nuclear-news

New book on the plutonium scandal at Rocky Flats

Under The ‘Nuclear Shadow’ Of Colorado’s Rocky Flats  88.7 kuhf.fm June 12, 2012 Kristen Iversen spent her childhood in the 1960s in Colorado near the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons factory, playing in fields that now appear to have been contaminated with plutonium.

In Full Body Burden, she investigates the environmental scandal involving nuclear contamination around her childhood home. Kristen Iversen spent years in Europe
looking for things to write about before realizing that biggest story
she’d ever cover was in the backyard where she grew up. Iversen spent
her childhood in Colorado close to the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons
factory, playing in fields and swimming in lakes and streams that it
now appears were contaminated with plutonium. Later, as a single
mother, Iversen worked at the plant but knew little of its
environmental and health risks until she saw a feature about it on
Nightline.

Iversen’s new book, Full Body Burden: Growing up in the Nuclear Shadow
of Rocky Flats, is in part a memoir about her troubled family, and
also an investigation into the decades-long environmental scandal
involving nuclear contamination in and around Rocky Flats. Weapons
production ended there after FBI agents raided the plant in 1989. Its
operators later pleaded guilty to criminal violations of environmental
law.

But during Iversen’s childhood, the people living near Rocky Flats had
no idea that plutonium bomb components were being constructed so close
to their homes – or that radioactive waste was leaking into the
surrounding environment. The plant’s day-to-day activities were highly
secretive. So secretive, in fact, that Iversen’s family didn’t know
what their neighbors who worked at the plant did for a living….
Accidents At Rocky Flats

Over the course of Rocky Flats’ history, there were several accidents
that sent radioactive particulates into the atmosphere. On several
occasions, barrels of radioactive waste were found to be leaking into
open fields. And fires in 1957 and 1969 at the plant sent plumes of
radioactive material over the Denver metro area.

“One of the most important things about the fire [in 1969] that we
didn’t know about was that it burned out all of the filters and the
measuring equipment so we still don’t know how much plutonium and
other radioactive material was released into the environment,” says
Iversen. “But the really dramatic part is that the building got so hot
that it started to melt the roof. The roof started to rise like a
marshmallow bubble, and if that roof had actually been breached, we
would have had an accident of catastrophic effect, something along the
lines of Chernobyl, in the Denver area and beyond.”

Even though the event was not catastrophic on the scale of Chernobyl,
it was still the costliest industrial accident to ever occur in the
United States. The cleanup from the accident took over two years.

“Plutonium particles were found at an elementary school 12 miles
away,” says Iversen. “There was plutonium and radioactive particles
found throughout the Denver metro area.”……
The Grand Jury Investigation And Findings

After the raid, a grand jury investigation opened to examine what, if
any, criminal wrongdoing took place at the site. The grand jury
recommended indictments for the Department of Energy officials
controlling the site as well for as Rockwell officials, who were
contracted to run day-to-day operations.

“But what happened was that a deal was cut with Rockwell,” says
Iversen. “There were no indictments and the grand jurors, after having
met for 21 months, were infuriated that there were no indictments and
there was not going to be any responsibility here or any transparency
for what was actually happening.”

Rockwell did plead guilty to several environmental crimes and agreed
to pay an $18.5 million fine, says Iversen. But, she notes, many felt
like that was not enough. “The fine, although it was a substantial
fine at the time, was almost exactly the same as the bonus that
Rockwell received for that particular year for meeting production
quotas,” she says. “At Rocky Flats was always the highest priority and
safety of workers always took second place to that. …..
http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/npr1339519937-Under-The-Nuclear-Shadow-Of-Colorados-Rocky-Flats.html

June 13, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | - plutonium, resources - print