Robert P. Crease - The Leak: Politics, Activists, and Loss of Trust at Brookhaven National Laboratory

THE LEAK

Politics, Activists, and Loss of Trust at Brookhaven National Laboratory

ROBERT P. CREASE

with Peter D. Bond

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

2022 Robert P. Crease

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

The MIT Press would like to thank the anonymous peer reviewers who provided comments on drafts of this book. The generous work of academic experts is essential for establishing the authority and quality of our publications. We acknowledge with gratitude the contributions of these otherwise uncredited readers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Crease, Robert P., author.

Title: The leak : politics, activists, and the loss of trust in science at Brookhaven National Laboratory / Robert P. Crease with Peter Bond.

Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021057607 | ISBN 9780262047180 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Brookhaven National LaboratoryHistory. | Science and stateUnited States. | Radioactive decontaminationNew York (State)Long Island.

Classification: LCC QC789.U62 B73 2022 | DDC 363.17/990974725dc23/eng20220630

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021057607

d_r0

1. 
   Brookhaven National Laboratory circa 1997 showing the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) ring at top, the domed High Flux Beam Reactor (HFBR) to the right of the stack, the Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor (BGRR), to the left of the stack, and the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), the white building below the stack with a circular extension.
2. 
   Hydrogeologist Doug Paquette (standing) and two coworkers at a Geoprobe, with the HFBR in the background.
3. 
   Long Islands Hazardous Sites,Newsday, December 11, 1998. From Newsday. 1998 Newsday. All rights reserved. Used under license.
4. 
   Map of monitoring wells planned by Paquette and installed south of the HFBR.
5. 
   Left to right: Senator Alfonse DAmato, DOE Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety and Health Tara OToole, and Congressman Michael Forbes at press conference, February 20, 1997. From Newsday. 1997 Newsday. All rights reserved. Used under license.
6. 
   Cutaway of the High Flux Beam Reactor showing the location of spent fuel pool.
7. 
   High Flux Beam Reactor core; the fuel elements are in the bulb.
8. 
   High Flux Beam Reactor, experimental floor.
9. 
   High Flux Beam Reactor, spent fuel pool, full.
10. 
    Map of tritium plume and concentration, showing remediation path. Water was piped from the leading edge of the plume, sent back upstream, and put back in groundwater.
11. 
    Suffolk County Water Authority notice, placed in local newspapers to counter charges that it had ignored Brookhaven National Laboratorys groundwater testing. Courtesy Suffolk County Water Authority.
12. 
    Incoming laboratory managers approved by the DOE. Left to right: Peter Bond, Lyle Schwartz, and Michael Bebon. On May 1, 1997, the agency both appointed them and told them that their positions were effectively terminated. From Newsday. 1997 Newsday. All rights reserved. Used under license.
13. 
    DOE Secretary Pea (left) with John Wagoner, Jeanne Fox, and Tara OToole (right)
14. 
    Brookhaven employees first rally in front of Forbess office.
15. 
    AUIs truth is at stake advertisement. Courtesy Associated Universities, Inc.
16. 
    DOE Office of Energy Research head Martha Krebs welcoming John H. Marburger III, whom she had just introduced as Brookhaven National Laboratorys new Director-Select, at BNLs Berkner Auditorium, November 25, 1997.
17. 
    Brookhaven Laboratory Director-Select John H. Marburger III, posing with his MGB GT forNewsday. From Newsday. 1997 Newsday. All rights reserved. Used under license.
18. 
    High Flux Beam Reactor, spent fuel pool, empty.
19. 
    Contract signing, January 5, 1998. Left to right: John H. Marburger III, Dean Helms, John Kennedy (DOE), Greg Fess (BSA), and Joan Shands (DOE).
20. 
    Attendees at a party at the Bonds the last night of AUIs management of Brookhaven to introduce Marburger to the Friends of Brookhaven. Left to right: Sean McCorkle, Jim Hurst, Ed Kaplan, Frank Marotta, Jean Jordan-Sweet, Jennifer OConnor, Ben Ocko, Bill Graves, Joanna Fowler, John Shanklin, and Peter Bond. Courtesy Sandra Bond.
21. 
    STAR flyer showing former DOE Secretary Bill Richardson receiving an award from Christie Brinkley.

In 1997, a leak of water containing radioactivity was discovered at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Though federal, state, and local officials declared that it posed no health hazard either to the labs employees or to the surrounding community, it triggered a media and political firestorm. In its wake came a startling series of events that included the firing of Brookhavens corporate manager, changes in the labs leadership, transformation of the labs culture, significant alterations to management contracts of Department of Energy scientific facilities, the permanent closure of the labs research reactor, and even calls to close the lab itself. While 1997 was the labs fiftieth anniversary, it was a year of chaos rather than celebration.

A quarter of a century later, in a period of social and political uncertainty when the value and authority of science are urgently needed, it is vital to look back on this episode. Amid the unruly happenings one can make out fault lines between scientists, politicians, media, and the public that have only grown larger and more intractable. The story of the events at Brookhaven in 1997 exposes dangers that US science faces now and in the foreseeable future and illustrates lessons about the management of large scientific facilities that need to be learned or relearned. This book is therefore about not just Brookhaven National Laboratory but the kinds of social and political dynamics on which the existence of scientific facilities such as Brookhaven continue to depend.

Though the health and safety impact of Brookhavens leak was negligible, activists and the media at times applied sensationalist language to the episode. While such language would have been appropriate to Chernobyl, Bhopal, and the Challenger launch disasters, it was not to the BNL leak. The story therefore helps shed light on current controversies where suspicions and fears, combined with loss of trust and political ambitions, strongly shape controversies involving issues with scientific and technical dimensions, such as the safety of vaccines, the reality of climate change, and the dangers of toxic chemicals, for starters.

We were there. Crease, a Stony Brook University faculty member, is a philosopher and historian of science who was then finishing a book on the labs first half-century. (Both are referred to here in the third person.) This makes us interested parties who might be viewed as biased in presenting the story. Then and now, we found many of the unfolding events to be like the plot twists in some outrageous tragicomedy whose spectrum of vivid characters ranged from cultivated to clownish. However, the passage of more than twenty-five years, together with our subsequent experiences, have allowed us, we hope, to look back more insightfully and with fresh eyes. We also had unprecedented access to many participants, internal emails, and the minutes of key meetings, which put us in a special position to observe and judge the actors, events, and dynamics.