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The firing of Dick French
Here's part of the Dick French story as I know it: While French was visiting Cogema in France to look at their glassification facilities, some of the powers that be decided that he was demanding too much (independence, which he was given with the creation of the new Office of River Protection) thus thwarting some people in Headquarters (HQ) who think they know so much better than the public, the people they have hired to run the sites like Hanford. When he returned from France last week he was fired, not by Bill Richardson, but the likes of Carolyn Huntoon who has not won many friends in the Hanford interest communities for issuing orders that appear to thwart progress at the site. There seems to be a big drive from a number of DOE HQ people to pull authority away from the sites and bring it back to D.C. as well as ignoring public involvement and the public voice. It seems to me the Bill Richardson has let some of his people run amok -- people who seem to have no vested interest in cleanup progress, who want to defer all decisions till the next administration, in short, turf wars. These are of course AT OUR PERIL out here in the Northwest. I would have to agree with the Observer on the [Hanford Watch email] list that French has been the bulldog we have needed to get moving. People may say that he should have been well aware of the cost increase in the BNFL contract, but I have heard that many of the BNFL figures were being worked back east, not at Hanford, in an effort to recoup dollars from their failures in England, France and Japan. French has been more direct than anyone we've had at Hanford; he's stuck his neck on the chopping block repeatedly in trying to accomplish the mission he was sent to do. He is not perfect, no one is -- at least he's been out there answering our questions while trying to get the worst environmental disaster on a track. I wonder when those of us concerned about cleanup of Hanford will help to find or create the balance between strong public participation and micro-managing cleanup plans every iota of each step. The public has given good advice to the agencies that are "in charge" of the TPA; we need to continue to do so more loudly and more strongly. Right now I see us faced with this dilemma: do we want Dick French running this project or do we want some of the underlings in DOE HQ running the project? For me the answer is easy. We don't get change overnight, it is a slow process that requires people working together, building on each other's ideas respectfully. The "I told you so's" and the "I'm right, you're wrong" finger shaking only impedes movement forward. We owe a sane approach to such serious issues to our children and grandchildren. Paige
Gerry Pollet, director of Heart of America Northwest writes: >I haven't seen the news, since I'm on vacation in Ontario. But, if French >was fired, that could only be good news. Good for public participation >and respect for public concerns, good for not pushing ahead with a >suicidal contract strategy, good for disclosure and collaboration. I beg to disagree. French, while having the personal characteristics of Atilla the Hun, also has a lot of good qualities. He is like a heat-seeking missle when given a task to perform. He is a kick-butt and ask-questions-later kind of a guy that isn't likely to take a lot of crap from the ass-kissers in Doh! HQ, and that is probably what got him fired. In my view, we are less likely to see a vit plant built in our lifetime.
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