The Leak: Politics, Activists, and Loss of Trust at Brookhaven National Laboratory
Imagine this: A very small spill of a toxic material occurs in a state-of-the art research lab at the huge, world-renowned cancer hospital where you work. The spill is contained well within hospital property and does not present a health risk to patients, employees, or residents in the neighborhood. Yet it is sensationalized in the local and national news media and is the source of lots of mis-information spread by anti-science activists and politically connected well-to-do celebrities who claim the leak is spreading off-site and will contaminate the community water supply leading to untold and unimaginable negative health impacts.
It doesn’t help matters that the hospital research staff is not particularly engaged with the community and there wasn’t a solid foundation of trust. Numerous independent experts are called in to assess the scene; they assure everyone that the accident is being properly handled and represents no immediate or long-term risk. So you continue to work, albeit in a more chaotic environment and watch as government officials first fire the entire hospital management and then, without consulting any experts, the governor orders a permanent shut down of the unique cancer research facility where the accident occurred.
As a frightening prelude to the anti-science attitudes that are now commonplace (think climate change deniers and the anti-vax movement), unfortunately this nightmare scenario is amazingly similar to an incident that actually happened at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) on Long Island, where I spent 40+ years working as an environmental research engineer/scientist.
BNL is one of a handful of U.S. government owned, contractor operated national laboratories whose mission is to provide unique scientific research tools for the advancement of basic and applied research at the frontiers of science, including nuclear and high-energy physics, materials science, nanoscience, energy and environmental research, national security and nonproliferation, neurosciences, structural biology, and computational sciences.
The Lab recently celebrated its 75th anniversary and with seven Nobel prizes, countless research papers and patents, numerous large, unique and cutting-edge facilities, several thousand full-time staff and many more visiting scientists who routinely make use of its unique capabilities, it has much to be proud of.
Aerial view of BNL
BNL High Flux Beam Reactor
But like any large institution, it has suffered setbacks, made mistakes and had to deal with a changing culture surrounding it. The story of BNL’s most notorious setback, a leak of radioactive tritium from one of its research reactors is the theme of the recent book, The Leak, Politics, Activists, and Loss of Trust at Brookhaven National Laboratory by Robert Crease with Peter Bond.[1] This incident ultimately led to the firing of the Lab’s original non-profit contractor, Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and the closing of its two operating reactors including the prestigious High Flux Beam Reactor (HFBR). My office was directly across the street from the HFBR and some of my colleagues helped investigate the spread of the leak and assess its consequences.[2]
A view inside HFBR’s experimental floor
When BNL opened in 1947, a major focus of its research was exploration of peaceful uses of nuclear energy and over the Lab’s history, it operated three research reactors (i.e., not for power generation or proliferation of nuclear weapons). At the time of its 50th anniversary, there were two research reactors in operation; one was a very small Medical Reactor which was helping to develop new radiation therapy treatments for cancer; the other was the High Flux Beam Reactor which produced collimated beams of high energy neutrons for materials science and basic research. The HFBR was one of the premier facilities of its kind and was in great demand in the scientific community.
Sampling groundwater at BNL
Then one day in early January 1997, a BNL hydrologist whose job was to monitor groundwater quality on site, observed data from a monitoring well near the HFBR with levels of radioactive tritium (also used in self-illuminating exit signs) at levels above EPA groundwater standards. The incident was reported immediately to the Department of Energy and once the data was confirmed several days later, the news was made public. The source of the leak was not immediately known but through radiological detective work, it was quickly determined to be coming from the pool of water where used (spent) nuclear fuel rods were stored.
No amount of additional radiation exposure is good for us and should be avoided whenever possible. That’s the basis for the policy of “as low as reasonably achievable” (ALARA) employed at all facilities that use nuclear materials. So all reasonable people would agree that the tritium leak should not have been allowed to happen in the first place. But once discovered, as documented in the book, BNL took the situation seriously and moved quickly to stop the leak, remediate and closely monitor the radioactive plume in the ground, and assess the risks.
Crease and Bond did an excellent job describing the history, chronology, underlying tensions, politics, media coverage, behind the scenes backroom maneuvering and chaos that resulted from the leak. The book’s accounting switches seamlessly from muck-raking expose to intrigue as the lop-sided battle lines were drawn.
On one side was Laboratory management which was portrayed (correctly from my perspective) as diligent, honest and well-meaning, but naïve and ill-prepared when it came to community relations. Also weighing in to lobby for scientific, fact-based decision-making were BNL staff and supporters who formed an organization called Friends of Brookhaven. They too, were initially inexperienced communicating with the public and dealing with issues in the political arena. I remember seeing these events as a wake up call for scientists resulting in my taking a very useful training course on communicating with the public (organized by Alan Alda, a strong supporter of science and the importance of scientists’ effective communications with the public).
On the other side were the self-appointed, so-called “environmental activists” who were ignorant of the facts and spread lies about cancer clusters near BNL resulting from its operations (they do not exist). In retrospect, the actions of these anti-science activists foreshadowed the age of “alternate facts” ushered in by our former president. Much like their recent science-denier counterparts, they were well organized and used scare tactics and the media to sway public opinion and further their agenda. It didn’t help matters that the Lab culture was isolated from surrounding communities and as a result, there was little understanding or appreciation for its scientific accomplishments.
The local and national news media (ranging from Long Island and NYC newspapers to television shows like Montel Williams with millions of viewers) had a field day with one sensationalist story after another. Politicians including NY Senator D’Amato and NY CD1 Congressman Forbes exploited the crisis, capitalizing on public fears in an attempt to establish their support for the environment. So, without any objective scientific or technical justification, they lobbied heavily against restarting the HFBR and proposed legislation that would ensure its permanent closure.
Brinkley presents DOE Energy Secretary award for shutting down the HFBR
Finally, anti-BNL sentiment was the rallying cry of a number of wealthy East-Enders (e.g., supermarket king, Scott Cullen) and local celebrities (e.g., Alec Baldwin and Christy Brinkley) who were extremely vocal and spread misinformation on local and national television. Brinkley met with the Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson (he went on to be the Governor of New Mexico and run for president) to apply direct political pressure. Shortly afterwards, Richardson announced an executive decision to permanently shut the reactor, despite the fact that independent outside experts that had been examining the safety of restarting the reactor for over a year, would soon determine it was safe to restart.
The Lab management put together a comprehensive strategy for stopping the leak and remediating contamination but DOE terminated their contract and initiated an expedited call for a new contractor. In the end, there were just two bidders and the contract was awarded to Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA), a partnership between Battelle Memorial Institute (which now operates several other national labs) and Stony Brook University. Considering the environmental problems it was facing and the lack of trust with the community, perhaps it was inevitable that a new team was needed to run BNL. However, the DOE took little responsibility even though they maintain an office on site at BNL to directly oversee its operations. BSA introduced a new realm of safety culture into all aspects of BNL affairs and made a concerted effort to improve community relations by forming a Community Advisory Council (CAC).
The most highly contaminated portions of the groundwater plume were pumped, collected, and shipped to a certified radioactive disposal facility; lower concentrations were pumped back to a recharge basin on site to facilitate natural decay.
Crease and Bond end their story here and didn’t update readers on the fate of the contaminated plume over the following 26 years. It’s a pretty happy ending…No tritium in concentrations above drinking water standards ever crossed site boundaries. In the most recent groundwater assessment report (issued annually), BNL reported that the highest levels of tritium at any of the scores of monitoring wells on site are now are now less than 25% of the EPA allowable limits.[3] While working at BNL, I had the opportunity to meet with the CAC and brief them on the research activities of my department and saw first-hand that a foundation of trust and respect for science in general and the work at BNL in particular, was a positive result from this unfortunate event.
The sun has set over the High Flux Beam Reactor but Brookhaven National Laboratory emerged smarter and stronger to meet the dawn with a new understanding of its role in the community and an on-going broad portfolio of cutting-edge scientific discovery
[1] Robert Crease is a professor and Chair of the Philosophy Dept. at Stony Brook University and is the unofficial historian of Brookhaven National Laboratory. Peter Bond is a retired BNL physicist and served as interim Laboratory Director as well as Chair of the Physics Dept.
[2] Sullivan, T., M. Hauptmann, and W. Gunther, “Lessons Learned in Detecting, Monitoring, Modeling and Remediating Radioactive Ground-Water Contamination,” Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NUREG/CR7029, April 2011
[3] Environmental Protection Division Groundwater Protection Group, “Site Environmental Report Vol. II, Groundwater Status Report.” Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton NY., June 13, 2022
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