December 12, 1997

Brookhaven Reactor Decision Is Delayed as Pressures Grow

By JOHN T. MCQUISTON

ASTIC BEACH, N.Y. -- Energy Secretary Federico F. Pena, who had been expected to announce early next month whether the troubled nuclear research reactor at the Brookhaven National Laboratory would be restarted, has put off his decision until late next year.

The Department of Energy said he wanted more time to review environmental and public health concerns before making his decision.

The announcement came Wednesday evening at a public hearing on the future of the reactor. The meeting, with the Mastic Beach Property Owners Association, was the first of a series of Energy Department hearings to be held in communities surrounding the laboratory as part of an environmental review process.

"I want to say up front that we are unalterably opposed to reopening the reactor," said Peter Quinn, an energy analyst for the Long Island Progressive Coalition, an alliance of environmental, business and civic groups.

Quinn, who was the first of several speakers during the hearing's public comment period, said that the 32-year-old reactor was "too old to be dependable" and that it sits atop the aquifer that provides drinking water for Long Island.

"The thought of reopening the reactor boggles the mind," Quinn said. "At best, it's an exercise of fuzzy science in this technological age."

Pena will use the information gathered from the hearings and elsewhere to determine the fate of the research reactor, said Martha Krebs, director of energy research for the Energy Department.

Dr. Krebs said Pena met on Thursday morning with the members of Brookhaven Science Associates, who won a $2 billion government contract last month to operate the laboratory for the next five years. She said they discussed the delay in his decision on the reactor and the scientists "strongly supported it."

In addition, Dr. Krebs said she had received a report and recommendations from an advisory committee of leading scientists from universities and federal laboratories around the country urging that the Brookhaven reactor be restarted. The reactor was shut down a year ago after water with radioactive tritium was discovered leaking from a fuel storage tank beneath the reactor.

The committee not only urged the restarting of the reactor, but also doubling its power output from 30 megawatts to 60 megawatts to allow for more research. "If the startup were to be at 30 megawatts, with no clear plan to move to 60 megawatts, it should not be done," the committee said in a report to Dr. Krebs, dated Nov. 22 and released on Wednesday by the Energy Department.

The committee strongly recommended that the reactor be "restarted as soon as possible to minimize the effect on neutron science research in the United States." The reactor creates beams of neutrons used in research by more than 250 scientists from nearly 100 institutions around the world, working on such projects as ways to improve treatments for bone cancer and viruses that invade human cells.

The committee urged that the reactor be started sometime next year. Otherwise, the committee said, the United States may never recover its international lead in neutron science.

"It is clear that the current shutdown is having a profound impact on investigators using neutron-scattering methods in their research," the committee said. "There is no doubt that for a short time some flexibility exists using other U.S. facilities and international facilities. However, the oversubscription of all neutron-scattering facilities worldwide means that within a relatively short period, researchers will be compelled to switch to other fields."

Dr. Krebs said that the committee had provided "valuable, independent advice," but "should not be considered reflective of the department's thinking." She said the report would be considered by Pena.

Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company