Hanford Decision

[The.Greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Forwarded message:
                                <199701152236.OAA09166@bb.greenbase.gl3>
To:      @INET world-press@xs2.greenpeace.org
From:    @INET "The Greenbase" <greenbas@bb.greenbase.gl3>
Date:    WED 15-JAN-97 22:39:03 GMT
Subject: Hanford Decision Could Mean Tons More Plut for Wa
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Original to: The.Greenbase@g2.bos.us.gl3


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O'LEARY LEGACY CLOUDED BY PORK BARREL POLITICS:  HANFORD
DECISION COULD MEAN TONS MORE PLUTONIUM FOR WASHINGTON STATE  

WASHINGTON, DC, January 10 (GP) - Energy Secretary Hazel
O'Leary's decision to put Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility
in Washington State on track for nuclear weapons tritium
production is the result of intensive pork barrel lobbying by
monied interests, and could mean more plutonium and more
radioactive contamination for the Pacific Northwest, Greenpeace
said today.  An official Department of Energy (DOE) announcement
is expected next week.
According to a statement released late last night by Rep.
Richard "Doc" Hastings (R), the Energy Secretary will place the
Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) under formal consideration for
producing tritium - a radioactive gas used to boost the
destructive power of nuclear weapons.  Although Hastings called
this decision "a slam dunk for this nation," Greenpeace
countered that the decision is a parting shot that sours
O'Leary's legacy.  

A recently completed scientific study commissioned by the DOE
reveals that producing tritium at the FFTF would require
transporting roughly one ton of weapons grade plutonium annually
into Washington State.  According to the study by the
prestigious JASONs group, the spent fuel resulting from tritium
production at FFTF would be highly radioactive and would
contain large amounts of weapons usable plutonium for which
there is no current acceptable storage solution.
 
O'Leary decided to shutdown the FFTF on December 7, 1993 because
"no mission has been identified which would justify
keeping the facility in operation."  DOE has also repeatedly

stated that Hanford's future mission would be devoted entirely
to cleaning up the radioactive legacy left behind by four
decades of plutonium production. 
 
However, a hastily assembled group of entreprenuers who saw a
lucrative opportunity in privatizing the reactor joined forces
with Rep. Hastings to halt shutdown operations in 1995 so it
could be re-considered for a nuclear weapons mission.  
Documents leaked to Greenpeace reveal that Advanced Nuclear
Medical Systems (ANMS) pitched their privatization scheme
under the guise of a humanitarian mission -- producing medical
isotopes for cancer treatment -- in a November 1995 closed-door
meeting with high ranking DOE officials.  However, in a 1995
letter to Senator Edward Kennedy, Terry Lash, head of
the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, said the Hanford FFTF, "...is
not necessary to DOE's isotope production mission."  
 
ANMS documents and letters show a determined effort to gain
access to the White House through the Democratic Party,
through radio host Hugh Rodham, brother of Hillary Rodham
Clinton, and through contributions to the Washington
Congressional delegation.  The strategy, according to an ANMS
document marked "SENSITIVE and CONFIDENTIAL" was
to focus "PR efforts on the  humanitarian mission' of the FFTF -
 medical isotopes and materials research.  DO NOT
MENTION ANY PROPOSALS FOR INCREASING REACTOR ACTIVITY OR FUTURE
BREEDER REACTOR, ETC." 
 
"Hazel O'Leary made the right decision in 1993 when she ordered
this reactor shut down," said Greenpeace Disarmament
Campaigner Bruce Hall.  "Her eleventh hour backtracking is a
sobering civics lesson for the people of Washington in how
monied interests can override public policy and democratic
process, and could very well put Hanford back into the nuclear
bomb business."    
 

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