The public power companies that run the commercial nuclear reactor at the environmental disaster area called Hanford have backed off a plan to use "mixed oxide" fuel -- containing plutonium, which is more hazardous than standard uranium fuel. The experiment, at the reactor formerly known as WPPSS (pronounced "whoops"), was to have been part of a deal with the federal government's nearby nuclear weapons factory. The feds will now try to use MOX fuel back east, in South Carolina and Tennessee.

Environmental activists up in Tri-Cities and the surrounding region fought hard for this outcome, and they are to be congratulated.