Theater Colorado: March 2020

View of the Rocky Flats plant looking west in 1995. After 38 years, weapons production ceased in 1989. In 1992, the plant mission changed from weapons production to environmental cleanup and restoration. By 1995, the site had begun to be dismantled.

Photo credit: https://www.lm.doe.gov/land/sites/co/rocky_flats/haer/base/overview.htm

“Body burden was used to describe the amount of radioactive material present in a human body, which acts as an internal and ongoing source of radiation. The Department of Energy established a ‘permissible full body burden’ for lifetime accumulation of radiation within the body on the assumption that a worker whose exposure did not exceed this level would not suffer ill effects.”

Iversen, Kristen, Full Body Burden, New York, Broadway Books, 2013. At page 177.

Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Three Mile Island. Chernobyl. Fukashima.

Any student of recent history knows these names and these places. Each one has been the site of a devastating nuclear disaster. Today I’m adding another site to the list: Rocky Flats, Colorado.

The plant at Rocky Flats produced parts for nuclear bombs between 1952 and 1992. Operated by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Atomic Energy Commision (AEC), the primary product at Rocky Flats was nuclear triggers. These radioactive triggers initiate nuclear fission in an atomic bomb. The trigger was called a “pit;” a small disk about the size of a softball. The pit was made of plutonium..

While browsing at Hearth Fire bookstore (just prior to social distancing) I stumbled on Kristen Iversen’s 2013 book Full Body Burden. It took me about 10 seconds of flipping through pages to make an impulse purchase.

Full Body Burden is both a historical account of Rocky Flats and an autobiography of a girl growing up in the shadow of a nuclear munitions plant. Iversen successfully weaves these two threads through Full Body Burden, making the all too true story both historical and personal.

Although Rocky Flats was a creature of the federal government, the actual daily operations were contracted to large defense contractors, including Dow Chemical and Rockwell International.

The thrust of the historical narrative is Rocky Flats’ extreme pollution of the ground, the water, and the air only 15 miles from the entire population of Denver. For those who are unfamiliar with the geography, Highway 93 between Golden and Boulder passes by the site; the east side of the road near the wind turbines is close to the plant boundary. It’s literally in the backyard of the entire Denver metro area.

Plutonium is a highly radioactive element that is dangerous even in extremely tiny amounts. It has a half life of 24,000 years. Since 1949, scientists have set the maximum body burden for plutonium at 0.1 microgram. A microgram is 1 millionth of a gram. For reference, there are 28.35 grams to an ounce. The amount of plutonium in a full body burden is microscopic.

For one who has spent many years in Colorado, I confess to an embarrassing lack of knowledge about Rocky Flats. The operations there always worked to keep secrets, and in my case, succeeded wildly. Iversen’s book retells the stories I missed over the years.

She tells those stories matter of factly, despite the shocking and disarming (pun intended) nature of the beast. "Official estimates of how much plutonium was burned or released in the 1957 fire varied widely, from 500 grams (approximately 1.1 pounds) to as much as 92 pounds. By comparison, Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, used fewer than 14 pounds...The plume exposed countless people in and around Denver to plutomium." Full Body Burden at pages 30-31.

Theoretically, I can’t do a spoiler here; the details of the Rocky Flats operations are now part of a public record. That said, though, I do want to mention several focal points in Full Body Burden that came as a surprise…no…as a shock to me.

1. Major Fires (multiple minor fires omitted):

Rocky Flats had two major industrial fires at the plant, both of which released substantial amounts of plutonium into the environment. The first was in 1957, the second on Mother’s Day, May 11,1963.

The 1957 fire spewed plutonium over a large part of the northwest corner of the Denver metro area. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 residents downwind were not notified of the fire until 1970.

Plutonium plume from the 1957 fire at Rocky Flats.

Photo credit: Wikipedia, public domain, Colorado Department of Public Health.

The 1963 fire resulted in damages of $70.7 million; including the loss of about $20 million worth of plutonium. A subsequent study found that soil samples in some places is 1,500 times higher than normal. This reading is higher than in Nagasaki Japan. There was no emergency response plan to protect the public in the event of major disaster at Rocky Flats.

2. Toxic Waste

The manufacturing process at Rocky Flats created more waste than it created nuclear triggers. A plutonium lining has settled in the sediment of Standley Lake (a source of water for the cities of Westminster, Northglenn, and Thornton) and the Great Western Reservoir (a source of water for the city of Broomfield).

Photo credit: Change.org

Some 5,000 barrels of waste oil contaminated by plutonium and uranium were stored at Rocky Flats. They were stored outdoors, subject to Colorado weather conditions for years. Many barrels leaked their toxic sludge into the soil, and eventually, the ground waters of Woman Creek and Walnut creek.

3. MUF (Material Unaccounted For):

Rocky Flats cannot account for 2,640 pounds of plutonium. Full Body Burden at page 225. According to authorities, some loss may be due to accounting errors or residue in pipes and other manufacturing infrastructure. Translation from bureacratic speak: losses are due to negligence, ignorance and indifference. An unknown portion of that 2,640 pounds was released into soil, water, and the air over the years.

Given that 0.1 micrograms is a full body burden, the MUF from Rocky Flats represents a significant health hazard. Despite the $7B clean up of Rocky Flats, 600 acres will be unusable to humans for an undetermined number of centuries.

These three slow motion disasters exposed the metro Denver area to substantial if unknown health risks. The details mentioned above are from Iversen’s carefully annotated text. You can listen to an interview with Iversen here.

Rocky Flats is now a park; Rocky Flats Wild Life Refuge, with approximately 1,300 acres, opened in 2018 after the clean up operation was completed. It does not include the 600 acres that were the actual site of plutonium production. Those 600 acres, known as the "legacy" plot, will be a plutonium graveyard for tens of thousands of years. "Legacy" indeed.

Full Body Burden opened my eyes to a much ignored part of our local history. For that alone, I recommend Iversen’s book to anyone who has even a passing interest in knowing more about a dark and important part of the Cold War. Full Body Burden is highly readable; by telling her personal story along with the details of an environmental disaster, one cannot dismiss a single detail in the book.

Bottom line: if you're looking for an informative and productive use of your time while under the Colorado "stay at home" order, READ THIS BOOK.

NOTES:

1. You may wonder why I’m doing a book report. Just like everyone else, I’m on lockdown waiting out the Covid-19 pandemic. I picked up a few books to read just before the solid waste hit the proverbial fan.

Reading is a great distraction when the stress level is high and one has abundant time on his or her hands. The live theaters are closed, as are the movie theaters. Restaurants and bars are closed or reduced to a drive through menu. Doing a book review is similar to reviewing a play. Both require careful attention and critical thinking. Both require storytelling, character development, plots, and a worthwhile message. The only significant difference is that one experience is over in 2-3 hours, while the other takes days or weeks. Until I can get back in a theater, I'll be doing plenty of reading, and possibly more writing.

2. In the mid 1950’s, my father worked at Rocky Flats; we lived in Arvada (905 Reno Drive, which is no longer a valid address). He hated it. He worked underground, and couldn’t tell us what he did there. He wore a dosimeter every day. We left Arvada and Rocky Flats in 1955, and he rarely mentioned it after that. The US Department of Energy would contact him from time to time, checking on his health. He died of natural causes in 2018 at the age of 94.

3. In an unusual coincidence, it turns out that my current wife Roxie worked in the nuclear industry from 1982-87. Based in Kansas City, MO, she was part of an operation that developed non-nuclear parts and mechanisms for nuclear weapons. The Bannister Federal Complex also left a legacy of thousands of toxins that leaked into soil and groundwater. Roxie has been contacted by DOE after leaving Bannister for follow up.

4. We dropped atomic bombs on Japan near the end of World War II. Those bombs were and still are the only war time use of these weapons. Whether that was justified is not the topic here.

However, it is my considered opinion that the United States has a very compromised position in our current nuclear disputes with Iran and North Korea. Our insistence that it is just for the US to develop, retain, and deliver nuclear weapons on civilian targets while denying the same option elsewhere rings hollow. When one adds the environmental disaster that is Rocky Flats, the United States can hardly claim the moral high ground for nuclear weapons.

Ground Zero, Nagasaki.
Photo credit: Bill Wheeler

5. In 2010 my late wife Linda and I stood at Ground Zero in Nagasaki Japan. It is a soul searing experience to stand where tens of thousands of people died in an instant. Today Nagasaki is the home to the Nagasaki Peace Memorial. The city has been rebuilt; one could hardly tell it was devastated in 1945.

According to Japanese tradition, folding 1,000 paper cranes gives you a chance to make one special wish come true. Before making a field trip to the Memorial, Japanese school children will often make 1,000 paper cranes, with a wish for world peace. The Memorial displays the paper cranes year round.