A sole U.S. Department of Energy spokesman and a contract facilitator must have drawn the short straws in the gamble on who would host last week's local hearing on production of plutonium-238 at the Idaho National Laboratory.
Heat from decaying plutonium-238 is used to generate electricity in deep-space probes and satellites.
The DOE has never held a public hearing in Blaine County. For the last 30- years, it has assiduously avoided the well-educated and super-charged population here and instead scheduled hearings in friendlier towns, often desperate for jobs.
The DOE deserves points for finally holding a hearing here. It should not be the last, even though the hearing was more like a bad day in the British Parliament with the back-benchers in full howl. The DOE needs to hear from people in the Wood River Valley, which is just 80 miles from the INL—closer as the crow flies.
Both the DOE spokesman and people who testified had an impossible job. The atmosphere was charged with distrust stemming from 50 years of INL operations. The hearing did nothing to quell distrust.
The U.S. government has decided it needs more plutonium-238 because current stocks will be gone by 2010. It has "promised" the substance will not be used for military purposes, but won't say what it will use it for. That's a secret.
This, combined with the assertion that production of a substance more radioactive than its cousin, plutonium-239 (used in nuclear weapons), is safe and less likely to harm the public than smoking cigarettes, was a recipe for confrontation.
With fears about terrorism, creation of space weapons, contamination, and the admission that plutonium 238 could be used in a "dirty bomb" (one that disperses radioactive material with conventional explosives)—drama was inevitable.
The hearing was remarkable in that not one person even hinted concern that plutonium production could hurt the valley's property values. It was unlike other local hearings in which everything from hotels and traffic to affordable housing have been held up as major threats to life here. The 200-member audience of primarily working residents clearly had greater dangers in mind.
The hearing was also remarkable in what the DOE spokesman conveyed. The proposal to manufacture plutonium-238 came off as a done deal. The government has already decided it will manufacture 238 and listed INL as its preferred site. It looks to be simply going through the public-hearing motions before a final decision is issued.
It's no wonder the spokesmen were wary. It's no wonder the audience was cranky.
