A trio of Western governors is scheduled to meet in Salt Lake City Friday with federal energy officials to try to resolve an impasse over disposal of radioactive wastes from weapons facilities.
The session at a downtown hotel, originally scheduled Nov. 16, will be closed to the public. It is expected to include Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus, Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, New Mexico Gov. Garrey Carruthers and several Department of Energy officials.Energy Secretary John S. Herrington asked the three governors to meet with a team headed by his chief deputy, Joseph Salgado, to discuss how to dispose of defense wastes until the department can open its planned Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.
Andrus has taken credit for forcing the issue by blocking his state's borders in October to a rail car loaded with radioactive wastes.
Utah Gov. Norm Bangerter and other state officials do not plan to attend because the state is only indirectly involved in the storage of low-level waste at the New Mexico facility.
Initial shipments were to have begun this fall, but growing opposition in New Mexico has delayed the opening of the long-term storage facility until at least 1989.