Letter to Richardson for those who are interested. It's about corruption in the Nuclear Navy

 Jack Shannon

 Mr. Bill Richardson, Secretary
 US Department of Energy
 1000 Independence Ave.,  SW
 Washington, DC  20585
 
Dear Mr. Richardson:

 Recently, a component of your organization, Naval Reactors, was discovered to be undermining the Energy Employment Occupational Illness Compensation Program by covertly introducing into Congressional legislation an exemption for its facilities.

 This devious maneuver would have denied equal treatment to hundreds of present and former workers at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL) who have been exposed to and received bodily intakes of both  beryllium and radionuclides. At least one-hundred-fifty of these workers have died as a result of exposures to beryllium, radiation, and/or asbestos. Yet, in order to maintain its ongoing cover-up, Naval Reactors chose to deny even the widows of these deceased employees this meager compensation.

 It has always been well documented that both the original Peek Street Site in downtown Schenectady and the current Knolls Site in Niskayuna incorporated pilot plants for GE research on the PUREX process, as used by General Electric at the Hanford production facility to chemically separate plutonium from depleted natural uranium. The plutonium was used to make nuclear bombs. This fully and indisputably qualifies KAPL as a weapons factory. Yet, Naval Reactors and KAPL have succeeded through their political connections, and total lack of conscience, in covering up this dangerous legacy for over 50 years. During this time, they have lied extensively to Congress, to the General Accounting Office (GAO), to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to personnel security agencies, to public forums, to the State of New York, to the Environmental Protection Agency, to OSHA, and to the Department of Energy.

 Nearly all of the environmental damage from these pilot plants remains in place. And, since both the small pilot plant at Peek Street in downtown Schenectady and the much larger pilot plant at the Knolls Site, called the Separations Research Process Unit (SPRU), extensively contaminated both facilities, including the surrounding grounds and most of the internal work areas of the Laboratories (including offices, hallways, libraries, rest rooms, analytic laboratories, storage rooms, parking lots, bike paths, sewers, landfills, railroad sidings, river banks, the Mohawk river, employees' clothing, cars and homes, and even woodchuck holes), with various long live radioactive isotopes, including plutonium, it is not just the few hundred pilot plant workers who were exposed to excessive levels of radiation and beryllium, but rather every employee who ever worked at either facility. All must be assessed for compensation.

 Fortunately, because of a concerted campaign to expose this mean spirited, and illegal, chicanery by Naval Reactors, the final bill passed Congress without the absurd exemption. In effect, Naval Reactors has finally been forced to admit that Peak Street and KAPL functioned as weapons factories. This immediately raises the question as to what other existing legislation and regulations, pertaining to weapons factories, applies to Peak Street and to KAPL. We believe that the answer is clear and that your office can easily make that determination.

 However, it does seem that DOE Order 5400.5, "Radiation Protection of the Public and Environment," which governs the release of potentially contaminated materials from weapons factory sites should be immediately invoked. This action is urgent because negotiations are currently underway to remove rubble from the fire ravaged Peek Street Site. Without your intervention this rubble will soon go to public landfills and to recycling facilities. There is no doubt that significant amounts of radioactivity, including plutonium, are still present on this material. Also, KAPL has recently issued contracts, and initiated a program to dismantle the SPRU facility. Much of this removal will consist of material with high level contamination. However, since much of the Laboratory is contaminated with low level radioactivity from the weapons work, a suspension should be invoked on all materials leaving the Knolls Site.

 Simply put, your suspension of the  release of scrap metals for recycling from radiological areas until new directives are in place applies to the Peek Street and  KAPL weapons factories. The modified directives currently open to public comment rightly require that the DOE ensure that potentially contaminated materials are properly inspected before being considered for release from these sites. And, as per the proposed directives, it is long past the time that the local public should be dealt into the decision making process of such dangerous and irresponsible operations. Before lifting the suspension, these two sites must be certified by the DOE to be in real (honest) compliance with the directives.

 Additionally, because this is a long term, chronic deception and evasion that was purposefully engineered by a renegade organization, namely Naval Reactors, it seems necessary that severe sanctions and penalties be imposed, including but not limited to the following:

 1.  Immediate revocation of Executive Order 12344, which Naval Reactors has illegally used to avoid independent oversight of its facilities.

 2.  Immediate recall of the General Accounting Office investigative report of Naval Reactors, for which Naval Reactors and KAPL management supplied extensive misinformation.

 3.  Prosecution of current and former KAPL and Naval Reactor management responsible for providing false information to a government agency, namely to the GAO.

 4.  Immediate and permanent shutdown of the two operational naval prototype plants at the Kesselring Site Operation, located just six miles from the resort area of Saratoga Springs, NY. Both plants lack two very vital safety systems mandated by the NRC on all commercial nuclear plants, namely Emergency Core Cooling Systems (ECCS) and Containment Systems.

 5.  Imposition of a multi-billion dollar fine on Naval Reactors to set an example that this type of illegal and arrogant nuclear operation will no longer be tolerated by the citizens of this country.

 Your success in establishing a compensation program for weapons plant workers is an outstanding step in the right direction. Your further attention to the long standing grievous violations by Naval Reactors at the KAPL and Peek Street weapons factories is sorely needed.

 Sincerely yours,

 John P. Shannon, Major USMC (Retired)  Robert G. Stater,
 Nuclear Physicist/Nuclear Physicist
Licensed Professional Nuclear Engineer Former Manager of Nuclear Safety
Nuclear Physicist/Nuclear Engineer
 Industrial Safety/Industrial Hygiene
Accredited Nuclear Power Instructor at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory