Tritium and the Times: How the Nuclear Weapons-Production Scandal Became a National Story

Abstract

For more than a decade, pieces of a nationwide scandal had surfaced from the vast and sprawling system that produces America's nuclear weapons; as health, safety, and environmental stories at the 17 facilities in 12 states. For years, accounts appeared in the regional and local newspapers, among them The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Seattle Times, The Spokane Spokesman-Review, The Portland Oregonian, The !Salt Lake City] Desert News, The Rocky Mountain News, The Denver Post, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Columbia (South Carolina) State and Record, The Charlotte {North Carolina} Observer, and the Washington Star. And occasionally, feature articles were printed in specialized publications such as Science magazine, New Scientist, Technology Review, and The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Reporters on the "defense" and "science" beats for national publications also noted the production system's vital role in maintaining the U.S. strategic nuclear deterrent. But with few exceptions, the weapons-making system itself was never considered an important national news story. This weapons-making system's costs were buried in the Energy Department's budget; its policies concerned a metallurgy and chemistry whose details were secret; its governance was obscured by military censors; and its dangers were only seen or sensed by workers and residents in remote areas -many of whom depended on these facilities for their livelihood. Then, in October 1988, the problems that had developed in secret over decades suddenly gained the full attention of the national press: as frontpage features in the country's leading newspapers, as cover stories in the weekly news magazines, and as leading items on the commercial television news programs. How and why this long-acknowledged but ignored topic became a "national" story when it did demonstrates the ways in which public-policy issues are shaped and strengthened by politicians and the press. In the case at hand, the nuclear weapons production story developed through a combination of factors: surprising leaks to the press from a federal agency split by policy feuds, persistent congressional staff investigations and initiatives, related concerns about safety in civilian nuclear power plants, and a respected national newspaper's ambitious "crusade." This research paper examines how the story broke, and explores what new role the press plays in the future of U,S, nuclear-weapons policy. More broadly, this paper raises questions about how news is made in the murky world where science, politics, and national security collide.