Monday,
January 9, 2017
6:00 - 7:30 pm
Pellissippi State Technical Community College
10915 Hardin
Valley Road, Knoxville
Lamar Alexander
Building, Room 223
JANAURY MEETING
. . . . And Some of the Cowboys Wore White Hats;
Disposal of Liquid Nuclear Waste at Clinton Labs in the Very
Early Years
By
Dr. Stephen H. Stow, Retired
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Abstract
When the issue of disposal of
nuclear waste at Clinton Laboratories (now ORNL) during the WWII
years is raised, the overwhelming view is that such was done
haphazardly with little, if any, concern for the environment or
for safety and health; words such as “dumped in the
river” are commonly used. Recent research using declassified
documents from the ORNL files reveals a compelling story that
negates this opinion and that demonstrates a remarkable attention
to “safe” disposal, led by the Laboratory scientists
and engineers, including the Lab Director. All this was
undertaken daily, even though the temporary facility was built in
1943 to develop the production and separation technology for
plutonium, to be used as a fuel in a nuclear weapon to help end
the War, the objective of the Manhattan Project.
The talk, drawing a comparison between Clinton Labs and a western
town on the frontier of science, uses original documents (over
150 total) to demonstrate the evolution of the waste disposal
activities and it deals with the professional individuals, by
name, who led the efforts to develop disposal procedures and to
set limits on disposal quantities. At that time, some 75 years
ago, there were virtually no national or state disposal
guidelines and the staff assumed responsibility and foresight for
development of such. Proper evaluation of those actions must be
made in light of the standards at that time, not those of current
times. The talk concludes with a retrospective view of why these
scientists and engineers undertook such a positive role at that
time and why this story has gone untold for decades.
Biography
Having grown up in Nashville,
Steve Stow graduated from Vanderbilt with a degree in geology;
attended graduate school at Rice University and received M.S. and
PhD degrees. Steve spent three years with CONOCO in Oklahoma
working on the geochemistry of phosphate deposits, joined the
Geology Department at the University of Alabama, advanced to a
Full Professor and initiated a research program on the
geochemistry of mafic-ultramafic rocks in the southern Piedmont.
After 11 years, Steve joined the staff at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, where he initially took a managerial position as part
of ORNL's role in identification of a site for disposal of
high-level nuclear waste. He then became involved with
characterization and monitoring of historic nuclear waste
disposal practices at various Oak Ridge facilities, including
ORNL, Y-12, and K-25. Steve also assumed management of the Earth
and Atmospheric Science Section at ORNL, a group of over 90 earth
scientists and engineers. He later took a management role for the
“environmental restoration” activities at Oak Ridge,
and after two years, assumed the role as Ethics Officer for ORNL
(and Y-12). In 2003, he became Director for the American Museum
of Science and Energy (AMSE) in Oak Ridge, a DOE facility managed
by ORNL. Steve has been the author or co-author on over 60 open
literature publications and other scientific reports.
Steve retired in 2006 and is currently active in numerous groups
following the Manhattan Project history and other aspects of educational public interaction.
He serves as a tour guide for the popular DOE-sponsored
“public tour” of the Manhattan Project history and
current scientific activities that have evolved from the
Manhattan Project. He serves (has served) on boards for AMSE
Foundation, Friends of ORNL, Oak Ridge Retirees Program, Oak
Ridge Historical Society, DOE's Site Specific Advisory Board,
Farragut Museum, Oak Ridge Center for Oral Histories, and others.
Page updated May 26, 2018 |