1. “Announced?” That’s hysterical. Misleading, inaccurate and anti-historical. How gauche and louche of The Oak Ridger.
2. On November 17, 1982, our small, one-year old, tabloid Clinton, Tenn weekly newspaper, the Appalachian Observer, filed a FOIA request for mercury data to be declassified. See one-page FOIA letter from Publisher Ernest F. Phillips and Editor Ed Slavin (me).
3. NO such request was made by Tennessee environmental regulators, The Oak Ridger, or two Knoxville daily newspapers.
4. Most people believed DOE’s “national security” secrecy assertions when DOE and Union Carbide told the Tennessee regulators that mercury data was “classified,” unavailable. We alone asked for declassification.
5. Please see transcript of May 23, 1983 Oak Ridge City Council meeting, where I cross-examined DOE and Union Carbide officials; printed hearing of DOE Oak Ridge Operations Manager Joe Ben LaGrone’s testimony, and my testimony, at July 11, 1983 hearing before then-Reps. Al Gore, Jr. & Marilyn Lloyd and their two House Science and Technology subcommittees, held at the Oak Ridge Museum of Science and Energy auditorium.
6. In a landmark ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Taylor held there was NO “national security” exemption to anti-pollution laws https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/586/1163/1903257/
7. P.S. Anderson County voters May 1 re-elected Mr. Ernest F. Phillips’ daughter, Terry Frank, as Anderson County Mayor.
8. Like her late dad and her mom (Anne Phillips), Mayor Terry Frank has “the right stuff.”
9. The gullible Oak Ridger newspaper was founded by the U.S. Government. When will it stop being a doormat, a press release, for DOE and its contractors? Start reporting the whole truth, with actual investigative reporting on DOE
Oak Ridge ‘mercury saga’ May 17 meeting topic
OUR PICKS
On May 17, 1983, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it had “lost” or couldn’t account for 2.4 million pounds of mercury in the Oak Ridge environment as a result of lithium production for a U.S. thermonuclear weapons program.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — On May 17, 1983, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it had “lost” or couldn’t account for 2.4 million pounds of mercury in the Oak Ridge environment as a result of lithium production for a U.S. thermonuclear weapons program.
This Thursday, May 17, 2018, which is the 35th anniversary of DOE’s public disclosure, Carolyn Krause will speak on “Oak Ridge’s Mercury Saga: A History of Mercury Contamination in Oak Ridge and the Public and Scientific Response” at 6 p.m. in the Midtown Community Center (formerly the Wildcat Den) at 102 Robertsville Road.
The talk is hosted by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association.
“The release of information to the public about the release of the heavy metal mercury to the Oak Ridge environment since 1950 sparked DOE’s launch of a national environmental management program,” Krause said. “Through contractors, DOE has been addressing contamination at its 75 nuclear sites by uranium, plutonium, other radioactive substances, and chemical pollutants.
“Almost 50 years of mercury research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has helped reduce cleanup costs and resulted in amazing discoveries that may lead to ways to make mercury in waterways less toxic.”
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The editor of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review for 25 years, Krause previously worked as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Press and The Oak Ridger. She has a master’s degree in journalism, with an emphasis on science writing, from Northwestern University.
2. On November 17, 1982, our small, one-year old, tabloid Clinton, Tenn weekly newspaper, the Appalachian Observer, filed a FOIA request for mercury data to be declassified. See one-page FOIA letter from Publisher Ernest F. Phillips and Editor Ed Slavin (me).
3. NO such request was made by Tennessee environmental regulators, The Oak Ridger, or two Knoxville daily newspapers.
4. Most people believed DOE’s “national security” secrecy assertions when DOE and Union Carbide told the Tennessee regulators that mercury data was “classified,” unavailable. We alone asked for declassification.
5. Please see transcript of May 23, 1983 Oak Ridge City Council meeting, where I cross-examined DOE and Union Carbide officials; printed hearing of DOE Oak Ridge Operations Manager Joe Ben LaGrone’s testimony, and my testimony, at July 11, 1983 hearing before then-Reps. Al Gore, Jr. & Marilyn Lloyd and their two House Science and Technology subcommittees, held at the Oak Ridge Museum of Science and Energy auditorium.
6. In a landmark ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Taylor held there was NO “national security” exemption to anti-pollution laws https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/586/1163/1903257/
7. P.S. Anderson County voters May 1 re-elected Mr. Ernest F. Phillips’ daughter, Terry Frank, as Anderson County Mayor.
8. Like her late dad and her mom (Anne Phillips), Mayor Terry Frank has “the right stuff.”
9. The gullible Oak Ridger newspaper was founded by the U.S. Government. When will it stop being a doormat, a press release, for DOE and its contractors? Start reporting the whole truth, with actual investigative reporting on DOE« less