NUCLEAR GUARDIANSHIP FORUM, On The Responsible Care of Radioactive Materials
Issue # 3, Spring 1994, p. 9.
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                    Atomic Harvest by Michael D'Antonio

          Hanford And The Lethal Toll Of America's Nuclear Arsenal

     reviewed by Joanna Macy

     This gripping tale catches the historic, human drama unfolding
     now, as our society struggles to come to terms with the nightmare
     created by the waste from nuclear weapons production and five
     decades of negligence, secrecy, and deception. Both hard-nosed and
     compassionate, D'Antonio is masterful in taking us into the lives
     and minds of men and women making fateful choices, as they
     confront the enormity of the damage already inflicted on our own
     generation and waiting like a ticking time-bomb for countless
     future generations.

     Engineers, journalists, farmers, ministers, administrators, these
     are ordinary men and women, involved with their families,
     concerned for their jobs, enjoying their friends. And an inspiring
     number of them, thanks to their courage and decency and
     perseverance, play extraordinary roles. So this book, while
     horrifying in what it reveals about the mess created by our
     military industrial complex, is morally exhilarating.

     While it focuses on Hanford, the same kinds of dramas are at play
     around Rocky Flats and Savannah River and all our other major
     weapons sites -- and I hope it will inspire us to cherish and make
     common cause with all fellow-citizens who, right now, are taking
     risks, working long night hours, and putting their personal and
     professional lives on the line to see that the radioactive
     materials are handled responsibly.

     In these pages I was not surprised to meet downwinders like Tom
     Bailie, who incurred the wrath of fellow-farmers by revealing the
     contamination of land and produce; whistleblowers like Casey Ruud,
     who lost his job because he could not stop telling the truth about
     waste management at Hanford; reporters like Karen Dorn Steele, a
     single mother risking her position at the paper to research and
     make public what we all need to know; and Unitarian minister
     William Harper Houff, who risked his reputation in a conservative
     community to name the evils he perceived and educate his
     congregation to the point that they created HEAL (Hanford
     Education Action League), a dynamic citizen organization that is
     active now both locally and globally. These and other such
     "ordinary people" take their place now in my own Hall of Heroes,
     enriching my inner storehouse of courage.

     I was surprised to meet such figures within the Department of
     Energy itself, and have them shatter some of my stereotypes about
     who are the good guys and the bad guys. These include John
     Herrington, the Bush-appointed DOE Secretary who allowed himself
     to be startled by the pollution, sloppiness and cover-ups at the
     DOE weapons sites and, in the face of his department's entrenched
     culture of secrecy, ordered far-reaching studies and disclosures.
     And they include his deputy, former Oakland city police officer
     Joseph Delgado, who listened to the whistleblowers and worked
     tirelessly to incorporate the feedback they provided. As we give
     support now to Secretary Hazel O'Leary's efforts to dismantle
     DOE's culture of secrecy, it is good to know of the brave efforts
     of those who preceded her. All would-be guardians deserve this
     informative, fast-paced read.

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     Atomic Harvest: Hanford and the Lethal Toll of America's Nuclear
     Arsenal by Michael D'Antonio. Crown Publishers Inc., New York,
     1993.