Editorial: Needless secrecy finally is removed

Friday, Sept. 15, 2000 | 9:38 a.m.

It is encouraging that the U.S. Department of Energy announced this week that it will release the names of all companies that processed radioactive and hazardous materials for the U.S. nuclear weapons program during the 1940s and '50s. A USA Today series of reports last week revealed that 300 private companies were secretly hired during that period. The newspaper identified 150 of the sites and reported that workers for many of the companies had been exposed to radiation and harmful chemicals, often without knowing it.

In the past the cult of secrecy employed by the DOE -- and its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission -- extended to matters that had nothing to do with national security. This has meant, in turn, that the federal government for decades refused to acknowledge that many of those who worked for the federal government or its contractors in these nuclear weapons programs (including those who worked at the Nevada Test Site) were in fact exposed to life-threatening hazards.

The DOE, under the Clinton administration, has taken steps to reverse this sorry record, opening up its files and acknowledging its responsibility to these workers. But the fact that these companies had gone unidentified for so long demonstrates that there still is much work to be done.