`Nova' Explores `The Bomb's Lethal Legacy' In Hanford

No one in the Northwest who has been paying attention will find much that is surprising or new in ``The Bomb's Lethal Legacy,'' the documentary by Noel Buckner and Rob Whittlesey, airing on PBS' ``Nova'' series, tonight at 7 on Channel 9 (and repeated at noon tomorrow).

The hour explores the familiar questions surrounding atomic waste - ``is it slowly seeping into the Columbia River?'' - and whether radioactive particles put into the air over decades of manufacturing plutonium has resulted in serious health problems in the area surrounding the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The history of Hanford and of the entire atomic bomb industry is briefly recalled with nice vintage film footage; the producers use Hanford as an example of the manner in which the Atomic Energy Commission, and its successor, the Department of Energy, have ignored environmental problems until recently, citing similar situations existing at other nuclear weapons plants.

The most interesting part of the hour deals with attempts to test waters, air and soil, as well as Washington citizens, in an attempt to measure the effects of the AEC's laissez-faire approach to the problem for so long.

One of the problems, pointed out in the program, was that, at the beginning, there was so much secrecy surrounding Hanford and other nuclear installations that no one dared raise questions about what bad effects the plants and their products might have on the environment. By the time the public fully understood what these plants were doing, and they could be more openly discussed and criticized, the damage had been done.

Hanford is termed ``the most contaminated spot in the nation, maybe the world'' by the filmmakers, who offer estimates of ``tens of billions of dollars'' to clean up Hanford and other plants, and the program closes with the sobering thought we're all probably in much greater danger from a nuclear accident than a nuclear attack. Shades of Chernobyl!

Many scientists and some Hanford citizens are interviewed in the course of the hour, but few politicians, those folks who are going to have to come up with the money to deal with atomic waste, are asked questions. You come away with the feeling that while there may be a goodly amount of hand-wringing over nuclear waste, getting rid of it safely (as well as dealing with what has already been buried) is a problem a long way from being satisfactorily solved, not only in Hanford but elsewhere in the nation.

Another problem: ``Throwaway People,'' this week's documentary on PBS' ``Frontline'' (8 tonight on Channel 9), also covers familiar ground - life in a black ghetto in Washington, D.C., - but it has some interesting insights, provided by black correspondent Roger Wilkins.

By now we've heard all the tales of drugs and death that relate to life for the underclass in the nation's capital, but Wilkins places some of the blame on upwardly-mobile blacks who used to live in D.C.'s Shaw neighborhood. They moved up and out, once segregation made open housing a little easier to secure, and Wilkins feels they, of all people, should be interested in trying to help those who have remained behind.

``Throwaway People,'' despite the familiarity of its painful litany of drugs, murder, illegitimate children, single-parent families and ineffectual education, does have some bright spots as it focuses on some individuals who have stayed behind and tried to make a difference. The problem is that there are not enough of them and they aren't receiving any help from outside sources.

Video notes: NBC airs the second half of ``Blind Faith'' at 9 tonight on Channel 5. . . . The hit movie, ``Dirty Dancing,'' makes its free TV debut on CBS at 9 tonight (Channel 7). . . . Ted Koppel interviews South Africa's F. W. de Klerk at his Capetown residence on ABC's ``Nightline'' at 11:30 tonight on Channel 4, and ``Nightline'' winds up its South African visit with a 90-minute (or longer) special at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. . . . Civil-rights events, including Muhammad Ali's conflict with the government, are spotlighted in this week's segment of PBS' ``Eyes on the Prize II,'' at 9 tonight on Channel 9. . . . Author P.D. James is scheduled for NBC's ``Late Night with David Letterman'' at 12:30 a.m. tomorrow on Channel 5. . . . Marcia Ball and Beausoleil are featured on PBS' ``Austin City Limits,'' at 2 a.m. tomorrow on Channel 9. . . . Channel 28 airs the second segment of PBS' notable ``Hard Drugs, Hard Choices'' at 8 tonight, titled ``Law, Order and the Community,'' hosted by Charles Nesson. . . . Washington figures in the episode of CBS' ``Wiseguy'' at 10 p.m. tomorrow on Channel 7 - - the setting is supposedly a bigoted hick town called Lynchboro!