Save Satsop Nuclear Site, But Level The Cooling Towers

SATSOP - Fog tends to cling to this verdant valley long after surrounding skies turn blue. It is as though it doesn't want to let go of land so lovely.

On Tuesday morning, as sun bathed the Black Hills between Olympia and Elma, fog clung to the Satsop Valley. It hid two ugly scars that loom just south of Elma over evergreens and farmland.

It was election day. In Seattle and King County, voters were deciding whether or not to build things. Here, the debate is over tearing things down.

Should Satsop's unfinished twin nuclear plants be demolished? Partially? Totally?

There is much to save - completed buildings, warehouses with sprinkler systems, roads, fire hydrants and a water and sewer system that could - and should - produce an industrial park and jobs for economically depressed Grays Harbor.

It would be foolish to waste them.

But the 500-foot-high twin nuclear cooling towers that never have been and never will be used don't belong here. They serve no purpose. They should be leveled.

They are monuments to the state's biggest blunder: the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) decision to build five nuclear-power plants.

Only one - at Hanford - was finished. Cancellation triggered the largest municipal-bond default in U.S. history - $2.25 billion. WPPSS total debt hit $7 billion. The Bonneville Power Administration, bond backer, is saddled with huge debt service.

WPPSS became known as WOOPS. The 1970s misvision of the future of nuclear power was reduced to one word: debacle.

Now they are trying to cut their losses. Recently the WPPSS board of directors voted to terminate two plants closest to completion - one at Hanford and one at Satsop. Work halted on both 12 years ago. The other two less-finished plants were terminated and mothballed earlier.

It costs $10.5 million a year to maintain the two most complete plants. Rough estimates to dismantle them are in the $100 million to $200 million range. There's no cost estimate, but knocking down Satsop's towers would be only a fraction of that.

One of the plants at Satsop is 75 percent complete. The other is only 16 percent. Already they are selling off some of the equipment.

Charles Butros, WPPSS site manager at Satsop, is an engineer. He never thought he'd be in charge of a nuclear-plant garage sale.

The Satsop site, purchased mostly from Weyerhaeuser, is 1,600 acres - about 400 developed. Much remains in timber. There is a staff of 18 people.

Butros says the site has great potential as an industrial park. The water system can pump out 36,000 gallons a minute. The sewer system can handle a population of 5,000.

Luring more high-tech industries to rural areas is a state goal. Make it Satsop. Make lemonade out of a nuclear lemon.

Regulations require terminated nuclear sites to be restored to their original state. That's not cast in concrete. It shouldn't apply to the four unfinished sites. They were never used. There's no radioactive waste.

Bids are expected to be sought by WPPSS late this year or early next for development of proposals for site disposal.

Tom Casey, Grays Harbor Public Utility District commissioner, wants industry attracted. He also wants to keep the two 500-foot towers, saying: "They don't hurt anything. It's wonderful architecture."

Casey is right in wanting to hold down demolition costs for his ratepayers. But wonderful architecture it ain't.

The towers remind me of Richard Dreyfuss' mashed potatoes in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Their flashing blue lights to warn planes are eerie. They stand surreal in one of the state's prettiest valleys.

When Aberdeen was voting to locate a prison there, some hinted the nuclear plant would make a good prison. Remodeling all that concrete would cost more than starting from the ground up.

Casey thinks a cooling tower, with its 440-foot diameter, would be a great place for a soccer field. Does Elma, or for that matter Brady, Porter or Malone - places so small most people haven't heard of them - need a 500-foot-tall soccer stadium with an open roof? Hell no.

Some casual observers have suggested indoor tennis, a nuclear theme park, rock concerts, and on and on. One letter writer to The Times thought it would be nice to cut a tower in two pieces and barge it to California for an earthquake shelter. Whoa, Nellie! The barge would sink.

I'll tell you what the cooling towers are. They're great echo chambers. I stood in one and yelled "Hello." The two-hello echo was the most distinct I've ever heard.

Let this echo ring up the Satsop towers: "Tear 'em down. Tear 'em down. Tear 'em down."

Don Hannula's column appears Thursday on editorial pages of The Times.