The Leak: Politics, Activists, and Loss of Trust at Brookhaven National Laboratory

In 1997 a non-hazardous leak of tritium-containing water led to the permanent closure of the High Flux Beam Reactor at Brookhaven National Laboratory, calls for closure of the lab itself, and changes in the way the US national laboratories are contracted. All the factors that drove the events – activist agendas, political ambition, celebrity influence, science denial, bureaucratic inertia – continue to be present in the 21^st century to render large scientific facilities vulnerable. This talk reviews the events, and the lessons that might be drawn from them.