Tom Carpenter is a lawyer and the executive director of Hanford Challenge, a nonprofit watchdog and advocacy organization focused on the Hanford Nuclear Site.
Carpenter became involved in nuclear issues when he attended a demonstration at Rocky Flats in 1978. Shortly after, he founded the Cincinnati Alliance for Responsible Energy with Polly Brokaw. The organization fought initiatives to contruct a nuclear power plant in Cincinnati. Through the Alliance for Responsible Energy, Carpenter was connected with the Government Accountability Project (GAP). After graduating from law school, he became GAP’s nuclear oversight campaign manager.
In 1985, Carpenter was recruited to represent whistleblowers at the Hanford site. He opened a branch office in Seattle in 1992 and a spin-off called Hanford Challenge in 2007.
Carpenter has represented workers and whistleblowers at nuclear sites all over the country, including in Cincinnati, Hanford, Diablio Canyon, and Rocky Flats. He visited nuclear facilities in the Soviet Union several times before 2005.