My Plutonium Experience

Dr. Tony Buhl is a More To Life student and a world-renown expert in cleaning up nuclear waste; and he's also a good friend of mine.  He is the visionary for EnergX, the company that was elected to coordinate the various governmental agencies (and there were many) to move plutonium that was stored in a secure facility next to a native fishing river to a more land-locked facility – just for safety's sake.

I went along as a facilitator, and, in my mind, more like someone who would keep adjusting Tony's cape (he really, really knows what he is doing). I was doubtful of my ability to be very supportive, since I knew next to nothing about nuclear waste. But it sounded adventurous, I was willing to learn and be useful, and off we went to the Hanford Nuclear Facility in Washington State. (This is not top secret, obviously.)

Watching Tony ask the questions that unlocked the blocks to progress was illuminating. Midway through the three-day consultation, we were invited to visit the current storage facility – called the Swimming Pool. The reason for the name is that the plutonium is stored in special canisters placed under water, which is constantly being cooled and circulated. Before we entered the main part of the building, we went through a radiation-detector and then were asked to wear a dosimeter (a device that measures exposure to an hazardous environment). All this served to heighten my curiosity and my excitement/fear.

The potency of plutonium diminishes by half every 24,100 years to 80 million years, depending on the isotope. So even though this was depleted plutonium, it was beyond mega-powerful. There was a moment, standing on the metal grill cat-walk high over the middle of the Swimming Pool, when I felt a huge rush of power. Just taking in the amount of power contained in that collection of canisters was truly awesome. Knowing that power could be used constructively or destructively was breath-catching.

And in my mind, it doesn’t come close to what a collection of human BEINGS can achieve – either for good or for ill, depending upon intent.

PS  That's a picture of a plutonium pellet – making its own light.