One of the first stories ETS! reported on when we began publishing last September was the secretive, sordid effort by the Department of Energy and Washington state's Congressional delegation to restart nuclear weapon production at Hanford. Since then, we've been regularly updating the story: the sellout by politicians, the fraudulent PR campaign to convince the public that the restart was needed to "cure cancer," the cost, the illegal redirection of federal money intended for cleanup, the impact on global disarmament, worker safety, and environmental safety, and the threat of catastrophe--through either a plant disaster, which DoE officials say could be worse than Chernobyl, or through use of the end product. In short, it's a really, really bad idea.

It's gotten worse. But first, some background.

The medical isotope gambit used to justify restart of the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) at Hanford has widely been seen as a smokescreen. The idea- -that the FFTF could produce isotopes that would in turn be sold privately in response to possible advances in cancer or AIDS cures--simply makes no sense. Even if such isotopes do prove useful for medical purposes (by no means a sure thing), there are more sources on the market already, at much cheaper prices to produce, than even a cancer cure could generate a market for. Strictly from a free enterprise standpoint, it's a flop.

The scheme does, however, paint a much more publicly palatable face on FFTF's military mission--according to the Dept. of Energy, the only mission that has been or will be contemplated--to produce tritium, the key explosive component in nuclear (hydrogen) bombs. The public is likely to be skeptical, even outraged, at billions of dollars for still more weaponry in this era of disarmament and no credible enemies; but who would object to curing cancer? Hence, the scam, and the political cover. Good liberals like Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Gary Locke have endorsed the FFTF restart, conditioned on the assumption (which they know to be false) that it will restart with the primary goal of curing cancer.

Creating cancer (through the same environmentally destructive practices that have made Hanford a wasteland in the first place) and creating nuclear weaponry has been a topic to avoid at all costs. A constituent letter franked to millions by Patty Murray last summer summarized the restart, as the eighth of nine items in a "Hanford Update," as follows:

"I am very enthusiastic about the possibility that the FFTF might contribute to curing cancer. Currently, a group of scientists is reviewing the FFTF's ability to produce tritium, which appears necessary to make the production of medical isotopes financially possible."

The unwary might well assume this is a scientific, not military, plan, and that tritium cures cancer--not that tritium is a weapon component needed for the U.S. to be able to continue to terrorize and/or annihilate the planet.

Because the isotope idea is itself so unworkable, not much attention has been paid to the other part of that proposal--the "who." The whole isotope scheme originated not with some bureaucrat or DoE official, but with two sleazy private enterpreneurs in Ellensburg who propose to privatize FFTF and sell its products--both tritium and isotopes--to customers, of which the U.S. government would be one. Nuclear war for profit (and maybe, eventually, a cure for cancer). A genuinely lunatic idea.

And an idea which, in a non-public letter to Dept. of Energy Secretary Federico Pena, our liberal, warm 'n fuzzy, son-of-immigrants governor, Gary Locke, is now pushing hard and seriously.

The key paragraph of Locke's April 10, 1997 letter--leaked by officials alarmed at its implications--reads as follows:

...I've been following local efforts to restart Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF). This reactor is a valuable asset with an impressive operational record. It is capable of making a valuable contribution to society as well as to community economic development efforts. I support the concept of using the facility for the production of medical isotopes and accept that it may be necessary to temporarily rely on a national defense tritium production mission to reach this goal. Further, I feel that privatization could facilitate an expeditious transition to medical isotope production. While I do not endorse any single firm, I urge you to meet with representatives of Advanced Nuclear and Medical Systems (ANMS) at your earliest convenience to discuss the potential of privatization and I trust such a meeting can be arranged...

That's correct. Outside of public view, Gov. Gary is working to get a private, for-profit company to make and sell the key explosive component in nuclear weaponry.

So: who is ANMS? The new, official Poster Company of Gary Locke's plan to cure the world of cancer is not exactly your model corporate citizen, even by Strangelove standards. ANMS is a tiny partnership, based in Ellensburg, begun in December 1995, with no previous experience in this sort of thing. It has no money, and initially proposed to fund the FFTF restart mostly by using interest-free government loans--in other words, taxpayers pay its costs and then ANMS reaps the profits. Its two principals are William Stokes, an ex-DoE official, and Richard Thompson, an ex-Air Force officer and (I'm not making this up) real estate promoter in Ellensburg. Thompson's other accomplishments in 1996 included seizure by the IRS of all his personal accounts and records involving a failed real estate venture, and the resignation of a State Transportation Commission post after allegations of sexual harassment.

ANMS's sole moment in the public light thus far has been its treatment of an ex-employee, one Randall Bonebrake, who, last November, quit Thompson & Associates and Stone River Resort (Thompson's Ellensburg real estate venture). He then went public with documents detailing--among other things- -an apparently illegal deal with the European nuclear giant SBK to import and store nearly 300 German nuclear fuel assemblies at FFTF in exchange for getting $35.8 million in start-up funding.

For his troubles, Bonebrake was arrested by local authorities at ANMS's request and charged with felony theft for "stealing" the documents--many of which were in DOE possession or otherwise legally available to the public. The trial resulted in a hung jury May 7, but the malicious harassment of an employee alarmed at ANMS's apparent crimes--and their transparent interest in nuclear weapons profits, not fictitious cancer cures--speaks volumes about how this whole process has unfolded.

Can Hanford be privatized? It sounds insane; it's not much different, given that the rest of the world is on track to nuclear abolition, from advocating private production of chemical weapons of mass destruction (think of the uproar that would cause!). But the assumption of so many Republicans and Clintonoid Democrats these days, that all state policies are auctionable to the highest and most profitable bidders, makes such folly frighteningly real. Generous campaign contributions by ANMS in last year's election apparently has helped make it more real. We may end all life on the planet, and we'll certainly end all life in the Columbia River, but think of the potential for short-term profit!

Gary Locke has not only signed on, but is aggressively pushing-- with no public visibility or accountability and an active campaign of disinformation--an environmentally destructive, internationally destabilizing, extremely expensive, and potentially omnicidal plan, just east of the mountains, on behalf of a company I wouldn't trust to babysit my dog. Why?

Perhaps you should ask him. (360) 753-6780.