The Office of the United States Nuclear Waste Negotiator was a short-lived

independent agency A regulatory agency (regulatory body, regulator) or independent agency (independent regulatory agency) is a government authority that is responsible for exercising autonomous dominion over some area of human activity in a licensing and regulati ...

of the

federal government of the United States The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The agency was responsible for the placement and long term storage of

radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapon ...

in the United States. It was created under the auspices of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Although the agency was created in 1987, it remained without a head until 1990, when President George H. W. Bush appointed former

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

David Leroy, a Republican, to be the first United States Nuclear Waste Negotiator. In a 1991 speech to the

National Congress of American Indians The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is an American Indian and Alaska Native rights organization. It was founded in 1944 to represent the tribes and resist federal government pressure for termination of tribal rights and assimilati ...

, Leroy stated the Native American's tradition of long-term culture made them especially suited for storing nuclear waste, including quotes from Chief Seattle. This led to sharp negative reactions from the audience, calling it Machiavellian and

Orwellian "Orwellian" is an adjective describing a situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It denotes an attitude and a brutal policy of draconian control by pro ...

. In 1993 President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

replaced Leroy with former Democratic Congressman Richard Stallings, also from Idaho. The agency was eliminated in 1995.Richard H. Stallings Biography, Idaho State University Library

United States Nuclear Waste Negotiators

Footnotes

{{Authority control Defunct agencies of the United States government Government agencies established in 1987 Government agencies disestablished in 1995 1987 establishments in Washington, D.C. 1995 disestablishments in Washington, D.C. Radioactive waste