The Justice Department is asking for a fine of a million dollars a day. In Washington, I'm John Dimsdale for Marketplace. This week and next, residents in Oregon and Washington state will be debating in public hearings over restarting a highly contaminated nuclear reactor. The argument for revving up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is a classic case of the economic carrot and stick. Christy George reports.
Medical researchers use radioactive isotopes from nuke plants for diagnosing and treating cancer.
Making them at home could be a lucrative business. Ernie Hughes of the Department of Energy oversees the Hanford reactor which could make both isotopes and tritium, a key ingredient in nuclear bombs. The government wanted to make tritium at a commercial reactor in Tennessee but Congress doesn't like mixing civilian and military uses of the atom. So Hanford, a military site, is an ideal choice, except to environmentalists who note that radioactive tritium has already seeped into the Columbia River. And under the terms of its clean-up deal, Hanford is supposed to be shut down, not started up again.