Judge Rules Hanford Study Should Stay Secret Newspaper Will Appeal Decision To Keep Report From Public

A report sharply critical of a $27 million study of Hanford’s Cold War radiation releases should remain secret, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald denied a motion by The SpokesmanReview to make the report public.

The newspaper is appealing McDonald’s ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals because of “significant interest” in the Hanford downwinders’ case, said the newspaper’s attorney, Duane Swinton.

“The Ninth Circuit has recognized in a variety of cases that the public has both a common law and a First Amendment right to access to court documents,” Swinton said.

The report by Thomas Pigford, a nationally known nuclear engineer, remains under seal in McDonald’s court in Yakima.

Pigford was hired last year as a scientific expert in the massive Hanford downwinders’ case making its way through the courts.

Thousands of people are suing Hanford’s contractors, saying their health was damaged by radiation releases.

On Jan. 20, the newspaper published a story on the secret report after reviewing its conclusions.

The taxpayer-funded Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Study is flawed and may underestimate doses to people living near Hanford, Pigford said.

The judge must use the dose study, the first of its kind at a U.S. weapons site, to assess whether Hanford downwinders deserve compensation.

In his order denying the newspaper’s motion, McDonald conceded his 1994 order sealing Pigford’s report “does not set forth the defense of its sealing.”

The judge said he wants to continue to use Pigford as a confidential “friend of the court” because the Hanford case “poses scientific questions of considerable complexity.”

He said disclosure of Pigford’s work would have a “chilling effect” on the scientist’s informal exchanges with the judge.

But Swinton said Pigford’s views are already widely known because McDonald has circulated his report to all the attorneys in the case.

“It’s unclear just what the judge is trying to protect,” Swinton said.

Pigford was paid $250 an hour for his report, and will get $200 an hour plus expenses for additional work as McDonald’s adviser, according to court files. His bill is being paid 50-50 by lawyers for the downwinders and for the Hanford contractors.

Under a special agreement dating back to the Manhattan Project, taxpayers pay all the legal expenses of the nuclear contractors - including their share of Pigford’s bill.

Through early 1995, taxpayers have shelled out more than $30 million in legal fees to defend Hanford contractors against the downwinders’ claims.

In his ruling, McDonald said he is considering disciplinary action against the attorney or attorneys he suspects of violating his order not to discuss or divulge the report.

The report was leaked to the newspaper “in clear and intentional violation of the Court’s order,” McDonald wrote.

“It became the subject of discussion, for lack of a better term, in the press,” the judge said.

Last year, McDonald said he “eventually” would make Pigford’s report public. His order denying the newspaper’s motion does not say when.