Chernobyl, Violations Cited : Tarnished Nuclear Image Dismays Hanford Workers

Since the dawn of the nuclear age, the belief in the efficacy of nuclear power and its safety have been articles of faith for the people of the Tri-Cities area in southeastern Washington.

Three generations of Hanford Nuclear Reservation workers live here--from those who helped supply plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 to their grandchildren.

Even the Richland High School’s team is proudly known as the “Bombers.” The school emblem includes a mushroom cloud.

But, repeated disclosures of equipment breakdowns and nuclear safeguard violations and a chain reaction of official investigations at Hanford since the disastrous Chernobyl explosion last April in the Soviet Union have shaken this area.

“All this attention has given us a black eye,” said Sam Volpentest, 82, of the Tri-Cities Industrial Development Council. “The image has been sort of tarnished. . . .”

In a community that has long appeared certain of its place in history and the importance of its mission, there is a growing sense of dismay and isolation.

Hanford workers worry that American pre-eminence in nuclear technology may be eclipsed because of the efforts of anti-nuclear activists. And they worry that exaggerated “public perceptions” of nuclear safety shortcomings may threaten their jobs.

Nuclear plant workers and community leaders alike speak of whistle blowers as “stool pigeons” and warn that those who profess a concern for safety have a “hidden agenda” to snuff out nuclear power and weapons.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that its aging nuclear reactor--designated by the code letter “N”--would be shut down for six months to correct significant safety deficiencies.

The N Reactor has come under close scrutiny since the Soviet explosion because, like Chernobyl, it uses graphite to moderate the nuclear reaction and does not have a containment building. But workers here are quick to point out that there are also dissimilarities: the N Reactor has automatic shutdown features and other differences that make it inherently safer.

Plants Temporarily Closed

In October, the DOE temporarily closed plutonium-production plants that are also part of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation after the disclosure of internal audits describing breakdowns in safety and security.

Together, the N Reactor and the plutonium plants produce 25% to 30% of the nation’s plutonium for nuclear weapons.

“If this trend continues the United States will no longer lead the world but only continue its decline and eventual demise as an economic and political leader,” warned Lawrence E. Haler of the pro-nuclear “Hanford Family,” a private group made up of residents and Hanford employees.

Haler’s warning came in testimony Monday night before a committee of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, which is investigating the safety of the N Reactor and 10 other major DOE reactors in the nation.

Announcement of the six-month shutdown last week followed a study by another scientific panel of six outside experts. Two of those consultants recommended a permanent closure of the reactor in the near future. But the federal government rejected that advice, saying a permanent shutdown was not in the nation’s security interest. The consultants agreed that with the scheduled modifications the N Reactor can be safely operated until the 1990s.

The economy of the Tri-Cities--Richmond, Pasco and Kennewick--is inextricably fused to the reactors and plutonium plants on the nearby 570-square-mile Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Of the Tri-Cities’ population of 100,000, about 14,000 are employed at Hanford and many in the service industries depend on the nuclear facilities and their workers for their economic vitality. So, naturally, there is concern here that over the long term negative “public perceptions” will presage political decisions that will hurt the local economy.

Economic Effects Not Clear

The short- and long-term economic effects are still not clear. The six-month shutdown, to begin in January, is not expected to result in any layoffs. In the long term, the modifications undertaken during the shutdown will not be enough, and the N Reactor will have to be decommissioned in the 1990s, experts agree.

The reactor, built for an operational life of 20 years, is now 23 years old, and among the options being considered is construction of a new reactor to replace it.

The Westinghouse Electric Corp. last week won a five-year contract to operate all of the DOE’s facilities at Hanford. Currently, the various programs are managed by four separate contractors, including Rockwell and United Nuclear Industries. The consolidation of responsibility under Westinghouse protects the jobs of most employees, but 600 positions will be eliminated, mostly by attrition, in the next five years.

One episode that has particularly galled the community was the disclosure of critical internal audits of the plutonium plants operated by Rockwell International of El Segundo.

A Rockwell auditor recommended their closure after finding work practices that violated nuclear safety and security procedures. A short time later, the DOE ordered the plants shut down until safe operations could be assured.

“I’m an old-timer here,” Volpentest, of the Industrial Development Council, said in an interview. “I don’t know the fellow. But I don’t care for stool pigeons. First he leaked all that stuff to the newspapers. I don’t have proof of that. Now he’s coming out saying, ‘I just did my job.’ I know a lot of people who don’t think a hell of a lot about him.”

He added: “Internal audits are supposed to be for management and they’re supposed to take care of the problems. Why should the general public know about it?”

The auditor, Casey Ruud, told The Times that his audits were leaked by someone else and that he commented only after they had been made public.

Tim Malley, another plutonium plant worker, referred to nuclear opponents as “low-lifers” and complained in an interview, “We’re just not getting our point across in simple language that you guys can understand.”

Blown Out of Proportion

For many in the Tri-Cities, the controversy over problems at Hanford have been blown out of proportion.

“I’d like to make an appeal for perspective,” Michael R. Fox, an engineer at Rockwell International, told the scientific committee Monday. He and other Hanford supporters contend that 20,000 people are killed in the coal industry each year--from mining accidents and black lung disease--and yet coal does not get the “bad press” besetting the nuclear industry.

Hanford supporters complain that opportunistic politicians, anti-nuclear groups and a badly misinformed media have stirred unfounded fears.

“A frightened public does not usually seek more information and advice. . . . A frightened public tends to seek others who share their fears. Fear masks the true agenda of some in the anti-nuclear movement.”

Derided for Safety Concerns

Such concerns are heard not only at official hearings, but at local night spots where workers gather.

The job is never far from mind. One plutonium plant worker, who asked not to be identified, derided Hanford employees who go public with their safety concerns.

“People out there are taking a calculated risk, and if they don’t want to do it they should be flipping burgers at McDonald’s. But, it’s safe and well paid,” he said.

Michael J. Lawrence, the DOE’s top manager at Hanford, cautioned in an interview Tuesday that nuclear workers as well as critics should keep the safety issues in perspective.

“We just can’t let it become ‘us versus them’ or a ‘pro-nuclear versus anti-nuclear,’ ” Lawrence said.

He added: “We’ve got to make sure our workers, in seeing this criticism, don’t turn off to the real need of always striving to do better.”

Still, the area’s sense of isolation was perhaps best illustrated by the experience of a Richland High School student who asked not to be identified. Now a hotel worker, he described an incident in 1984 when the high school basketball team went to Seattle for a game.

“There were signs in the crowd saying ‘No Nukes’ and ‘Make Babies, Not Nukes,’ ” he said. “We’re the only ones who care. I love the N Reactor. People on the other other side of the Cascades don’t understand.