Word: herrington
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Charges of political favoritism began to fly almost as soon as Energy Secretary John Herrington announced that Texas had won the competition for the $4.4 billion superconducting supercollider (SSC), designed to be the world's ! largest and most powerful atom smasher. Led by Arizona's Dennis DeConcini, Senators from several also-ran states protested to President Reagan that "there is a widespread perception that this decision was based . . . on political and other factors." They called for an investigation by both the General Accounting Office and a commission of "nationally respected physicists." Other legislators issued similar complaints...
Plausible, perhaps, but Herrington argued otherwise. "I have run this on a nonpolitical basis," he maintains. "We were picking the best from the best, and it is clear that the Texas site is superior." In particular, the site 28 miles south of Dallas and completely surrounding the town of Waxahachie (pop. 18,300) was rated "outstanding" on four criteria and "good" on two others, clearly outperforming the competition. The best alternative was Tennessee, with three "outstandings," two "goods" and one "satisfactory." Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Illinois and North Carolina rounded out the pack. Moreover, Texas volunteered to throw $1 billion...
Energy Secretary John Herrington readily admits that safety fell by the wayside in the past as "things got too cozy" with plant contractors. Despite the growing public outcry, however, he plans to restart one tritium-producing reactor at Savannah River in December and another early next year. Herrington, a lawyer and Reagan appointee, has taken commendable steps to infuse a safety- conscious attitude at the weapons facilities. But he has failed to heed complaints from environmentalists and Congressmen who believe the plant should remain closed until DOE files an environmental-impact statement on the 300- sq.-mi. facility...
...special meeting at the White House last week, President Reagan and Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci asked Department of Energy Secretary John Herrington to answer one question: Is the nation's nuclear stockpile in jeopardy? There was ample reason for their concern. A few days earlier, Building 771 at the Government's Rocky Flats plutonium-processing plant in Colorado became the second weapons facility to be shut down in less than two months, after three people were exposed to radioactive material. Simultaneously, a Government report charged DOE-run weapons-research labs with lax security during visits by foreign experts, including...
...Herrington assured Reagan that DOE was still capable of making nuclear bombs and announced that the agency plans as early as late December to restart at least one of its beleaguered Savannah River reactors in South Carolina, where production of tritium was halted for safety reasons in August. Still, many question whether DOE will be ready any time soon to make radioactive materials for weapons safely and without further damage to the environment. "The Department of Energy is solving problems as they arise," charged Democratic Congressman Mike Synar of Oklahoma. "What we need is a serious overhaul of DOE oversight...