No Trust, No Transparency: Brad Little Opens Idaho to Nation’s Nuclear Waste

Here’s new nuclear waste pitch from Gov. Brad Little about the Trump Administration’s “offer” to Idaho: 

“The federal government has invented a super-safe and physically attractive perpetual motion prosperity machine and they’ll build the thing right here in the great Gem State if we just give them a few acres of ugly scrub brush that even the jack rabbits avoid.”

–paraphrase of Idaho Gov. Brad Little, et al, July 24, 2026

Recall Ronald Reagan’s famous punch-line: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Idaho is the fastest growing state in the nation now, partly because we were smart enough and cared enough to stop the federal government from dumping the nation’s nuclear waste here.

It wasn’t easy. It took grit. It took leaders who set aside partisanship to do the right thing. Republican Gov. Phil Batt and Democratic Governor Cecil Andrus both understood that threatening drinking and irrigation water in the massive Snake River plain aquifer was a bad idea. They stopped the feds. (Former Andrus staffer Marc Johnson offers a history and critique of new nuke waste program here).

Trust is a serious issue here. The feds have earned Idaho’s distrust many times over. The Nuclear Age cranked that distrust up high.

Brad Little lived through the ‘50s and ‘60s when the Nevada Test Site used to wait to set off above-ground nuke tests until the winds were blowing north, ensuring radiation would fall on Idaho. Little owns land in Gem County, a county that is among the most polluted by that nuclear radiation fallout in the nation. Yes, the federal government knew it was bad for folks in Idaho. But, they figured, hey, what’s a few dead cowboys matter when you’re fighting the Cold War?

Now, Brad Little is off-handedly telling Idaho we will be part of a Trump Administration program that may be little more than a pretext for dumping high level nuclear waste in Idaho. Whatever it is, it’s sure worth a debate.

Past governors understood–and cared—that people outside Idaho do not lose sleep over people inside Idaho. Outsiders see a vast sparsely populated wasteland. Idahoans see a beautiful, safe place to build lives that we can be proud of.

Right now, the propaganda sets me on edge: “Federal officials said the nuclear campuses will boost manufacturing, create jobs, promote American energy independence and attract financial investment.“ (Idaho Capitol Sun, Aug. 3, 2026)

When government information agents try to paint you as anti-business and anti-American for questioning the government’s math and motives, it’s time to slow things way down.

If that wasn’t suspicious enough, look at the cuddly corporate name they gave the program: Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus. 

Sounds like a nice spa in the middle of the desert by an energy vortex. How lovely!

Look, I support responsible nuclear development. And, I understand that nuclear material can be reprocessed and used again. But I think the sales job by Brad Little is missing two vital components: Trust and Transparency.

Brad Little and his fellow salesmen have offered neither.