TV Review : Nuclear Waste Focus of ‘Bomb’s Lethal Legacy’

While the Big Three networks huff and puff and attempt to blow each others’ doors off during the February ratings sweeps, PBS stations quietly serve up one solid show after another.

A case in point: “The Bomb’s Lethal Legacy,” airing tonight at 8 on Channels 28 and 15, and at 9 on Channel 50.

This “Nova” segment, a look the problems of nuclear waste, is serious and thought-provoking--and ultimately disturbing for its view of a government that does not operate in the best interests of its citizens.

Using the example of the nuclear bomb-making facility at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in eastern Washington to illustrate problems that are worldwide, “Legacy” is a litany of 45 years of mistakes and deceit. The statistics are awesome: an estimated cleanup cost of $50 billion; 200 billion gallons of radioactive liquid have been discharged into the ground, waste that is migrating toward the Columbia River, a vital water source.

There are plenty of villains, chief among them the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Energy. One example: In 1949, the commission deliberately released 7,000 curies of radioactive gas in the air--350 times more than leaked at Three Mile Island--so it could monitor airborne transmission of radioactive particles. Officials didn’t bother telling anyone living downwind from Hanford about the test.

The biggest problem of the past--and biggest stumbling block today--seems to be the nuclear science industry itself: a total lack of outside oversight produced a “deeply ingrained culture” that produced “bad science,” in the words of one critic. The scientists were free to ignore problems that they considered insignificant--little things like health, safety and environmental issues.

The producing-directing-writing team of Noel Buckner and Rob Whittlesey have done a fine job of penetrating that deeply ingrained culture and shedding light on a problem that unfortunately will be with us for thousands of years.