The Successful Cleanup of the Fernald Nuclear Site

Introduction: Tell Me Your Vision

The sounds were almost too soft to hear, but the message they carried was resounding. A few clicks on the computer keyboard, followed by 49 footsteps from one end of the small office complex to the other. And then it was done: a copy of a declaration letter was transmitted from Fluor Fernald to the Department of Energy, officially completing the cleanup and closure of the Fernald nuclear production site at 4 p.m., Sunday, October 29, 2006. Continue Reading

A History of the Fernald Site… Its Workers and Successful Cleanup.

Chapter One: March 30, 1951

In the late 1940s, at the dawn of the Cold War, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) authorized construction of a single consolidated production facility to supply uranium feed material to the entire U.S. nuclear weapons complex. At that time, feed material was produced in separate plants in St. Louis, Mo.; Cleveland, Ohio; and Niagara Falls, N.Y. The new facility, encompassing both a chemical processing component and a uranium metal refinery, would do it all. The AEC, predecessor of the Department of Energy (DOE), asked the Catalytic Construction Company, its architectural and engineering contractor, to determine the ideal site for the consolidated plant. If all went according to plan, the facility would be up and running by January 1953. Continue Reading

MONDAY, MAY 09, 2005

Food for thought on Squitieri firing

Brian Hart writes in to Romenesko: Tom Squitieri was evidently forced to resign [from USA Today] over a quote from me which I have related to several reporters. It concerned a phone call in October 2003 from my son in Iraq a week before he was killed in an unarmored vehicle.

The quote was accurate. It was reported by others including Ted Evanoff of the Indy Star. Both Ted Evanoff and Tom Squitieri are excellent investigative reporters. Ted essentially broke the story that armored Humvee production was not anywhere near capacity. He and I worked together from time to time in understanding this national tragedy since Nov. 2003.

Tom Squitieri wrote one of the best researched articles in 2005 on the subject of underproduction of armored Humvees and the deceptions that allowed it. It is a subject to which I have become an unfortunate expert. The Pentagon has consistently misled the public on this matter amidst a mountain of disinformation; Tom got to the heart of the story.

On Friday afternoon, I was contacted by a reporter who asked if I had seen the news about Tom’s dismissal. I had not. I have received only one phone call from a reporter asking if the quote was accurate. As I told the USA Today editors, I was both happy with the quote and discussed the matter extensively with Tom. In fact a review of my notes indicates over 30 days of discussion. One of the last emails I got from him was that the Pentagon was going nuts over his story.

So is accuracy or attribution more important?Of the many times I’ve been misquoted by reporters, not once has an editor volunteered to fire the reporter. Yet here is a quote I endorsed which evidently has gotten a reporter fired because he didn’t attribute it to a reporter I also worked with at a sister publication of his! Madness.

Imagine my outrage. The Pentagon told the press corps that the production of armored Humvees was near capacity for a year and a half and it wasn’t though reporters dutifully publish these press releases as fact to an unwitting public. Tom does his research and gets fired. Folks at the Pentagon must be grinning at the irony.

July 5, 2001 Posted: 8:57 PM EDT (0057 GMT)

USA Today reporter Tom Squitieri has been reporting on missing Washington intern Chandra Levy and looking into her relationship with Rep. Gary Condit. He spoke to CNN anchor Joie Chen on Thursday about what his reporting has turned up.

CHEN: You have talked to a relative of Chandra Levy’s who said — and you aren’t even saying whether this is a he or she relative — that this person has some information that led this person to believe that Chandra Levy did have more than just a friendship with Congressman Condit.

SQUITIERI: Correct. In the story that I wrote, along with my colleague, Kevin Johnson, we detail some of the information that Chandra Levy told this relative during two visits to the relative’s home in Maryland as well as several telephone conversations.

It goes to the heart of the close relationship she told the relatives she had with Congressman Condit. This information had been turned over the police as well by the relative and others, and they have investigated it — they are investigating it. They do not brush this away from the information, and we think it’s crucial in using to determine just what the type of relationship was, and then if that is important in finding Chandra Levy.

CHEN: Chandra, apparently offered some evidence that there was more to this relationship.

SQUITIERI: Correct. One of the gifts that she said, Joie, that the congressman gave her was a gold bracelet. And during the visit to the relative’s home during Passover, which is in early April, in this very room and I can see the video on, that’s the relative’s home, she — you can see the gold bracelet there on her wrist. And at one point she told the relative that this came from Congressman Condit — this was given to her by Congressman Condit.

For entire transcript, please go to:  http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/07/05/suitieri.levy.cnna/