LINCOLN- It’s been a while since the words “low-level radioactive waste” have been spoken on the floor of the Nebraska Legislature, but state senators revived the topic two weeks ago. During debate on a bill allowing the merger of two state agencies, a debate broke out over whether the legislation should include repeal of the 1986 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Act, a package of regulations passed amid the heated controversy over locating a waste repository in Boyd County.

That controversy divided families and towns in the rural county, spawned a hunger strike by a leading opponent of the waste dump, and eventually led to a judge’s ruling that Nebraska must pay $145.6 million in damages for rejecting the repository, designed to dispose of radioactive waste from five central U.S. states. Two state senators, Tanya Storer of Whitman and Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, questioned the need to repeal the waste storage regulations during floor debate on April 22, and asked why it was included in a then-446-page proposal for a merger of the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy with the Department of Natural Resources.

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