Chapter 8. What Lies Beneath
1 Infinity Rooms—called that because: Mark Obmascik, “Infinity Rooms: Rocky Flats’ Horror Show,” Denver Post, February 20, 1994. These rooms include Room No. 141 in Building 771, originally a plutonium storage vault, where several pumps leaked liquid plutonium nitrate in the 1960s. In 1968 the steel door to Room No. 141 was welded shut, sealing in a ladder, a jackhammer, and hoses, due to lack of funding to decontaminate the room completely. Room No. 134-West and Room No. 141 in Building 776, the site of a major fire in 1969, together comprising 2,000 square feet, were constructed after a cleanup of the fire and have been used in recent years to cut up and package radioactive wastes from other areas of Rocky Flats. Room No. 141 can be entered only after traveling through four separate airlock chambers that seal off contamination.
2 In 1996 a Boston University epidemiologist: Richard W. Clapp, report submitted November 13, 1996, for plaintiff’s, counsel in Cook v. Dow Chemical and Rockwell International, United States District Court, District of Colorado.
3 In 1989 a class-action lawsuit by residents: Tim Bonfield, “Fernald: History Repeats Itself,” Cincinnati Enquirer, February 11, 1996, http://www.enquirer.com/fernald/stories/021196c_fernald.html.
4 Following Clapp’s study, in 1998: Colorado Central Cancer Registry, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, “Ratios of Cancer Incidence in Ten Areas Around Rocky Flats, Colorado, Compared to the Remainder of Metropolitan Denver, 1980–89, with Update for Selected Areas, 1990–95,” http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/pp/cccr.ratio.pdf, published in 1998.
5 A radiation health specialist: 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), 117.
6 The year 1999 marked the end of a decade-long study: “The Rocky Flats Historical Public Exposures Study,” Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment.
7 With respect to water: “Technical Topics Papers : Historical Public Exposure Studies: Water Contaminants,” www.cdphe.state.co.us/rf/contamin.htm.
8 Of the $8.7 million of federal funds: Richard Fleming, “Glowing Reports: There’s Plenty of Good News About Rocky Flats. And You’re Paying for It,” Westword, March 15, 1995.
9 Despite ongoing requests: “Research on Adverse Health Effects Related to Rocky Flats,” Rocky Flats Historical Public Exposures Studies, Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment.
10 The defendants, represented by the one-thousand-plus-member law firm: Merrill G. Davidoff, Peter Nordberg, and David F. Sorensen, “Nuclear Win Was Years in Making,” National Law Journal, January 29, 2007.
11 They award punitive damages: The jury recommended that the companies pay $352 million in actual damages. With interest, the judgment ultimately totaled close to $1 billion.
12 Bini herself has had cancer: Hank Pankratz, “Decision a ‘No-Brainer’: Neighbors of the Now-Defunct Rocky Flats Nuclear Facility Had Long Worried About the Health Situation,” Denver Post, February 16, 2006; Bini Abbott, interview by author, February 7, 2005.
13 “It’s a tremendous verdict,” she says: Miriam Hill, “Contamination-Case Success: Phila. Law Firm Wins $554 Million Verdict, but 16-Year Battle May Not Be Over,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 16, 2006.
14 The bomb test sites: LeRoy Moore, “Rocky Flats: The Bait-and-Switch Cleanup,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (January/February 2005): 53.
15 They call for an independent assessment: These groups included the Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, the Town of Westminster, and the City of Broomfield, as well as Congressman David Skaggs.
16 In response, in 1998 the DOE: Seth Tuler et al., “Perspectives on Public Participation at a Department of Energy Nuclear Weapons Facility. Case Study: Setting Soil Clean-up Standards at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site,” Social and Environmental Research Institute, October 2003. Stakeholder involvement at Rocky Flats includes the Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments, and the Rocky Flats Radionuclide Soil Action Levels Oversight Panel, each producing individual studies and reports. Many people believe that these citizen groups have been essential to a broader understanding of Rocky Flats and facilitating the cleanup process; others argue that public involvement and releasing information about risks associated with the plant may have exacerbated conflict between the government, contractors, and the public.
17 A 1996 study of burrowing animals present: Virginia Gewin, “Nuclear Site Turns Wildlife Refuge,” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 5, no. 7 (September 2007): 345.
18 Only 7 percent of the total—roughly $473 million: Moore, “Rocky Flats: The Bait-and-Switch Cleanup,” 56. During cleanup, the majority of weapons-grade plutonium from Rocky Flats was sent to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with some also sent to the Pantex facility in Texas. Weapons-useful uranium was sent to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Transuranic waste went to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, and additional waste was sent to facilities in Nevada and Utah.
19 In December 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Andrew Todd and Mark Sattelberg, “Actinides in Deer Tissues at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site,” State News Service, Contaminant Study Completed. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Rocky Flats Deer Tissue Study Executive Summary, http://www.fws.gov/rockyflats/Documents/DeerTissue_ExSummary.pdf.
20 “Close it, fence it, pave it over”: “Tread Warily, You Deer-Watchers: Turning Nuclear Sites into Wildlife Refuges Isn’t That Easy,” The Economist, February 24, 2005.
21 Dosimeter badges, which employees wore: Ann Imse, “Review Exposes Flats Data as Faulty,” Rocky Mountain News, February 6, 2006.
22 Sixteen members of the Dobrovolny family: Ann Imse, “Family Full of Flats Workers Deals with Death and Illness,” Rocky Mountain News, April 27, 2007.
23 A DOE-financed study in 1987: Thomas Graf, “Flats Widows Fighting an Uphill Battle: DOE, Contractors Deny Fault in Workers’ Deaths,” Denver Post, November 20, 1989.
24 He was ordered to submit: Suzanne Ruta, “Fear and Silence in Los Alamos,” The Nation, January 4–11, 1993. See also Keith Schneider, “Panel Questions Credibility of Nuclear Health Checks,” New York Times, February 28, 1990, and Gregg Wilkinson, “Seven Years in Search of Alpha,” Epidemiology 10, no. 3 (May 1999). See also Gregg Wilkinson et al., “Study of Mortality Among Plutonium and Other Radiation Workers at a Plutonium Weapons Facility,” American Journal of Epidemology 125, no. 2 (1987).
25 Wilkinson found that exposure: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000. Wilkinson et al., “Study of Mortality Among Plutonium and Other Radiation Workers,” and “Study of Mortality Among Female Nuclear Weapons Workers,” May 19, 2000.
26 In 1990, testing by doctors at the National: Mark Obmascik and Thomas Graf, “Flats Lung Disease Discovered,” Denver Post, January 14, 1990.
27 Rocky Flats workers in general: Brittany Anas, “CU Professor Drowns in Mexico,” Boulder Daily Camera, June 21, 2007, http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_13082169.
28 Charlie Wolf is one of the few managers: Charlie Wolf, interview by author, June 13, 2006.
29 For every single pound: Obmascik, “Infinity Rooms: Rocky Flats’ Horror Show.”
30 On the way to the event, Lipsky receives a call: Jim Hughes, “FBI Agent Silenced on Rocky Flats Nuclear Site,” Denver Post, August 26, 2004.
31 Based on the compromised cleanup standards: “Last of Rocky Flats Worst Waste Removed,” Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2005.
32 Studies demonstrate that vegetation: W. J. Arthur III and A. W. Alldredge, “Importance of Plutonium Contamination on V
egetation Surfaces at Rocky Flats, Colorado,” Environmental and Experimental Botany 22, no. 1 (February 1, 1982): 33–38.
33 Another study shows that: Shawn Smallwood, “Soil Bioturbation and Wind Affect Fate of Hazardous Materials That Were Released at the Rocky Flats Plant, Colorado” (November 23, 1996), report submitted for plaintiff’s counsel in Cook v. Rockwell International Corporation, United States District Court, District of Colorado, no. 90-CV-00181; see also the transcript of Smallwood’s appearance in court in this case, 3912–4130. See also K. Shawn Smallwood, Michael L. Morrison, and Jan Beyea, “Animal Burrowing Attributes Affecting Hazardous Waste Management,” Environmental Management 22, no. 6 (November 22, 1998): 831–47. 327
34 “He died with nothing more than the clothes”: Laura Frank and Ann Imse, “Rocky Flats Whistle-blower Dies at 82,” Rocky Mountain News, April 12, 2007; see also Virginia Culver, “Whistle-blower Helped Shut Flats,” Denver Post, April 13, 2007.
35 In 2000, however, scientists at Los Alamos: George L. Voelz, as told to Ileana G. Buican, “Plutonium and Health: How Great Is the Risk?” Los Alamos Science, no. 26 (2000): 77–78.
36 And new studies by the DOE: U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Agenda for HHS Public Health Activities (for Fiscal Years 2005–2010) at U.S. Department of Energy Sites,” U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, January 2005, www.hss.doe.gov/healthsafety/iipp/hservices/documents/agenda.pdf.
37 Back in 1981, Dr. Carl Johnson reported: Carl J. Johnson, “Cancer Incidence in an Area Contaminated with Radionuclides Near a Nuclear Installation,” Ambio 10, no. 4 (1981): 176–82.
38 Curtis Bunce’s doctor recommends: Stacy Gardalen, interview by author, December 18, 2011, and e-mails.
39 The indoor sample is taken from a crawl space: Samples taken on April 14, 2010, analyzed by Marco Kaltofen, PE, of Boston Chemical Data Corp. Report is available at http://archivesite.rmpjc.org/about+sampling+technical+report.
40 Much of it is so toxic that: Linda Rothstein, “Nothing Clean About ‘Cleanup,’ ” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (May 1995): 34–41.
41 In September 2004, in response to the Draft Environmental: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, Appendix H: Comments and Responses on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement,” September 2004.
42 Shirley Garcia worked at Rocky Flats: Shirley Garcia, interviews by Dorothy Ciarlo, January 19, 2001 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1023V), and November 13, 2004 (OH 1204). Interview by author, December 2005.
43 However, current testing of wells: Agenda for HHS Public Health Activities (for Fiscal Years 2005–2010) at U.S. Department of Energy Sites, January 2005, http://hss.energy.gov/healthsafety/iipp/hservices/documents/agenda.pdf, 93.
44 John Rampe, a former Energy Department: David Kelly, “Dispatch from Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, Colorado: An Idyllic Scene Polluted with Controversy,” Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2005.
45 All documentation from the 1989 FBI raid: The leaked grand jury report was eventually posted on the website of the Denver chapter of the Sierra Club. Judge Finesilver released a redacted grand jury report, with comments added by the Justice Department, on January 26, 1993. None of these partial and edited reports contain evidence or testimony. The full report is still sealed.
Epilogue
1 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) says it lacks: Bruce Finley, “Property Swap Aims to Link Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge with Mountains,” Denver Post, October 1, 2011.
2 Nobody can ever safely live here, federal scientists concede: Ralph Vartabedian, “Nuclear Scars : Toxic Legacy of the Cold War,” Los Angeles Times, October 20, 2009.
3 Throughout Japan, radioactive substances: Hiroko Tabuchi, “Radioactivity in Japan Rice Raises Worries,” New York Times, September 24, 2011. See also Evan Osnos, “Japan: The Nuclear Village,” The New Yorker, October 10, 2011.
4 Skeptics in Japan and abroad accused the government: David McNeill, “Why the Fukushima Disaster Is Worse Than Chernobyl,” The Independent, August 29, 2011. See also Evan Osnos, “The Fallout: Letter from Fukushima,” The New Yorker, October 17, 2011.
5 At an antinuclear protest in Tokyo: Speech delivered by Ruiko Muto of Hairo Action Fukushima, Meiji Park, Tokyo, Japan, September 15, 2011. Translated by Emma Parker.
6 It was only after radiation: “Chernobyl Haunts Engineer Who Alerted World,” CNN Interactive World News, April 26, 1996, http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9604/26.chernobyl/230ppm/idex2.html.
7 The estimated cost to clean up the “vast areas” contaminated: “Japan: Radiation Cleanup Will Cost at Least $13 Billion, Premier Says,” New York Times, October 21, 2011.
8 In the United States we currently have approximately 25,000: “Plutonium ‘Triggers’ for Nuclear Bombs,” Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, 2009, www.ananuclear.org/Portals/0/documents/2009%20Fact%20Sheets/Pits5%20final.pdf. See also Greg Mello, “A Nuclear Facility We Don’t Need,” New York Times, November 14, 2011.
9 the production of plutonium pits began again: Matt Mygatt, “Los Alamos Making Plutonium Triggers,” Denver Post, July 2, 2007.
Full Body Burden
A Reader’s Guide
An Essay from Kristen Iversen
The Story Behind Full Body Burden
A Conversation with Kristen Iversen
Meet the Author
A Reader’s Guide for
Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats
For additional features, visit www.kristeniversen.com.
Introduction
Full Body Burden is a haunting work of narrative non-fiction about a young woman, Kristen Iversen, growing up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated “the most contaminated site in America.” It’s the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and—unknown to those who lived there—tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium.
It’s also a book about the destructive power of secrets—both family and government. And as this memoir unfolds, it reveals itself as a brilliant work of investigative journalism—a detailed and shocking account of the government’s sustained attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic and radioactive waste released by Rocky Flats, and of local residents’ vain attempts to seek justice in court. Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPA documents, and class-action testimony, this taut, beautifully written book promises to provoke much discussion among your reading group.
Questions and Topics for Discussion
1. In this book, author Kristen Iversen weaves together two narratives: a memoir of growing up in Arvada and a historical account of Rocky Flats and the nuclear industry. What effect did moving back and forth between the two story lines have on your experience of reading the book? Did you find one of the two story lines more compelling than the other? Can you think of a different way the book might have been structured?
2. What themes are shared by the two narratives in the book? How are they expressed in each narrative?
3. When Kristen is a child, her mother tells her, “I think [Rocky Flats] makes cleaning supplies. Scrubbing Bubbles or something” (this page). Later, when protesters rally against the plant, her parents ridicule the protests. By the end of the book, however, Kristen has worked at the plant and joined the opposition to it. What are some key moments in the evolution of her views about Rocky Flats?
4. One of the most dramatic passages in the book depicts Stan and Bill fighting the Mother’s Day Fire at Rocky Flats (this page–this page). Iversen describes the scene in detail, from the “burning globes” that crash from the ceiling to the underpass beneath the glove boxes. What parts of the scene were most vivid or memorable for you?
&n
bsp; 5. While horseback riding one day, Iversen is disturbed when she comes across a dead cow at the edge of the lake near her house, and she describes the mountains nearby as “a dark, heavy presence, a watching shadow” (this page). The discovery of the cow seems like an omen. Are there other examples of foreshadowing in the book?
6. From Fluffy to Tonka to the wild rabbits and deer at the Rocky Flats site to the deformed chickens, animals are a constant presence in the book. What role do animals play in the story line? How were pets and animals important to Kristen’s household, and why?
7. When Kristen was fourteen years old, her father crashed the family car. Afterward he said he had swerved to avoid an oncoming car, but it was clear to her that he had been drinking. Since her parents did not seek medical treatment for her, it was not until years later that she found out she had broken her neck. She writes, “We never speak of the accident again. Silence is an easy habit for a family or a community. This is just for us to know. Eventually we’ll forget this ever happened” (this page). At what other times do we see her family’s “habit” of silence? How does it affect her? Can you think of a relationship in your own life in which you and a close friend or family member never talked about something vital to both of you, or pretended that it had never happened?
8. At one point, Kristen’s mother takes the family to see a psychiatrist, and each member of the family draws a picture of home (this page–this page). The passage reveals key elements of the family dynamic. What did you learn about each family member’s coping mechanisms from this scene? In what different ways did Kristen and her siblings respond to their father’s alcoholism, and to the secrets of Rocky Flats as they were revealed over time?
9. In 1978, protesters were tried for trespassing and attempting to obstruct the activity of Rocky Flats. They base their defense on a little-known “choice of evils” law in Colorado. The law says that an illegal act is justified if it is done to prevent a greater, imminent evil or crime. The judge decides that the law isn’t applicable to their situation (this page). Do you agree with the judge’s reasoning? Have you ever been in a situation where this law might have been applicable?
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