MEETING BRIEF
Neutrons or "No Nukes"

The Future of Brookhaven National Laboratory's High Flux Beam Reactor

by Dan Ferber

(Posted September 5, 1997 · Issue 15; archived September 19, 1997)

Abstract

The High Flux Beam Reactor at New York's Brookhaven National Laboratory, one of the world's premier sources of neutrons for structural biology and chemistry research, has been down since January 1997, when low concentrations of tritium were discovered in groundwater near the reactor. Now the reactor is the subject of intense controversy as antinuclear activists seek to close it permanently, and Long Island politicians seek to shutter it with federal legislation. Brookhaven and the U.S. Department of Energy began a high-profile outreach effort to decide the reactor's future with a local public meeting.

Beneath the massive steel dome of Brookhaven National Laboratory's High Flux Beam Reactor, it is quiet. The experimental floor is almost empty, equipment sits idle, and the neutron beam lines are plugged. The eight stripes in the center of the control panel are red, indicating full insertion of the control rods into the reactor core - a state of complete shutdown.

About ten miles down the road, at a public meeting held August 14, 1997 at the Mastic-Moriches-Shirley Community Library, antinuclear activists, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) workers, community members and reporters joined 19 BNL and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) scientists to discuss - and debate - the future of the reactor (HFBR).

The meeting kicked off a public-outreach effort by BNL and DOE that could lead to restarting the 32-year-old reactor, which is one of the key U.S. sources of neutrons for the study of the structure of matter. The HFBR has been idle since January 1997, after low levels of tritium were detected in groundwater beneath it, triggering an epidemic of anxiety among Long Islanders and months of turmoil at the lab. Even now, despite the findings of a scientific advisory panel that recommended HFBR restart, it is not yet clear when - or if - the reactor will ever run again.

Turmoil at BNL

The tritium leak struck a nerve on Long Island because the area's sole source of drinking water is a groundwater aquifer, and it added to the public perception that the lab was sloppy in its environmental practices. BNL was named a federal Superfund site in 1989, and the lab has been actively cleaning up decades-old environmental contamination in several areas of its forested, 5,300-acre site.

BNL environmental staff worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local environmental officials to investigate the tritium leak and, after drilling test wells, defined a plume 2,200 feet long in which tritium was above the federal drinking water standard of 20,000 picocuries per liter. Tritium concentrations ranged from 660,000 picocuries per liter just south of the HFBR down to 6,440 picocuries 3,585 feet south of the reactor.

The entire plume was contained within the site's boundaries; no tritium contamination was ever found in groundwater off-site or in anyone's drinking water supply, on or off the site. Both the EPA and the Suffolk County Department of Health Services state that no public health threat exists.

Nevertheless, the controversy continues. The lab has seen three directors in the last five months, and in May U.S. Secretary of Energy Federico Peña fired the group that had run Brookhaven since its inception 50 years ago, Associated Universities, a consortium of nine northeastern universities. DOE officials say that a new group will be selected in November to run the lab.

Meanwhile, the upheaval has disturbed the tranquil academic atmosphere that BNL scientists appreciate. Also hard hit were the more than 250 scientists from institutions worldwide who do neutron experiments at the reactor each year, including structural biologists, chemists, physicists, and materials scientists.

Research Applications of the Reactor

The meeting, which was a poster session with no formal presentations, provided an opportunity for BNL staff to interact directly with community members and reporters.

John Axe, scientific program head of the HFBR, discussed the scientific work of the reactor. Axe pointed out that HFBR neutron research has touched on a variety of scientific fields.

In structural biology and chemistry, the reactor is used for neutron-scattering experiments to help localize light atoms like hydrogen, which X-ray crystallography cannot pinpoint. Neutron scattering is particularly valuable because macromolecules can be studied in solution, rather than in crystalline form, Axe said.

Neutron-scattering studies at the reactor helped locate loosely bound water molecules around hemoglobin, Axe noted, helping scientists elucidate how iron is inserted into the heme group of the protein.

Small-angle neutron-scattering experiments at BNL have also identified the structural differences between the active and inactive form of plasminogen, which led to a better understanding of how plasminogen dissolves fibrin in blood clots, and may lead to better treatments for heart attacks and strokes, Axe added.

Trouble for Neutron Science

Many research projects remain on hold as the HFBR shutdown continues. Only two comparable neutron sources exist in the United States: the High Flux Isotope Reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the reactor at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersberg, Maryland, Axe said.

"The really important thing is that both of those reactors are oversubscribed by a factor of two," Axe said, and Japanese and European facilities are also in demand. "If the HFBR is shut down, other deserving science would get pushed off."

Zero Tolerance for Radiation

Many activists say the dangers of the HFBR outweigh the benefits, and they want the reactor permanently shuttered. Some at the meeting were openly skeptical of the lab's motives.

"This is nothing more than PR," said William Smith, a persistent lab critic who operates Fish Unlimited, a small activist group based in Shelter Island, New York. "This has nothing to do with reality."

Other local activist groups at the meeting included Global Resource Action Center for the Environment and STAR (Standing for the Truth about Radiation). Local progressive groups represented included the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, the New York State Green Party and the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Community input was taken informally and through comment cards.

Long Island SHAD, which protests outside the Brookhaven's main gate every Friday, set up a table next to the posters and tried to recruit for an anti-reactor rally planned for September 29 in front of the DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Sitting behind a sign that said "Stop the nuclear contamination of Long Island," Long Island SHAD member Diane Dippel asked passersby to sign an anti-reactor petition. "This is for our children and our children's children," she said.

Reactor Science, Reactor Safety

Many local activists draw lessons from their long battle against the nearby Shoreham nuclear power plant, which closed in 1995 after nearly two decades of controversy. But reactor scientists point out that the HFBR differs in many ways from a nuclear power plant.

The 30-megawatt HFBR has a much lower operating temperature and pressure than a typical 3,000-megawatt commercial reactor - 140° F and 200 pounds per square inch (PSI) for the HFBR, compared to 600° F and more than 1,000 PSI for a commercial reactor. It uses much less fuel - 25 pounds of uranium, compared to about 4,000 pounds in a commercial reactor. Finally, it was designed with a different purpose.

"The purpose of their design is to produce electricity for financial gain," said Joe Barkwill, plant manager for the HFBR, as he stood in front of a cutaway view of the reactor. "Ours is to produce neutrons for scientific research."

While Barkwill explained the reactor operations, Ray Karol of BNL's reactor division explained the HFBR's safeguards to protect workers and the environment; Ken Krasner of the lab's safety and environmental protection division explained emergency preparation procedures; and William Gunther, manager of BNL's office of environmental restoration, explained the remediation process for the tritium already in the groundwater.

Barkwill and other lab staff would prefer that the entire debate was framed differently.

"The facility can be run efficiently, securely, and safely," Barkwill said. "The debate should be about 'Is the scientific need for this facility worth keeping it running?'"

Long Island Politicians Intervene

Despite DOE's best efforts to ensure a deliberate decision-making process, the reactor's prognosis took a decided turn for the worse three weeks after the meeting. On September 2, U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY) and U.S. Representative Michael Forbes (R), who represents eastern Long Island, held a joint press conference in Mineola, New York, where they announced their plans to introduce legislation to shutter the facility, and released a letter they had written to Secretary Peña asking him to do just that.

"Given the sorry history of this nuclear reactor, the best solution is to shut it down and see that it does not restart. It must be decommissioned and we must end any threat it poses to the health of Suffolk County residents," D'Amato said.

Forbes added that "After a long and thoughtful review of the environmental safety and health problems at Brookhaven National Lab, I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the reactor must not be restarted."

Although D'Amato's and Forbes's move shocked BNL, DOE plans to continue the public outreach process as before.

"The Department of Energy has not made a decision about whether or not to restart the High Flux Beam Reactor at Brookhaven National Laboratory," said Martha Krebs, director of DOE's office of energy research. "Secretary Peña has committed to an open decision-making process that includes the views of the people of Long Island, the scientific community and other interested parties."

Restart or Close It Down?

According to the DOE plan, two broad options exist for HFBR's future, said Mike Holland, director of the nuclear programs division of the DOE Brookhaven field office: BNL and DOE will either work to restart the reactor or close it down. Before any decision is made on continuing HFBR operation, Holland says, environmental and safety reviews will be conducted on the reactor, and the lab will upgrade the HFBR to bring it into compliance with all regulations.

Though many of the activist groups are dead set against reactor restart, support is building in the scientific community to reopen the reactor, and the scientific panel that advises DOE is likely to recommend reopening the HFBR when it issues its findings in October. The public education effort by BNL and DOE may inform the opinion of other key players: the silent majority of the community who have not yet become involved.

"Unless legislation is passed that forces the reactor's shutdown, the final decision to pursue HFBR restart will be made in January 1998 by Secretary of Energy Federico Peña," Krebs said, based on community input, the value of HFBR science, and the cost of safety and environmental upgrades.

Even if Peña approves restart of the reactor, it would not open until October 1999 at the earliest, after the environmental and safety reviews are completed. Until then the lab and DOE will continue soliciting community opinion and sharing information about the reactor.

"We intend to continue to conduct a full, open and public process, and we welcome Senator D'Amato's and Congressman Forbes's contributions," Krebs said.

Dan Ferber, Ph.D., is a freelance science writer based in Urbana, Illinois.

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Endlinks

Brookhaven National Laboratory - guide to the center's conferences, status of the cleanup of the tritium groundwater contamination, and community-oriented information. Pages on the High Flux Beam Reactor review the reactor's scientific uses and planned upgrades to the reactor.

Neutron scattering on gases, liquids and solid matter . . . - a brief overview of the scientific uses of neutrons, from the Institut Laue-Langevin in France.

Why neutrons? - short primer on neutron scattering, maintained by Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

U.S. Department of Energy - a starting point to learn about DOE and the vast national laboratory system. The Environmental Protection Agency Web site has a page on Brookhaven.

Long Island SHAD - an antinuclear activist group wanting to permanently close both the High Flux Beam Reactor and the Medical Reactor at Brookhaven.

FABLE - The self-described Foundation for Accountable Brookhaven Lab Endeavor, run by businessman Sanford Rose. Rose recently lost a $50 million federal lawsuit against BNL and Associated Universities for what he claimed was breach of contract. His site has extensive text and audio excerpts, and images, of Brookhaven-related media coverage.