An interior view of the plutonium processing facility at Rocky Flats. (Library of Congress)
“On September 11, 1957, 55 years ago tomorrow, a national catastrophe was unfolding, one you likely have never heard about before. At the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility near Denver, inside the plutonium processing building, a fire had started in an area designed to be fireproof. Soon it was roaring over, through, and around the carefully constricted plutonium as one Cold-War-era safety feature after another failed. The roof of the building, the building itself, were threatened. And plumes of radioactive smoke went straight up into Colorado’s late summer night air. High into the air, if you believe the witnesses…
“Citizens cannot afford to be complacent; they must be educated and aware of nuclear decisions that may affect their health and their properties. Local citizens must be part of the decision-making process regarding existing and potential new nuclear facilities. And we must continue to press for ways to hold government and corporations accountable for protecting public health and the environment.”
Read the entire interview with Kristen Iversen, author of Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, at the Atlantic: A September 11th Catastrophe You’ve Probably Never Heard About – Andrew Cohen.
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