NH #797: IDAHO! It’s NOT a “Nuclear Lifestyle Innovation Campus” – it’s a RADIOACTIVE NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP! – Leigh Ford, Heidi Henderson of Snake River Alliance + BREAKING NEWS on Santa Susana Field Lab “Clean-up”

Barrels of nuclear waste being dumped at Idaho National Lab site, 1969.

BREAKING:
Boeing trying to get away with more radiological unsafe practices at Santa Susana Field Lab – Melissa Bumstead on What Parents Against SSFL are Doing About It.

Protest, follow-up, and attempts to force accountability and safer practices on Boeing underway as this episode is being recorded and posted.

PLEASE SIGN:
Change.Org Petition – Parents Against SSFL

https://www.change.org/p/boeing-s-socal-demolition-could-release-radioactive-dust?utm_medium=custom_url&utm_source=share_petition&recruited_by_id=94ef0880-ce2d-012f-b90d-404067ca6a7a&share_id=mWvSbDXs

Melissa Bumstead and daughter – just one of the reasons she does this work.

This Week’s Featured Interview – IDAHO:

While Idaho has not generated a lot of visibility in the national nuclear conversation, it and we need to be paying attention because it’s one of five states currently vying to be the host of a massive nuclear waste dump… though the DOE and the state’s pro-nuclear interests are calling a “Nuclear Lifestyle Innovation Campus.” (How’s that for a focus-group’ed rebranding obfuscation?)

This week, to find out what’s really going on, we talk with Leigh Ford, Executive director of Idaho’s nuclear watchdog, the Snake River Alliance, and the group’s Community Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator, Heidi Henderson. Together, they bring us up to date on the pressures being brought to bear on Idaho to become the dump site for massive amounts of the nation’s highly radioactive nuclear waste. 



I spoke with Leigh Ford and Heidi Henderson on October 2, 2026.

Barrels of plutonium-contaminated radioactive waste from Rocky Flats in Colorado that were dumped and buried at Idaho National Labs, 1969. But flooding from the spring thaw caused them all to float up to the surface. In response, INL employees shot guns at the barrels to get them to sink.
(Picture here and above taken at the Subsurface Disposal Area (SDA) within the
Radioactive Waste Management Complex at Idaho National Laboratory.)

LINKS from Interview:

• Leigh and Heidi referenced Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers of Generational Radiation Impact Project, or GRIP (RadiationProject.org). They were interviewed on the disproportionate impact of nuclear radiation on women, little girls, and pregnancy just two weeks ago, for NH #795. Truly a cornerstone interview.
• Joseph Mangano is the Founder and Executive Director of Radiation and Public Health Project (Radiation.org). He is an epidemiologist — someone who investigates the patterns, causes, and effects of diseases and injuries in groups of people. They are often called “disease detectives” and Joe specializes in breaking nuclear cases wide open. You can find our interview on Cancer Rates near US Nuclear Reactors at NH #754.
• Richard L. Miller book, Under the Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing. We’ve linked to a non-Amazon source where you can consider his many nuclear-themed books.