The Rocky Flats Plant is a former nuclear weapons production facility in the western United States, near Denver, Colorado. Operated from 1952 to 1992, under the control of the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), which was replaced by the Department of Energy (DOE) in 1977.
Production of weapons was suspended in 1989 after the EPA and FBI agents stormed the facility. The factory operator later pleaded guilty to a criminal law offense. At that time, fines were one of the biggest punishments ever in the case of environmental law.
Cleaning began in the early 1990s, and the site reached a closing regulation in 2006. The cleaning effort was stopped and destroyed over 800 structures; removed more than 21 tons of weapons class material; moving more than 1.3 million cubic meters of waste; and treat more than 16 million gallons of water. Four groundwater treatment systems were also built. Today, the Rocky Flats Plant is gone. The previous facility site consists of two distinct areas: (1) "Central Operational Unit" (including previous industrial estates), which remain publicly prohibited as CERCLA's "Superfund" site, owned and maintained by the US Department of Energy, and (2) The Rocky Flats National Wildlife Reserve, owned and managed by the US Fish and Fish Service. The Refuge (also known as "Peripheral Operable Unit") is determined to be suitable for unlimited use. Every five years, the US Department of Energy, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment review environmental data and other information to assess whether the drug functions as intended. The most recent Five-Year Review for this site, released in August 2017, concludes that site improvements are a protection to human health and the environment.
Video Rocky Flats Plant
History
1950s
After World War II, the United States increased the production of nuclear weapons. AEC selected Dow Chemical Company to manage the bomb production facility. A 4-square-mile (10 km 2 ) site about 15 miles (25 km) northwest of Denver on a windy plateau called Rocky Flats was chosen for the facility. On July 10, 1951, land was damaged in the first building at the facility. Contemporary news reports state that the site will not be used to produce nuclear bombs.
In 1953, the factory began producing bomb components, making plutonium triggers, or "holes", used in the Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas to assemble nuclear weapons. By 1957, the factory had grown to 27 buildings.
On September 11, 1957, a plutonium fire occurred in one of the gloveboxes used to handle radioactive material, triggering combustible rubber gloves and window glass from the box. Plutonium metal is a fire and pyrophoric danger; under the right conditions can ignite in the air at room temperature. The accident resulted in Building 771 contamination, the release of plutonium into the atmosphere, and caused damage of $ 818,600. An incinerator for plutonium contaminated waste was installed in Building 771 in 1958.
Barrels of radioactive waste were found to leak into open fields in 1959. This was not publicly known until 1970 when windborne particles were detected in Denver.
1960s
Throughout the 1960s, the factory continued to enlarge and add to the building. The 1960s also brought more contamination to the site. In 1967, 3,500 barrels of plutonium-contaminated lubricants and solvents were stored in Pad 903. A large number of them were found to leak, and low-level contaminated soil became wind-independent of this area. The pad is covered with pebbles and paved with asphalt in 1969.
May 11, 1969 suffered a major fire in a glovebox in Building 776/777. This is the most expensive industrial accident that ever happened in the United States until then. Clearance from the accident takes two years and leads to increased safety on site, including fire sprinkler systems and firewalls.
1970s
To reduce the danger of public contamination and to create security areas around the plant after protests, the United States Congress passed the purchase of a 4,600-acre (7.2 m² mi; 19 km 2 ) buffer zone around the factory in 1972 In 1973, Walnut Creek and the nearby Great West Reservoir were found to have high tritium levels. The tritium was determined to be released from contaminated materials sent to the Rocky Flats of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. The discovery of contamination by the Colorado Department of Health led to an investigation by the AEC and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As a result of the investigation, several mitigation efforts were made to prevent further contamination. Some elements include channeling waste water to three dams for testing before being released into the water system and construction of a reverse osmosis facility to clean wastewater.
The following year, high levels of plutonium were found in the topsoil near Pad 903 which is now closed. An additional 4,500 hectares (18 km2) of buffer zone were purchased.
1975 saw Rockwell International replace Dow Chemical as a contractor for the site. This year also sees local landowners demanding for property contamination caused by factories.
In 1978, 60 Rocky Flats Truth Force protesters, or Satyagraha Affinity Group, based in Boulder, Colorado, were arrested for unauthorized entry to the Rocky Flats, and were brought before Justice Kim Goldberger. Dr. John Candler Cobb, Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Colorado Medical Center, testified that the danger of the most significant radioactive contamination stems from the 1967 incident in which oil casks containing plutonium leaked 5,000 US gallons (19,000 liters of oil) into the sand under the barrel, which then blown by strong winds as far as Denver. Sand radioactivity at the spill site was measured at 30 million disintegrations per minute per gram (about 220 ppm plutonium in heavy sand), 15 million times higher than the state standard of two disintegrations per minute.
Dr. Carl Johnson, Jefferson County health director from 1973 to 1981, directs much of the research on the level of contamination and health risks the factory brings to public health. Based on his conclusions, Johnson opposes the construction of housing near the Rocky Flats. He was fired. Subsequent research confirmed many of his findings.
On April 28, 1979, a few weeks after the Three Mile Island crash, a crowd of nearly 15,000 protesters gathered at a nearby site. Singers Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt perform on stage along with various speakers. The following day, 286 protesters including Daniel Ellsberg were arrested for civil disobedience/unauthorized entry to the Rocky Flats facility.
1980s
Dark Circle is a 1982 American documentary focusing on the Rocky Flats Plant and its plutonium contamination of the surrounding environment. The film won the Grand Prize for a documentary at the Sundance Film Festival and received a national Emmy Award for "Outstanding individual achievement in news and documentary".
Rocky Flats became the focus of protests by peace activists throughout the 1980s. In 1983, a demonstration was held that brought together 17,000 people hand in hand around the circumference of about 17 miles (27 km) from the factory.
A perimeter security zone was installed around the facility in 1983 and upgraded with remote detection capability in 1985. Also in 1983, the first radioactive waste was processed through an aqueous recovery system, creating a plutonium button.
The ongoing 250,000 hour safe-keeping event by employees at Rocky Flats took place in 1985. That same year, Rockwell received the IR-100 award from Industry Research Magazine for the process of removing actinide contamination from wastewater at the plant. The following year, the site received the National Security Council Honorary Award for outstanding safety performance.
On August 10, 1987, 320 demonstrators were arrested after they attempted to force a day of closure of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons factory.
In 1988, the Department of Energy's safety evaluation (DOE) produced a critical report on safety measures at the plant. The EPA fined the factory for polychlorinated biphenyl leakage (PCB) from the transformer. A solid waste form, called pondcrete, is found not to heal well and leak from the container. A transuranic trash cannon from that place was denied entry to Idaho and returned to the factory. Plans to close plants are potentially released.
In 1989 an employee left a flowing tap, producing chromic acid released into the sanitary water system. The Colorado Department of Health and the EPA both post full-time personnel at the plant to monitor safety. Plutonium production is suspended due to security breaches.
In August 1989, an estimated 3,500 people changed for a demonstration at Rocky Flats.
Investigation by the FBI and EPA
The insider at the plant began quietly informing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about unsafe conditions in 1987. The end of that year the FBI embarked on light aircraft light aircraft over the area and noticed that incinerators were apparently used until late at night. After months of gathering good evidence from workers and through direct measurement, the FBI told the DOE on June 6, 1989 that they wanted to meet to discuss the potential threat of terrorists.
Nicknamed "Desert Glow Operation", the attack, sponsored by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), began at 9 am on June 6, 1989. After the FBI successfully passed the heavily armed DOE, it was allowed to shoot to kill security - what weaponry was included surface-to-air missiles - they serve a search warrant to Dominick Sanchini, Rockwell International's Rocky Flats manager. (Incidentally, Sanchini died next year in Boulder cancer.). The FBI found many violations of federal anti-pollution laws, including limited water and soil contamination. In 1992, Rockwell International was accused of environmental crimes including violations of the Conservation and Rescue Resource Act (RCRA), and the Clean Water Act. Rockwell pleaded guilty and paid a $ 18.5 million fine. This is the biggest fine for environmental crimes on that date.
After the FBI raids in June 1989, federal authorities used the next grand jury investigation to collect fault evidence and then sealed the notes. In October 2006, the DOE announced the completion of the Rocky Flats clearance without this information available.
The FBI offensive led to the formation of the first special grand jury in Colorado in 1989, the testimony of a jury of 110 witnesses, a review of 2,000 exhibits, and finally a 1992 application agreement in which Rockwell recognized 10 federal environmental crimes and agreed to pay $ 18.5 million in fined of their own funds. This amount is less than the company has paid bonuses to run the factory as determined by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), and also by far the highest hazardous waste waste ever; four times larger than the previous record. Due to the compensation of the nuclear contractor, without some form of settlement arriving between the US Justice Department and Rockwell, the cost of paying civil penalties will ultimately be borne by US taxpayers. While criminal penalties awarded to Rockwell will not be covered, for its part, Rockwell claims that the Department of Energy has specifically exempted them from most environmental laws, including hazardous waste.
Regardless, and warned by US prosecutor Ken Fimberg/Scott, the findings stated by the Justice Department and appeals agreement with Rockwell were strongly opposed by its own members, 23 grand jury members. Press leaks on both sides - DOJ members and grand juries - occurred due to privacy-related breaches of grand jury information, a federal crime that could be sentenced to imprisonment. The public contest led to a US Congressional oversight committee hearing chaired by Congressman Howard Wolpe, who issued a summons to the DOJ principal despite several instances of DOJ's refusal to obey. The hearing, whose findings included that the Department of Justice has "barred the truth", in the end still has not fully disclosed to the public a special grand jury report, which is still sealed by the DOJ tribunal.
The grand jury's special report has not been leaked to Westword . According to the following publication, a special grand jury of Rocky Flats has compiled an indictment that charges three DOE officials and five Rockwell employees with environmental crimes. The Grand Jury also wrote a report, intended for public consumption per their charter, to condemn the conduct of DOE and Rocky Flats contractors for "engaging in distraction, fraud and dishonesty campaigns" and notes that Rocky Flats, for years, have dumped pollutants, dangerous materials and radioactive material to nearby rivers and water supplies Broomfield and Westminster.
The DOE itself, in a study released in December of the year before the FBI attack, has called Rocky Flats groundwater the only major environmental hazard in any of its nuclear facilities.
Recorded holds
The court records of the grand jury continued on the Rocky Flats have been sealed for several years. The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which governs the federal grand jury process, explicitly requires that the grand jury process be kept confidential unless otherwise noted by the Rules. The secret grand jury process of Rocky Flats is not unique.
However, some activists have denied the reason for the record of secrecy: Dr. Leroy Brown, a Boulder scientist, retired FBI Special Agent Jon Lipsky, who leads the FBI attack against the Rocky Flats factory to investigate the burning of illegal plutonium and other environmental crimes, and Wes McKinley, who is the grand jury's investigative foreman into operations at Rocky Flats and now become a Colorado State Representative.
Former grand jury foreman McKinley recounts his experiences in the 2004 book he co-authored with Caron Balkany's lawyer, The Interjointed Jury, beginning with an open letter to the US Congress of Special Agent Lipsky:
I'm an FBI agent. My boss has ordered me to lie about a criminal investigation I was due in 1989. We are investigating the US Department of Energy, but the US Department of Justice covers the truth.
I have refused to follow orders to lie about what actually happened during a criminal investigation at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapon Factory. Instead, I have told the author of this book the truth. Promise him to me if I tell him what really happened is he will put it in a book to tell Congress and the American people.
Some hazardous decisions are now made based on government closure. Please read this book. I believe you know what needs to happen.
1990s
Rockwell International was replaced by EG & amp; G as the main contractor for the Rocky Flats factory. EG & amp; G embarked on an aggressive safety and cleansing work plan for the site that includes the construction of a system to remove contamination from groundwater at the site. The case of Sierra Club vs. Rockwell was decided to support Sierra Club. The ruler directs the Rocky Flats to manage plutonium residues as hazardous waste.
In 1991, interagency agreements between the DOE, the Colorado Department of Health, and the EPA outline a multi-year schedule for environmental restoration studies and remediation activities. DOE released a report that advocates streamlining factory production to more streamlined facilities. Due to the fall of the Soviet Union, the production of most systems in the Rocky Flats is no longer needed, leaving only the W88 warheads.
In 1992, due to orders by President G.H.W. Bush, the submarine-based missile production using the W88 trigger was stopped, causing 4,500 job cuts at the plant; 4,000 others are held for long-term facility cleaning. The Rocky Flats Factory Transition Plan outlines the environmental recovery process. The DOE announced that  £ 61 (28 kg) of plutonium was lined with exhaust air ducts in six buildings on site.
Beginning in 1993, weapon level plutonium began shipping to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Savannah River Site.
In 1994, the site was renamed the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site, which reflects the changing nature of the site from weapon production to environmental cleansing and restoration. Cleaning efforts are contracted to the Kaiser-Hill Company, which proposes the release of 4,100 hectares (6.4 m² mi; 16.6 km 2 ) from the buffer zone for public access.
In 1998, the Department of Public Health and Environmental Colorado Registry performed an independent study of cancer rates in the area around the Rocky Flats Site. The data show no pattern of cancer enhancement associated with Rocky Flats.
Throughout the rest of the 1990s and into the 2000s, the cleaning of contaminated sites and the dismantling of contaminated buildings was continued with waste materials shipped to the Nevada Test Site, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, and the Envirocare enterprise facility in Utah, which is now EnergySolutions.
2000s
In 2001, Congress passed the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge Act . In July 2007, the US Department of Energy moved nearly 4,000 acres (6 m² mi; 16 km 2 ) land on the Rocky Flats site to the US Fish and Wildlife Service to set up the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Sanctuary. Refuge. Site survey revealed 630 species of vascular plants, 76% of which are native. A bunch of deer is usually seen on the site. However, DOE maintains a central area of ​​the site, the Central Operable Unit.
The last contaminated building was removed and the last weapon-level plutonium was issued in 2003, ending the purge under a modified cleaning agreement. This modified agreement requires a higher level of clearance within the first 3 feet (0.9 m) of land in exchange for not having to remove contamination below that point unless it is likely to migrate to the surface or contaminate ground water. About half of the 800 buildings previously existing on the site were dismantled in early December 2004.
The site is contaminated with plutonium residue due to some on-site industrial fires and other accidental releases caused by wind in waste storage. The other main contaminant is carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 ). Both of these substances affect the area adjacent to the site. In addition, there are small releases of beryllium and tritium, as well as dioxins from incineration.
The clearance was completed on October 13, 2005. Approximately 1,300 hectares (2 m², 5 km 2 ) from the original site, the former industrial estate, remained under the control of the US Legacy Legacy Office for environmental monitoring and repair. On March 14, 2007, DOE, EPA, and CDPHE signed the Rocky Flats Legacy Management Agreement (RFLMA). The agreement sets out a regulatory framework for applying the final drug to the Rocky Flats site and ensures the protection of human health and the environment.
In September 2010, after a 20-year legal battle, the Lonely Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the $ 926 million award in a class action lawsuit against Dow Chemical and Rockwell International. The three-judge panel said that the jury reached his decision about wrong wrong instructions in declaring the law. The appeals court threw a jury verdict and sent the case back to the District Court. According to the Court of Appeal, the owners of 12,000 properties in the class-action area did not prove that their property was damaged or they suffered bodily injury due to plutonium that exploded into their property.
In response to the historical and ongoing reports of health problems by people living and living near Rocky Flats, an online health survey was launched in May 2016 by Metropolitan State University, Rocky Flats Downwinders, and other local universities and health agencies to survey thousands of Coloradans living in the east of the Rocky Flats factory while operating.
On May 19, 2016, a $ 375 million settlement was reached on claims by more than 15,000 nearby homeowners that the release of plutonium from the plant jeopardized their health and devalued their property. The settlement ended 26 years of legal battle between residents and two companies that run the Rocky Plant, Dow Chemical and Rockwell International, for the Department of Energy.
June 2014 marks a quarter of a century since the historic FBI and EPA attacks at the Rocky Flats factory. The 3-day weekend event from Friday, June 6 to Sunday, June 8, takes place at Arvada Center for the Arts, "Rocky Flats Past and Present: 25 Years After Attack". Panel discussions cover various aspects of Rocky Flats attacks and consequently. The exhibits are historic photographs and artifacts, and Rocky Flats artwork.
In 2016, the Department of Public Health and Environmental Colorado Cancer Register completed a cancer incident study that saw cancer incidence reported in the area around the Rocky Flats from 1990 to 2014. The study was followed up and modeled after the original Rocky Flats CDPHE cancer incident study, which was completed in the year 1998. Ten cancers that are specifically linked to plutonium and other cancers are of concern to the Health Advisory Panel assessed in 1998, and again in 2016. The study found "the incidence of all cancers combined for both adults and children, children are no different in the community around the Rocky Flats than would be estimated based on cancer rates in the rest of the Denver Metro area for 1990 to 2014. "
In 2017, the CDPHE Cancer Registry supplemented the supplement for this study that specifically looked at the incidence of thyroid and rare cancers in the environment around the Rocky Flats. Cancer incidence data showed "no evidence of higher than expected frequency of thyroid cancer" and "rare 'cancer incidence' was not higher than expected compared to the rest of the Denver Metro area."
Maps Rocky Flats Plant
See also
- Atomic Energy Act
- Cold War
- Christian Iversen, author of
Body Load: Growing in Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats - Making Real Killings: Rocky Flats and Nuclear West
- The Manhattan Project
- Price-Anderson Act
- Timeline of nuclear weapons development
Note
External links
- US. Department of Energy, Legacy Management, Rocky Flats
- US. Environmental Protection Agency, Rocky Flats
- US. Fish & amp; Wildlife Services, Rocky Flats Wildlife Sanctuary
- Department of Public Health Colorado & amp; Environment (CDPHE), Rocky Flats
- Christian Iversen, author of
Body Weight - Rocky Flats History
- Bomb Production in Rocky Flats: Death Downwind
- HAER CO-83 survey number
- History History of Critical Mass Laboratory at Rocky Flats
- Photography: years of disobedience
- Rocky Flats before (1995) and after (2005) cleaning.
- Insiders' Views of the Rocky Flats: The Urban Myth Contested by Farrel D. Hobbs
- Annotated Bibliography in Rocky Flats from Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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