With the Cold War over and plutonium production
halted at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, the
federal facility seemed destined only for intensive and expensive
cleanup (HCN, 1/22/96). No longer.
Outgoing
Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary has announced that Hanford’s
research nuclear reactor, named the Fast Flux Test Facility, will
remain on standby for two more years while the agency studies its
suitability for making tritium, a hydrogen isotope used to boost
the power of nuclear weapons.
If DOE officials
choose Hanford over building a proposed linear accelerator in
Georgia, the reactor would produce tritium for the next 10 or 15
years. Then, after the military has stockpiled enough of the bomb
booster, medical researchers could use the facility to develop new
isotopes for the treatment of cancer. DOE officials say starting up
the Hanford reactor would be both cheaper and quicker than other
options.
Anti-nuclear activists are appalled.
Lynne Stembridge, director of the Hanford Education Action League,
worries that the money now going for cleanup will be diverted for
weapon making. “It puts Hanford back in the bomb business,” says
Stembridge, adding that the project is also a matter of local pork.
“The boosters for the medical isotope mission believe that if they
can do this, the world will beat a path to their door.”
Sam Volpentest, vice president of Tridec, a
local business group, says his organization is pleased that federal
Energy Department is finding new uses for the reactor. The Fast
Flux Test Facility “is the best reactor we have. It has an enviable
safety record.” But Volpentest also warns that the project still
faces plenty of hurdles. “We’ve just been given a reprieve. There’s
no reason to celebrate yet.”
” Elizabeth
Manning
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Is Hanford back in the bomb business?.
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