The story exposed a cover-up at Los Alamos National Laboratory involving a troublesome batch of Cold War-era nuclear waste that later caused a radiation leak that exposed workers to radiation at a nuclear waste repository. The lab omitted some of the volatile ingredients contained in the waste drum, and lied about others to avoid delays that stood to endanger private contractors’ $2.2 billion pay day. Public records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act exposed that the lab continued to be secretive about what its staff knew about the dangers of the waste batch, even with personnel at the repository where it posed the greatest risk. When a Los Alamos scientist dared to warn people handling the waste of its dangers, he was reprimanded by the Department of Energy. The public records obtained by The Santa Fe New Mexico exposed for the first time that the waste in the drum that ruptured held the same ingredients as several patented explosives, and that a typographical error in a waste handling manual at Los Alamos might have set the whole series of events in motion. Secrecy is in the fabric of Los Alamos National Laboratory, dating back to its first covert mission to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. And as the lab prepares to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Trinity Test later this year, secrecy still surrounds its activities. Anyone who relies on official statements from the lab will never get enough information to truly inform the public. Add to that the billions of dollars at stake for the contractors that operate the nation’s nuclear sites and their reluctance to say or admit anything that might jeopardize their handsome paydays, and a stone wall separates reporters from the information they need to share the truth with readers. In this case, only FOIA could break down that wall. Refusing to narrow the original FOIA request when at first it yield the standard “burdensome” response, presenting the FOIA to multiple entities holding the records at the Energy Department and putting in strange hours in the interest of cultivating informed sources whose trust wasn’t always easy to gain made this a uniquely challenging assignment.
