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 repeatedlystated 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." --------- ** End of text from cdp:headlines ** *************************************************************************** This material came from PeaceNet, a non-profit progressive networking service. For more information, send a message to peacenet-info@igc.apc.org *************************************************************************** --- NetMgr 1.00.g3+