Energy Secretary James Watkins, who oversees the nation's problem-plagued government nuclear facilities, insists that employees who go public with charges of plant-safety problems are free to blow the whistle without fear of reprisal. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way for Charles ("Bud") Varnadore, a technician at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Varnadore, 50, suffers from colon cancer and underwent 52 weeks of chemotherapy. After he appeared on a CBS news program in March 1991 to talk about a study that showed suspiciously high rates of cancer among workers at the facility, his bosses assigned him to a new office...
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