A House-Senate conference committee should combine short-term funding and long-term planning for an embattled Idaho National Engineering Laboratory cancer project, Sen. Larry Craig says.
Craig, R-Idaho, says his version of a boron neutron capture therapy bill, which has passed the Senate, will lay a foundation for continuing work on the project aimed at treating a deadly type of brain tumor.The project has had the support of Idaho politicians but has gotten a cool response from the U.S. Department of Energy and medical experts. It has survived through last-minute funding often secured by former Sen. James McClure, R-Idaho, who retired this year.
"When you don't have a long-range program on line, you risk that annual embattlement," Craig told Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce members Friday.
Craig acknowledged that Idaho misses McClure's ability to lobby behind the scenes for INEL projects. But he said his plan for boron neutron capture therapy could win allies for the project.
Craig's bill requires the Energy Department to write up a detailed schedule for converting INEL's Power Burst Facility reactor for cancer treatment.
The senator's legislation also provides money to keep the Power Burst Facility reactor on standby in the meantime.
What Craig's bill doesn't include is research money. A House-passed bill guarantees $7.5 million for continued boron neutron capture therapy research in 1992.
The strategy is for the conference committee, which irons out differences in the House and Senate spending bills, to authorize both the research funding and the requirement for a conversion schedule, Craig said.
Meantime, the senator did not give his unqualified support to the "Complex 21" proposal to consolidate the nation's nuclear weapons production at the INEL. But he said Idaho can't "cherry-pick" only the Energy Department projects it likes.
"I'm not willing to reject it out-of-hand," Craig said of the multibillion-dollar Complex 21 plan that puts the INEL among five Energy Department facilities being considered for consolidation.