Hancock is famously ascetic, receiving a salary of $9,000 a year for his work. He is a religious man, the son of a minister, and is active in the University Heights United Methodist Church, which is within walking distance of the modest university district apartment where he lives.
“We’re all children of God,” he said. “God created the universe, and we’re supposed to take care of it. Contamination isn’t taking care of it.”
It was Chuck McCutcheon, a former Journal reporter whose book “Nuclear Reactions” is the definitive history of WIPP’s political saga, who called him “the Ralph Nader of radioactive waste.”