships are only becoming stronger.

You know, for example, Chief Niemeyer here with Boise Fire, if it wasn't for the efforts of him and his crews on the Valley Fire here, protecting that built environment in the wildland urban interface, it would have been a much different story.

We didn't lose any structures.

And that was an all hands on deck, multi-agency response between, Department of Lands, Forest Service, BLM and Boise Fire.

And of course, they brought in, Boise Fire brought in other municipal resources.

But those relationships before the fire and during the fire and certainly after the fire are critical.

And so that's part of our focus moving forward is really solidifying those relationships and building even new partnerships to be able to tackle this wildfire crisis in Idaho.

Finney: On the other side of the equation, there is the federal part.

We just spoke about your relationship with the locals, when it comes to the federal government in fire management, you spoke very highly of the Trump administration's footing in dealing with this issue.

But there's also a lot of uncertainty at the federal level right now.

Are you concerned that layoffs and other management uncertainty at the federal level will impact those relationships, as we're trying to ramp up collaboration with the Forest Service at the same time?

Miller: Well, certainly, the Trump administration is looking to, rightsize the federal government, right?

I don't I don't know what that looks like, but they're, they're working diligently to, to figure that part out.

Certainly there is a concern about, the reduction in force on the federal side.

You've got, employees that the Forest Service and the BLM that are taking the, the various, early retirement programs that are being offered.

And a lot of those folks, while they may not be primary fire, they’re secondary fire.

They've got their normal day jobs, but they also, participate in fire.

Whether, you know, fire line leadership, participating on teams, supporting our boots on the ground.

And so there is a there is a concern about, how many of those people may be qualified in those areas that will not be, working anymore, right?

Finney: Cause this is someone who in a typical day would be working in an office building at a desk job.

But when you need bodies on the ground, they're qualified and able to go out and serve on the fire.

Miller: Yeah, whatever their role may be.

They are playing a role.

Many of them are playing a role, in fire.

And so, we, you know, we call that at IDL our militia crew.

I think the feds do as well.

Where our, our militia folks, we rely heavily on them.

They’re, you know, foresters, range professionals, folks that work in the various offices, even right here in the Boise office.

And when the fire bell rings and we say, hey, I need all hands.

Anybody who's available for fire, you know, and it's not difficult to get our people involved in fire.

They jump in and they help out, which is what I really love about IDL.

But that militia crew, both on the federal and the state side are critical.

They play critical roles during fire season.

And so that I guess that would be a concern.

Depending on which positions are, being eliminated or, you know, which ones are being offered that early retirement.

So we'll see how it all shakes out I guess.

Finney: In the realm of things that you have direct say over at IDL, how is your staffing looking at that point?

You guys have done a lot of work with the legislature in the last couple of years, working on targeting pay increasements, compensation, what’s staffing look like at the department, and have those investments been successful?

Miller: Yeah.

We've been really focused on this, on this piece Logan.

Over the last several years, we've really been, focused on modernizing our operations.

And with that comes with, additional ways to improve compensation for our firefighters and our fire line leadership.

So we have increased pay.

We have, provided hazard pay now, for our, our wildland firefighters and folks that, that do, go out to the fire line, right.

And so that hazard pay component is now, largely consistent with what the feds are paying.

So that kind of, levels the playing field a little bit there.

Bonuses.

The last two budget cycles now, the governor has, tucked into IDL’s budget $1 million each year, for us to pay bonuses to our wildland firefighters, setting up a structure, and a sliding scale for how we do that.

But this was the second year starting here in July, it's FY26.

That'll be our second year, to, that we’ll be able to offer those bonuses to our wildland firefighters and support staff.

So that's huge, right.

And we've done a number of different things there to work on compensation.

We’re really trying to build our capacity and fire line leadership and filling critical positions and creating critical positions that we need, given the, the demand and the kind of fire load we're seeing now.

And so the legislature has been helpful, and supportive, in large part to our modernization efforts.

We still lag behind the feds, but we're working that way.

Davlin: You'll find that full conversation with Director Miller on the Idaho Reports podcast.

In 1995, the state of Idaho reached a settlement with the federal government to dictate how and when radioactive waste or spent nuclear reactor fuel can be brought into the state.

The settlement came after years of negotiation with the Department of Energy over what to do with spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste from weapons manufacturing sites.

Cecil Andrus: I'm asking the Idaho Legislature to help me guarantee to the people of the state of Idaho that we will not become a nuclear waste dump.

That the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory will continue to function as a high research and development facility that's clean.

I will do anything I can to see that we do not become the waste dump for the nation, simply because we have failed to act responsibly.

Davlin: But the debates and negotiations didn't stop there.

Ten years ago, former governors Cecil Andrus and Phil Batt, who were both instrumental in reaching the 1995 deal, publicly opposed a waiver to the agreement that would allow the Department of Energy to ship spent nuclear fuel to the Idaho National Laboratory, setting up a showdown with then Governor, Butch Otter.

Phil Batt: You know, it was the most important part of my administration for at least half my term, so.

Andrus: It was, that's Phil's legacy.

And now this group for their legacy want to destroy his.

Batt: And I'm in sympathy with them on the need to keep generating jobs.

I just don't think that that's the way to do it, to say we're going to take more waste.

Because, Yucca mountain has been closed down by the president and other people and there's no permanent depository anywhere.

And once we get it, it's here.

And by golly, I think that they will try to bring more and more, make us more of a depository if we show that we’ll take some.

Davlin: Ultimately, that shipment went to another facility after the DOE missed multiple clean up deadlines.

And then Attorney General Lawrence Wasden rescinded his support of the waiver.

That gets us to Tuesday of this week, when Governor Brad Little and Attorney General Raul Labrador announced a new waiver to the 1995 agreement.

This waiver will allow the U.S. Department of Energy to ship a cask to INL that contains 15 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from north central Virginia in 2027.

It will also allow the shipment of spent fuel from eight research reactors at universities across the country, starting in 2028.

On Thursday, I spoke with doctors Jess Gehin and Josh Jarrell from the Idaho National Lab and Christian Natoni from the Department of Energy, about what the waiver entails, the research it will enable, and whether there are any risks.

Thank you so much for joining us this week.

First of all, Dr. Gehin, what does this waiver entail?

Jess Gehin: Yeah, this waiver entails the process in which we be allowed to bring commercial spent fuel into the state to perform research and development activities that will inform the future of nuclear energy deployment in the United States.

Davlin: For people who aren't familiar with the original agreement from 1995, why was this waiver necessary?

Christian Natoni: This waiver was necessary because we needed allowances with the state of Idaho to be able to receive, a cask that would be in excess of, an annual limit.

And so the waiver allows us to be able to receive that.

And also to be able to receive university fuel shipments into the state.

So it allowed two primary objectives.

Davlin: And Dr Jarrell, what will INL do with this waste?

Josh Jarrell: Yeah.

So this is really driven by research needs for the nuclear industry.

So this cask that has commercial fuel in it, we will bring it in.

And then we will, do several pieces of R&D.

One will be to sample the environment in the cask to confirm the fuel in that cask is performing as expected.

And then over the next decade, we'll actually remove some of the fuel from that cask and do examination of the fuel to make sure it's performing as the nuclear industry expects it to perform.

Davlin: This is a different kind of waste than what we were talking about 30 years ago, when this settlement was initially reached with Governor's Andrus and Batt.

What is different about this type of fuel?

Jarrell: Yeah.

So this fuel, you know, the nuclear industry in this country has been operating for over 60 years.

And as operations go on, we learn how to operate more effectively.

And this fuel is basically a more effective fuel than maybe we were using 50 years ago.

And so we need to confirm the performance of this fuel, this higher efficiency fuel.

And so it's very similar in size and shape to what was generated before.

But it's just, slightly different materials and it's operated slightly differently.

And therefore we need to after it's removed from the reactor to make sure that we understand its performance.

And so that's what we'll be doing.

All of the nuclear reactors in this country, there's 94 of them operating.

Are using this higher efficiency fuel.

And so we'll be helping the nuclear industry, continue to be able to operate and generate, clean, reliable power.

Which nominally about 20% of the energy in the US comes from nuclear power plants.

Davlin: Dr Jarrell, what happens if this waste isn't performing how you expect?

If all of these power plants are already using this fuel, and this doesn't go how you think it will go, what's next?

Jarrell: Yeah.

So there's a couple pieces.

First off, the fuel itself in the reactors we know very well performs how it performs.

And so the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is the regulator for the reactors, they are making sure that that fuel even before it's placed, there's a whole process before we would use it to ensure during the reactor operations it's performing as expected.

So the fuel is it's doing its job in the reactor.

So with nuclear spent fuel after it comes out, we need to make sure that as we store it, there's no additional or new challenges when we store it.

And so we've collected some data to date that says this fuel, is performing in what we call dry storage after it's pulled out of the reactor, as expected.

But this, cask of fuel was set aside specifically for research to collect some additional data to give confirmatory information to the regulator, from the nuclear industry to allow it to continue to have the fuel in these, in dry storage.

So, you know, the expectation is we'll collect the data.

We don't want to make any assumptions on what that data will say, but everything we've seen to date is that will continue to perform as expected.

And, and allow us to continue to use that fuel and store it safely across the country.

Davlin: What happens to this material after INL is done with its research?

Jarrell: So, spent fuel, we at INL already manage a lot of spent fuel.

We actually have eight of these casks already on our site that we've been managing for several decades.

We would bring this cask on and it will stay and be managed similar to the rest of the fuel after we're done with research.

But again, the research may last, you know, ten years or so.

Davlin: And Dr Gehin, what is the benefit to Idaho?

What do we get out of this?

Gehin: Well first, you know, being the leading nuclear laboratory for nuclear energy research, it brings more research to the state.

It adds to our expertise as to our prominence and support of the nation's goals for expanding energy.

There's a lot of interest in increasing our energy supply.

Energy abundance is used a lot now.

Export, you know, we've heard about data centers, industrial processes, needing more electricity.

We will play a role in the nation's ability to expand our energy generation.

Davlin: Christian, this plan was just announced.

This targeted waiver was just announced.

But how long has this been in the works?

Natoni: So we've been in discussions with the state of Idaho and the attorney general, probably going on about six months, you know, talking about, specifics on the ideas and what we feel would be needed to move this decision forward.

So in earnest that's been a lot of discussions over the last six months in terms of getting the mechanics worked out is where you see a lot of the time being spent.

Davlin: As was mentioned, this fuel is already being used across the country.

What was going to be the plan if you couldn't send that cask to Idaho?

Natoni: Well, that's really where you see the benefit to the nuclear utilities.

If this cask could not be sent to Idaho and the INL be able to do the R&D on it, these utilities need to go through license renewals for the facilities that store their spent fuel for the nuclear plants.

And if they're not able to renew the licenses they're going to have to shut down.

And so the R&D that's coming off of the research from this cask is directly supporting the license renewals for all of the nuclear utilities that will have these independent spent nuclear fuel storage facilities at their nuclear plants.

And so we're directly supporting the ability for these plants to remain open and provide electrical generation to, to the U.S at large.

Davlin: There's also the component that allows Idaho to accept waste from university research facilities as well.

Can you speak to that a little bit?

Natoni: Yes.

So, we’re receiving back spent fuel from these universities, the fuel that we're receiving back is, they are, coming to the point in their, Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses where in order for them to be able to receive new fuel to refuel their reactor and continue their research, they need to send fuel off site.

And so by then being able to send their fuel to Idaho and clear their storage pads, they’re able to refuel their reactor and continue their R&D missions at the universities.

Davlin: Officials keep referring to this as a targeted waiver, but does it open up the door for more waivers to the 95 agreement?

Natoni: Yes, it is a targeted waiver just in that we had a couple allowances that we were focused on getting relief from.

Again, if we were to identify any other segments in a settlement agreement, we would enter into discussions with the attorney general and the governor's office to see if they were amenable to doing so.

Davlin: On a related note, Idaho in the waiver, retains the right to refuse shipments.

Any idea what would happen to the waste, either from the universities or the cask, if that were to happen?

Natoni: They would remain at their, the site that they're currently at.

Davlin: Is there a long term plan for those casks and the waste?

Natoni: You know, right now the administration is looking at what the options are for, spent nuclear fuel.

That's at all the commercial nuclear utilities as well as with the UE.

And so they're working trying to find a final solution to that.

And so once that final solution is found, that will provide the avenue for each of these sites to provide their spent nuclear fuel to go to whatever that final solution is.

Whether it's repository or vice versa, yeah.

Davlin: And we long been talking about a final solution for this waste.

Can you give us an update on how those talks are going, whether it's a national repository or something else.

Natoni: That's a topic that is ongoing currently.

I don't have any additional information as to what the final resolution of that looks like.

I know there's been a lot of momentum not only to move nuclear energy forward, but also look at the back end and make sure that we've got an avenue to be able to disposition that.

So there's a lot of discussion ongoing with that topic currently.

I'm afraid I don't have any further information as to what that final solution looks like at this point.

Davlin: And on a related note, Section 4 of this waiver says that all of this is contingent upon having enough funding to safely carry out the transportation and the research and the handling.

Will the Trump administration's budget and staffing cuts undermine these efforts?

Natoni: Well, as Jess pointed out, Idaho National Lab is the lead lab for nuclear energy R&D.

And so we're well positioned to be able to do the R&D and to accept the university fuels.

And so we've got kind of the justification to provide to Congress on why we need the funding and the resources to be able to provide that.

And so I feel we are well poised to provide, you know, the justification in our budgets to demonstrate that we can actively manage this and provide the research that will benefit the nuclear utilities and universities.

Davlin: And Gehin, to wrap it all up, we have come a long way, as you both mentioned, since we were having these conversations in 1995.

For folks who have been around that long and who remember all of the concerns about the Snake Plane Aquifer, what would you tell them about why they should trust INL to handle this highly radioactive material?

Gehin: Yeah, it's a good question.

And of course we've been handling, storing and managing radioactive material, spent fuel, for decades.

We have, you know, a lot of technical knowledge and expertise and experience in managing this.

There's been no incidents or any concerns, you know, with the storage of fuel on our site.

We believe we have the knowledge and expertise to safely manage and control the material.

Davlin: Okay.

Dr Jess Gehin, Dr Josh Jarrell and Christian Natoni, thank you all so much for joining us this week.

Gehin: Thank you.

Natoni & Jarrell: Thank you.

Davlin: By the way, in the budget proposal released on Friday, the Trump administration requests Congress reduce spending at the Office of Nuclear Energy by $408 million.

For what they call non-essential research on nuclear energy, and says instead, the Department of Energy should focus on, quote, developing innovative concepts for nuclear reactors, researching advanced nuclear fuels, and maintaining the capabilities of the Idaho National Laboratory.

We'll continue to follow this story to see what Congress ends up doing.

Before we go, you may have heard by now that President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday night directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease federal funding for NPR and PBS.

Idaho Public Television receives funding from a variety of sources, including about 17% of our budget, or $2 million from CPB.

That's in addition to funding from the state of Idaho and donations from our viewers.

Idaho Reports also receives generous support from the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation.

In addition to our local programing, we have hard working staff who do fantastic things in Idaho's communities, like our education department supporting early childhood literacy.

I'm proud to work here and proud of the work the Idaho Reports team does.

Regardless of what's going on in D.C., as long as we're still here, we'll continue to bring you fair and thorough public policy reporting with a variety of voices and viewpoints right here at this table.

Thanks so much for watching.

We'll see you next week.

Narrator: Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.