Cold War Dixie

Epilogue

The 1980s brought significant changes for the Savannah River Plant (srp). The partial meltdown of a reactor core at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg , Pennsylvania, in 1979 created a climate of increased fear and trepidation regarding the nuclear power industry. Although it is considered the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, the events at Three Mile Island did not result in loss of life, nor was there a significant release of radioactive material into the environment. Still, the incident put the federal government and the nuclear industry on the defensive as an energized environmental movement and a nervous public demanded greater regulations. The decision to temporarily restart the srp’s L reactor, previously shut down in the 1960s, ignited objections from environmentalists and disarmament advocates alike. The Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Strom Thurmond , held local hearings on the issue in February 1983. Representatives of the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, and Physicians for Social Responsibility took strong stands against further plutonium production and warned of the threat of possible radioactive releases, the thermal effect on the Savannah River, and the potential health risk to children. One representative from the GrassRoots Organizing Workshop argued that the government that wanted to restart the L reactor was “the same Government that . . . was willing to napalm children, women and old men in Vietnam, and is now willing to support the massacre of people in Central America.” A representative of the National Academy of Sciences, however, provided data showing minimal impact from the L reactor on river organisms. The restart had strong support from area political leaders, including Aiken County’s representatives in the state legislature and the mayors of Aiken, Augusta, North Augusta, Williston, E P I L O G U E E P I L O G U E · 171 and Allendale. In the end, the Department of Energy renovated and reconditioned the aging reactor. It was activated in 1985 and was deactivated in 1988. The 1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine forever changed the game plan for the nuclear power industry worldwide. The explosion released huge quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere. Deaths from the initial explosion and from prolonged radiation exposure have run into the hundreds of thousands. Considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, the disaster at Chernobyl brought the industry under intense scrutiny. A year after the Chernobyl accident, Du Pont announced that it would not renew its contract to operate the srp. These changes had been precipitated by more than just nuclear crises; the international scene had shifted dramatically . The fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, and the demise of the Soviet Union signaled the end of the Cold War and with it a new mission for the srp. By 1988, all reactors at the srp had been deactivated. The Department of Energy, which had assumed federal oversight of the facility from the Atomic Energy Commission, announced the following year that its primary mission had changed from weapons production to a comprehensive program of environmental compliance and cleanup. Also in 1989, Westinghouse Savannah River Company, a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric , assumed operation of the site. Reflecting its new emphasis, the facility’s name was changed from the Savannah River Plant to the Savannah River Site. Its mission transitioned from the production of nuclear materials to assure supremacy in the Cold War arms race to the safe and secure stewardship of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, nuclear materials, and the environment. The Cold War had ended, and along with it the srp’s role as a key production component in the country’s nuclear weapons complex. The Savannah River Site’s new mission of stockpile stewardship and cleanup highlights growing concerns in the 1970s and 1980s regarding the Cold War’s environmental legacy. Waging the Cold War required not only massive financial resources but also a remarkable amount of land. By the end of the twentieth century, Cold War facilities covered some twenty-seven million acres across the United States. Vast acreage was required in particular in the American West for nuclear weapons and missile testing. Forty years of fighting the Cold War created what have become known as “national sacrifice zones,” areas so contaminated that they remain uninhabitable and pose a continued threat 172 · E P I L O G U E...