From the Snake River to the Capitol: Holding Idaho’s Delegation Accountable

Last month, the Snake River Alliance joined the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) in Washington, D.C., for “DC Days,” our annual week of training, education, and direct lobbying. We arrived on May 31st ready to work, and started with a full day of activist preparation. Our own Danika Lustre (pictured top left), a longtime youth volunteer, led an important session on one of the biggest issues we face: the ongoing creation of new nuclear waste with no permanent solution in sight.

 

From Monday through Wednesday, our small but determined team fanned out across Capitol Hill, carrying Idahoans’ voices directly into the halls of power. We secured productive meetings with Representative Mike Simpson (top right) and Senator Mike Crapo (bottom right). Senator Risch’s office also met with us—but refused to take a photo.

 

That refusal says more about them than it does about us. This trip wasn’t about selfies; it was about showing up, making demands, and holding our delegation accountable. And on that front, we delivered.

We went to D.C. with three clear, non-negotiable priorities:

The Department of Energy is currently pushing what they call “nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses”—facilities that could include reactors, reprocessing plants, data centers, and—critically—radioactive waste storage. Governor Little has already offered to host one such campus in Idaho and has even floated deep borehole waste storage as an option. We made it clear to our delegation: Idahoans did not sign up to become the nation’s nuclear landfill.

 

The Defense Nuclear Safety Board (DNFSB) is an independent federal agency that visits DOE defense sites (including Idaho National Lab) and issues public safety recommendations. These reports are one of the few windows into what’s actually happening at these facilities—and you can read INL’s reports here. Only U.S. senators can recommend new board members, who then must be confirmed by the president. Right now, Idaho’s senators have a golden opportunity to recommend a qualified candidate who would be taken seriously by the White House. We urged them to act immediately.

 

The Duck Valley Reservation straddles the Idaho-Nevada border. When the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was reauthorized last year, Idaho was covered—but northern Nevada was not. That means one reservation, one community, is split in half by federal law. We brought this injustice directly to our delegation, alongside Ian Zabarte, Principal Man of the Western Shoshone, who joined us in D.C. to make sure the full story was told. It’s past time to fix this inequity.

While we were in D.C., the DOE was already laying groundwork back in Idaho. Recently, Bannock County residents received emailed surveys asking for their opinions on bringing nuclear development to the area. This isn’t abstract—on July 8th, from 6–8 PM at Marsh Valley High School in Arimo, there will be a public town meeting to review the survey results and answer community questions. Arimo may be the target town for what comes next.

 

We need Idahoans to show up, ask hard questions, and demand transparency.

DC Days may be over, but our advocacy doesn’t stop when the plane lands. Senator Risch’s office may have declined a photo, but they can’t decline our persistence. We’ll continue to push for DNFSB appointments, fight for RECA justice, and sound the alarm on every new proposal that treats Idaho as expendable.

 

This is our home. We’re not going anywhere.