Full Body Burden (56 page)

  1
   
In early December 1974:
“Cattle Near Rocky Flats Show High Plutonium Level,”
Rocky Mountain News
, December 5, 1974. See also Steve Wynkoop, “Cattle’s Lungs Hold Plutonium,”
Denver Post
, December 5, 1974.

  2
   
An Enviromental Protection Agency (EPA) study has found:
Tad Bartimus and Scott McCartney,
Trinity’s Children: Living Along America’s Nuclear Highway
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993), 190.

  3
   
Plutonium, uranium, americium, tritium:
D. D. Smith and S. C. Black, “Actinide Concentrations in Tissues from Cattle Grazing Near the Rocky Flats Plant,” Environmental Protection Agency, Las Vegas, Nevada, February 1975.

  4
   
“People don’t want to buy”:
Howard Holme, interview by Hannah Nordhaus, September 1, 2005.

  5
   
The DOE and officials at Rocky Flats:
Jack Olsen Jr., “EPA Reverses Finding on Rocky Flats Cattle,”
Rocky Mountain News
, January 27, 1975.

  6
   
The report concludes, however:
Holme, interview by Nordhaus.

  7
   
Less cancer was found:
Holme, interview by Nordhaus.

  8
   
“It is as if the government”:
Len Ackland,
Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999), 178.

  9
   
What they don’t know:
“Guards Prepared to ‘Shoot to Kill’ Are Increased at 14 Nuclear Sites,”
New York Times
, October 23, 1976.

10
   
Rocky Flats officials contend that the plant:
“Why the Need for Rocky Flats?”
Boulder Daily Camera
, April 20, 1975.

11
   
In a press interview, task force member:
Todd Phipers, “Report Stresses Flats Potential Hazard,”
Denver Post
, 1975. Denver Public Library, Western
History and Genealogy Clipping File, U.S. Government, Department of Energy, Colorado, Rocky Flats Plant, 1970–1979. See also “Special Task Force Report Findings Revealed,”
Rocky Mountain News
, February 15, 1975.

12
   
It also criticizes the Price-Anderson Act:
The Lamm-Wirth Task Force Final Report (1975), 23.

13
   
Contradicting its own recommendation:
Lamm-Wirth Report, 11.

14
   
Some critics claim:
Ackland,
Making a Real Killing
, 179.

15
   
Sister Pam Solo is the sole woman:
Pam Solo, interview by Dorothy Ciarlo, October 24, 2004 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1272), and interview by LeRoy Moore, September 23, 1996 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1528).

16
   
She worries that things will continue:
Solo, interview by Moore.

17
   
In 1975 and 1976 he and his colleagues:
Susan Heller Anderson, “Dr. Carl Johnson Is Dead at 58,”
New York Times
, December 30, 1988.

18
   
Using data collected by:
“Research on Adverse Health Effects Related to Rocky Flats,” Rocky Flats Historical Public Exposures Studies, Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment,
www.​cdphe.​state.​co.​us/​rf/​adversheal.​htm
.

19
   
The study involves 154,170 people:
Carl J. Johnson, “Cancer Incidence in an Area Contaminated with Radionuclides Near a Nuclear Installation,”
Ambio
10, no. 4 (1981): 176–82. Johnson’s research was first published as “Plutonium hazard in respirable dust on the surface of soil,” CJ Johnson, RR Tidball, and RC Severson,
Science
, Vol. 193, no. 4252, pp. 488–490, August 6, 1976

20
   
He finds higher-than-average:
Carl Johnson, interview by Robert Del Tredici, July 20, 1982. See also Carl Johnson, “Leukemia Death Rates of Residents of Areas Contaminated with Plutonium,” Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, Washington, DC, November 1, 1977; Carl Johnson, “Evaluation of the Hazard to Residents of Areas Contaminated with Plutonium,” Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association, Paris, April 24–30, 1977, 1:243–46; and Carl Johnson to Jefferson County Board of Health, “Report on Death Rates from Lung Cancer in the Eight Census Tracts near Rocky Flats and in Golden, and in Nineteen Census Tracts at the South End of Jefferson County,” November 20, 1977. See also Stephen Talbot, “The H-Bombs Next Door,”
The Nation
, February 7, 1981.

21
   
Johnson estimates 491:
Rex Weyler,
Greenpeace
(Richmond, BC, Can.: Rodale Books, 2004), 555. See also “Rocky Flats Revisited: Carl Johnson Responds,”
Ambio
2, no. 6 (1982).

22
   
He also believes that plutonium:
“Radioactive ‘Releases’ Reported at Colorado Plant,”
New York Times
, September 26, 1977.

23
   
A panel of international peers:
Johnson, “Cancer Incidence in an Area Contaminated with Radionuclides.”

24
   
ERDA argues that samples:
“Radioactive ‘Releases’ Reported at Colorado Plant.”

25
   
Some scientists question Johnson’s study:
zd. J. van Loon, “Reflections on Cancer and Death Rates in Rocky Flats: A Reply to the
Ambio
Report,”
Ambio
2, no. 6 (1982).

26
   
Before Johnson’s article reaches print:
“Dr. Johnson’s Credibility,”
Denver Post
, May 11, 1979.

27
   
Years later, in 1990:
Mark Obmascik and Thomas Graf, “Rockwell Won Bonuses Despite Errors,”
Denver Post
, January 7, 1990.

28
   
The report also states that trucks:
“Radioactive ‘Releases’ Reported at Colorado Plant.”

29
   
Records going back six years:
John Ashton, “Official Lying Charged at Flats Protest Trial,”
Rocky Mountain News
, November 19, 1978.

30
   
I believe it’s irrelevant:
“Rocky Flats Flights Going On for 24 Years,”
Rocky Mountain News
, May 8, 1977.

31
   
City water always tastes a little better:
Tamara Smith Meza, interviews by author, October 29, 2006, March 20, 2007, October 8, 2008, and e-mails.

32
   
Pulling fake terrorist exercises:
Debby Clark, interview by author, December 7, 2006.

33
   
Two weeks after my graduation:
Fred Gillies, “Thorium in Jeffco Horses Revealed as Rocky Flats Item,”
Denver Post
, May 23, 1976.

34
   
Soil and dust testing:
Glenn Troelstrup, “Review Asked to Find Source of Cesium at Rocky Flats,”
Denver Post
, April 10, 1977.

35
   
Radioactive cesium and strontium are produced:
R. Cowen, “Rocky Flats Radiation Remains Unexplained,”
Science News
135, no. 25 (June 24, 1989): 391.

36
   
A Jefferson County commissioner:
Fred Gillies, “Jeffco Commissioner Challenges Flats Cesium Data,”
Denver Post
, April 9, 1977.

37
   
However, he says, “Even if it [a vote to censure Johnson]”:
George Lane, “Johnson Censure Hinted over Cesium ‘News Leak,’ ”
Denver Post
, April 10, 1977.

38
   
Making note of the ongoing blizzard conditions:
Keith Pope and Joseph Daniel,
Year of Disobedience
(Boulder, CO: Daniel Productions, 1979), 23.

39
   
“We’ll be back”:
“Ellsberg and 19 Others Arrested at Protest Site,”
New York Times
, May 9, 1978.

40
   
Some drivers honk:
Pope
and Daniel,
Year of Disobedience
, 61.

41
   
The train stops:
Edward Abbey, “One Man’s Nuclear War,”
Harper’s
, March 1979.

42
   
Ann and her husband have a home:
Ann White, interview by author, July 31, 2004.

43
   
The tour guide, a Rockwell employee:
L. M. Jendrzejczyk, “The Plutonium Syndrome,”
New York Times
, March 30, 1979.

44
   
As he is led off:
Pope and Daniel,
Year of Disobedience
, 60.

45
   
But Judge Goldberger begins by ruling:
Molly Ivins, “Colorado Trial Reflects Antinuclear Drive,”
New York Times
, November 22, 1978.

46
   
There is no such thing … as a “permissible” dose:
Robert Del Tredici,
At Work in the Fields of the Bomb
(New York: Harper & Row, 1987), 134.

47
   
The radioactive sand under the barrels:
Bob Reuteman, “Vindication at Last for All Who Feared Rocky Flats,”
Rocky Mountain News
, February 18, 2006.

48
   
Dr. John Gofman, from the University of California, Berkeley:
Abbey, “One Man’s Nuclear War.”

49
   
“Objection sustained”:
Abbey, “One Man’s Nuclear War.”

50
   
She describes the night she was arrested:
Pope and Daniel,
Year of Disobedience
, 17.

51
   
The jury is to disregard:
Abbey, “One Man’s Nuclear War.”

52
   
In November 1978:
Karen Newman, “Flats Area Bodies Yield Plutonium,”
Rocky Mountain News
, November 11, 1978.

53
   
Hundreds of frozen sex organs:
“Sexual Organs Held in Frozen Limbo,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 19, 1995.

54
   
When data is finally published:
Interviews with John Cobb by Hannah Nordhaus, Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 24, 2003, and February 12, 2004 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1180V). See also John Cobb et al., “Plutonium Burdens in People Living Around the Rocky Flats Plant,” Environmental Protection Agency summary, March 1983.

55
   
At a court hearing:
Keith Schneider, “Data for Nuclear Arms Workers Cast Light on Three Decades of Plutonium Peril,”
New York Times
, November 18, 1985. See also Janet Day, “Flats Radiation Killed Worker, Judge Rules,”
Rocky Mountain News
, September 29, 1990.

56
   
Potential homeowners had been asked to sign:
Sandra Hubbs, “Impact of Flats FHA Freeze Uncertain,”
Denver Post
, November 8, 1978.

57
   
“This notice is to inform you”:
Citizen’s Guide to Rocky Flats
, 47.

58
   
A spokesperson for the Rocky Flats Monitoring Council:
Mark Stevens, “Denver Plutonium Plant Upsetting the Neighbors,”
Christian Science Monitor
, October 27, 1978.

  1
   
In his published study:
Carl J. Johnson, “Cancer Incidence in an Area Contaminated with Radionuclides Near a Nuclear Installation,”
Ambio
10, no. 4 (1981): 176–82.

  2
   
In the five years after Rocky Flats was built:
Margie McAllister, “The Reluctant Radical,”
Sunday Camera Magazine
, October 6, 1985.

  3
   
Birth defects are higher:
Fred Gillies, “Higher Birth Defects Tied to Flats Plant,”
Denver Post
, November 1, 1978.

  4
   
In Area 1, which extends:
McAllister, “The Reluctant Radical.”

  5
   
Lung and bronchial cancer for males:
Johnson, “Cancer Incidence in an Area Contaminated with Radionuclides.”

  6
   
When Johnson turns his attention:
McAllister, “The Reluctant Radical.”

  7
   
In January 1980, for the first time:
Peggy Strain, “EPA Concedes That Rocky Flats Contamination May Cause Deaths,”
Denver Post
, January 13, 1980.

  8
   
He says that the county board of health:
Timothy Lange, “They Fired Dr. Johnson,”
Westword
, May 28, 1981. LeRoy Moore and several other citizens attended the meeting at the Jefferson County Courthouse at which the board decided to fire Johnson. There was no opportunity for public comment.

  9
   
Unwillingly, after more than seven years:
LeRoy Moore, “Democracy and Public Health at Rocky Flats: The Examples of Edward A. Martell and Carl J. Johnson,” in
Tortured Science: Health Studies, Ethics and Nuclear Weapons
, edited by Dianne Quigley, Amy Lowman, and Steve Wing (Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing, 2011), 106.

10
   
And a member of the county board:
Lange, “They Fired Dr. Johnson.” See also LeRoy Moore, letter to Dan Rather suggesting this topic for
Sixty Minutes
, June 3, 1981; Rocky Flats Action Group, “Johnson Fired as Jeffco Health Head,”
Action: The Voice of Nuclear Criticism and Education in Colorado
6, no. 3 (June/July 1981); and Paul Krehbiel, “Johnson Seeks Reinstatement,”
Citizens Healthwatch
(January–March 1982).

11
   
When the case goes to trial:
Carl Johnson and John R. Holland, “Politicization of Public Health,” presented at the U.S. Conference of Local Health Officers and the American Public Health Association, Washington, DC, November 18, 1985. Referenced in Moore, “Democracy and Public Health at Rocky Flats.”

12
   
In October 1982, Stone sends:
“A Sad Final Note for Flats Whistleblower,”
Denver Post
, March 31, 2007.

13
   
“Oh, you’re going to get it now!”:
Jim Stone, interviews by Dorothy Ciarlo,
June 10, 1999 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 0978), June 24, 1999 (OH 1979), and January 6, 2000 (OH 0980). 175

14
   
When asked if enough uranium-235 and -238:
Richard Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986), 294, 500.

15
   
After the Second World War:
Eileen Welsome,
The Plutonium Files: America’s Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War
(New York: Dial Press, 1999), 123.

16
   
These studies determined:
“Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom,” Department of Energy (1995), 38.

17
   
Particles of plutonium weighing 10 micrograms:
LeRoy Moore, “A dozen reasons why the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge should remain closed to the public,” June 2010,
http://​leroymoore.​wordpress.​com/​2010/​06/​15/​a-​dozen-​reasons-​why-​the-​rocky-​flats-​national-​wildlife-​refuge-​should-​remain-​closed-​to-​the-​/files/19/17/81/f191781/public/
.

18
   
Workers at Los Alamos were already operating:
DOE Openness: Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. The Office of Health, Safety and Security,
www.​hss.​energy.​gov/​Health​Safety/​ohre/​roadmap/​achre/​chap5_​1.​html
.

19
   
When they report the problem to management:
Barry Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats: When Federal Agents Take on a Government Nuclear Bomb Plant, Lines of Law and Politics Blur, and Moral Responsibility Is Tested,”
Los Angeles Times
, August 8, 1993.

20
   
At Rocky Flats, it’s common for managers to blindfold:
Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats.”

21
   
Facilities like Rocky Flats have to break the law:
Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats.”

22
   
But a confidential internal DOE memo:
Patricia Calhoun, “Truth Decay,”
Westword
, October 13, 2005.

23
   
Jim Stone continues to write:
Virginia Culver, “Whistle-blower Helped Shut Flats,”
Denver Post
, April 13, 2007.

24
   
In the spring of 1979:
“2 Monks Lead Anti-War Unit in N-Protest,”
Denver Post
, April 24, 1979.

25
   
“We are determined to put an end”:
Pam Solo, interview by Dorothy Ciarlo, October 20, 2004 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1272V A-B); interview by LeRoy Moore, September 23, 1996 (OH 1528). See also Pam Solo,
From Protest to Policy: Beyond the Freeze to Common Security
(Pensacola, FL: Ballinger, 1988).

26
   
Kites flutter in the wind:
Jack Cox, “Nuclear Protest Abounds with Color and Characters,”
Denver Post
, April 29, 1979.

27
   
Now Ellsberg calls Rocky Flats:
Daniel
Ellsberg, interview by Dorothy Ciarlo, April 13, 2003 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1137V A-B), and interview by LeRoy Moore, April 24, 1998 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1530).

28
   
The rally is peaceful:
Cox, “Nuclear Protest Abounds with Color and Characters.”

29
   
On Sunday, 286 men and women:
Joseph Seldner, “N-Protesters Fined $1,000,”
Denver Post
, June 1, 1979.

30
   
The plant bills itself:
Patricia Buffer, “Rocky Flats History,” Department of Energy, September 1973.

31
   
A year later he transferred:
Keith Schneider, “Data for Nuclear Arms Workers Cast Light on 3 Decades of Plutonium Peril,”
New York Times
, November 18, 1989.

32
   
As to what’s in those cans:
Jim Kirksey, “Engineer: No Triggers at Rocky Flats,”
Denver Post
, May 18, 1979.

33
   
“We aren’t dying of cancer”:
“Pro-Flats Coalition Seeks City’s Support,”
Denver Post
, May 25, 1979.

34
   
“We want the world to know”:
Pamela Avery, “Flats Scene of Pro-Nuke Rally,”
Rocky Mountain News
, August 27, 1979.

35
   
On the cold morning of September 26, 1979:
Tom Clark, “Is Denver Safe from Rocky Flats?”
Denver Magazine
, March 1980.

36
   
One sunny weekend:
Laurie’s name has been changed.

37
   
Organizers estimate they need:
Joe Garner, Karen Bailey, and Sharon Novotne, “10,000 Protest at Weapons Plant,”
Rocky Mountain News
, October 16, 1983.

38
   
State Trooper Dave Harper:
Karen Bailey, “Human Chain Was Joined in Spirit,”
Rocky Mountain News
, October 16, 1983.

39
   
Jack Weaver, a plutonium production manager:
Ackland,
Making a Real Killing
, 194.

40
   
The circle does, in fact, fall short:
Bill Walker and Virginia Culver, “15,000 Protest Flats’ Nuclear Work,”
Denver Post
, October 16, 1983.

41
   
Pat Mahoney will eventually serve:
Virginia Culver, “Faith Was Flats Protester’s Arsenal,”
Denver Post
, August 11, 2008.

42
   
Pat McCormick begins to think:
Pat McCormick, interview by author, November 30, 2006. See also interview by Dorothy Ciarlo, January 13, 2007 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1454V).

43
   
Rocky Flats guard Debby Clark:
Debby Clark, interview by author, December 20, 2006.

44
   
Eighty-five percent of the radioactive waste:
John
Leach, “Rocky Flats’ Wastes Pose Hazard in Idaho,”
Boulder Daily Camera
, August 5, 1979. In 1978 alone, Rocky Flats shipped 9.6 million pounds of low-level waste and 1.4 million pounds of transuranic waste off-site, most of it to Idaho.

45
   
Located twenty-six miles east of Carlsbad:
Keith Schneider, “U.S. Seeks to Store Nuclear Waste at Army Bases to Save Plutonium Plant,”
New York Times
, November 10, 1989. See also Tamara Jones, “Nuclear Refuse Piles Up; Dump Site Is Delayed,”
Los Angeles Times
, November 28, 1988.

46
   
“If you can’t store it”:
Jones, “Nuclear Refuse Piles Up.”

47
   
A spokesman tells the press:
Fox Butterfield, “Idaho Firm on Barring Atomic Waste,”
New York Times
, October 23, 1988.

48
   
Romer chastises officials:
Ackland,
Making a Real Killing
, 213.

49
   
“The legal grounds are not near as important”:
Butterfield, “Idaho Firm on Barring Atomic Waste.”

50
   
“No sale,” says Washington governor:
“7 States Decline Requests to Take Nuclear Waste,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 12, 1989.

51
   
Governor Romer proposes a short-term solution:
Schneider, “U.S. Seeks to Store Nuclear Waste at Army Bases to Save Plutonium Plant.”

52
   
The red boxcar filled with radioactive material:
George J. Church, “Playing Atomic NIMBY,”
Time
, December 26, 1988.

53
   
Designed and built by Rocky Flats workers to burn:
Buffer, “Rocky Flats History.”

54
   
Following a meeting of several hundred local residents:
Denver Post
, May 19, 1987, Denver Public Library, Western History and Genealogy Clipping File, U.S. Government, Department of Energy, Colorado, Rocky Flats Plant, 1980–1989.

55
   
He concedes that the health department’s stance:
McAllister, “The Reluctant Radical.”

56
   
The judge agrees:
Fred Gillies, “Judge: Rocky Flats’ Link to Cancer Rate Unproven,”
Denver Post
, July 4, 1985.

57
   
Ultimately the suit is settled:
Calhoun, “Truth Decay.”

58
   
“The purpose for the lawsuit”:
Calhoun, “Truth Decay.”

59
   
Even without the pulpit of his job:
McAllister, “The Reluctant Radical.”

60
   
In fact, he reminds the press:
Keith Schneider, “Weapons Plant Pressed for Accounting of Toll on Environment and Health,”
New York Times
, February 15, 1990.

61
   
Further, Johnson notes, the court system:
McAllister, “The Reluctant Radical.”

62
   
The group Physicians for Social Responsibility calls Rocky Flats:
Gary Schmitz, “Doctors: A ‘Creeping Chernobyl’ Created,”
Denver Post
, October 27, 1988.

63
   
Pat Schroeder insists the study:
Jerry Brown, “Rocky Flats Study Should Be Given to Outside Experts, Schroeder Says,”
Rocky Mountain News
, August 18, 1979.

64
   
Moving plutonium operations would result:
Buffer, “Rocky Flats History.”

65
   
Officials can’t agree on what type:
Beth Gaeddert, “Obstacles Stall Flats Emergency Booklet,”
Rocky Mountain News
, November 1, 1979.

66
   
However, Johnson states, “Very little”:
Clark, “Is Denver Safe from Rocky Flats?”

67
   
The plan never moves beyond the drafting:
O’Keefe, “What’s the Drill: A Real Emergency Catches Rocky Flats Napping,”
Westword
, September 20, 1989.

68
   
Niels Schonbeck, the biochemistry professor:
O’Keefe, “What’s the Drill”; see also
Citizen’s Guide to Rocky Flats: Colorado’s Nuclear Bomb Factory
(Boulder, CO: Rocky Mountain Peace Center, 1992), 47.

69
   
Nonetheless, a few months later:
Buffer, “Rocky Flats History.”

70
   
Full production resumes:
ABC Nightline
, December 20, 1994.

71
   
In March 1982, Bruce Shepard, a Colorado Springs developer:
LeRoy Moore, “Democracy and Public Health at Rocky Flats: The Examples of Edward A. Martell and Carl J. Johnson,” in
Tortured Science: Health Studies, Ethics and Nuclear Weapons
, edited by Dianne Quigley, Amy Lowman, and Steve Wing (Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing, 2011), p. 106. Also see Robert Kowalski, “HUD Official Helped Kill Flats Homebuyer Alert,”
Denver Post
, August 20, 1989. Those two housing developments were the Countryside development and the Lake Arbor development, both in Westminster.