Full Body Burden

Iversen meditates on what it takes to build a culture of silence: “enforced by implication and innuendo, looks and glances, hints of dark consequence” (300). Children learn silence from parents teaching them morality and the importance of privacy. She also remarks that silence takes a heavy toll. 

Iversen continues seeing doctors who cannot diagnose the unusual condition also shared by her siblings. One doctor dismisses the idea that living near Rocky Flats correlates with her health problems. Iversen is not sure if there is a connection but does believe that “[g]overnments aren’t supposed to poison their own people” (301). 

Iversen makes the acquaintance of Ann White, a local activist who protested Rocky Flats for many years. The two discuss the proposed cleanup of the plant, which the DOE stated would last until 2065 and cost $36 billion (301). Ann says Mark Silverman discussed with protesters the necessity of covering plutonium waste with cement and winding down operations at the plant by 2010. Iversen thinks about the legendary and extraordinarily radioactive Infinity Rooms at the plant, which workers could only access with extensive safety equipment. Likewise, Rocky Flats’ “‘Pac-Man’ rooms” (302) store radioactive equipment. In addition to these contaminated sites, there are also the radioactive waste barrels and facilities like Building 371 that require cleaning. 

Kurt, his wife, and their two dogs go to Standley Lake, where the Iversen children once played. A man in a boat arrives to command the dogs out of the water and says they should not disturb the soil. Various government agencies conceal the evidence of plutonium sediment at the lakeshore. From his work as a pizza deliverer, Kurt knows a former employee of Rocky Flats. The young man has health issues and scars from decontamination scrubbing after accidents at the factory. 

Although scientists like Richard Clapp studied Rocky Flats’ effect on public health, no one conducts official tests. Residents and employees affected by a nuclear plant in Cincinnati, however, gain medical monitoring through legal action. The Colorado Cancer Registry of the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE) declares that Rocky Flats has not caused an excess of cancers, but many doubt the motives behind this statement. 

In 1999, a CDPHE study concludes that Rocky Flats polluted the area with enormous amounts of toxic chemicals. Its numbers rely on public records and estimation methods—not on the classified information from the FBI raid or medical testing. The plant’s contaminating practices particularly affect individuals who spend prolonged hours outdoors and breathe the air, but contact with soil, drinking water, and affected meat and produce also expose people to radioactive materials. Although contaminated water sources closed in the 1990s, Standley Lake remains active despite its toxicity. The study claims that the contamination levels fall within acceptable limits and do not pose health risks. 

The study’s budget includes a significant amount for public relations effort such as news articles. The public asks for health testing, but the DOE and CDPHE refuse (307). 

Iversen, her siblings, and their families gather at their mother’s house for a festive Christmas in 2004. Iversen’s father calls; her mother answers and hands the phone to her daughter. Iversen, who has not spoken to her father in years, agrees to meet him at a Starbucks. True to the family habit, Iversen and her father both arrive late. He emerges from his cab and orders his usual black coffee from the barista who recognizes him.

Her father discusses his new puppy and his decision to quit smoking. Iversen tells him she is writing a book about Rocky Flats, and he mentions the family’s good fortune that he could not build a well on their property in Bridledale and thereby ingest contaminated groundwater. He tells her that he was late because a woman loaded all of her possessions into his cab and later asked him to turn around. Iversen and her father say they love each other and depart.

After 15 years of preparation, trial proceedings for Cook v. Rockwell International Corporation begin in 2005 (313). The defense states that the environmental plutonium around Rocky Flats does not pose a threat, whereas the prosecution states that plutonium is indeed harmful and that Rockwell knowingly concealed their contaminating practices. Peter Nordberg considers the import of the case, which has overtaken 16 years of his life, and takes the place of lead counsel the day the verdict is read.

During the trial, Nordberg and his colleagues combat the lead defense attorney David Bernick, a fierce arguer who has successfully defended many corporate entities. The defense addresses the almost 3,000 pounds of MUF with indifference, but Nordberg and his team argue that the missing plutonium endangered the health of those near Rocky Flats. They also suggest that the scientific studies on Rocky Flats’ safety were biased. Witnesses for the prosecution include Jon Lipsky, leader of the FBI raid. Although Nordberg understands why Rocky Flats employees participated in the production of nuclear weapons, he disagrees with the culture of concealing vital information at the plant. 

The judge takes the jury through every charge leveled against Rockwell, Dow Chemical Company, and the DOE, and they unanimously find the defendants guilty. The jury orders these entities to pay a collective $554.2 million in damages (316). Bernick yells at the jurors, but the judge silences him. 

The landowners involved are relieved and overjoyed at the result of the trial, sharing their elation with press outside the courtroom. The defense attorneys, on the other hand, are terse and dejected. Nordberg calls home and leaves a message about the good news, shares a drink a few other celebrants, and goes home. 

Iversen, now teaching in Tennessee, follows the trial on television. She and her family have no claim to any of the trial’s monetary rewards since they sold their Bridledale home before a certain cutoff date. Iversen shares an emotional phone call with Karma after the verdict is read. 

In the mid-1990s, the DOE struggles with cleaning up Rocky Flats and refuses to block it from the public because it has real estate value. The DOE commissions Kaiser-Hill to clean up the site, and Congress orders that the project should end in December 2006 and stay within a budget of $7 billion. The DOE, EPA, and CDPHE set that level at 651 picocuries of plutonium per gram of soil, an extraordinarily high value compared to the levels of soil contamination at similar nuclear sites around the country. 

The public objects to this level, and the DOE establishes an independent study to determine acceptable limits for plutonium in soil at Rocky Flats. This study “recommends a level of no more than 35 picocuries per gram of soil, a reduction of 95 percent from what the DOE, EPA, and CDPHE have originally agreed to as the legally binding standard” (319). These agencies then establish that they will extensively remove plutonium from the top three feet of soil, somewhat clean lower levels of soil, and not address any contamination below six feet from the surface of the earth. However, forces like wind, water, and burrowing animals can turn over deeper, polluted soil levels to the surface. Congress decides to transform Rocky Flats into a wildlife refuge, and Kaiser-Hill accepts the charge of cleaning up the site, although a minimum of their funding will address decontaminating the environment. 

For decades, countries around the world have, through testing nuclear weapons, contributed to background plutonium in the environment. The Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge hosts recreation and hunting, although the deer there do test positive for plutonium in bone samples. Rather than closing it, the government made the site a refuge.

The Dobrovolnys are one of many families with multiple members working at Rocky Flats. Several of them experience health problems such as fatal lung cancer and chronic pneumonia. Nuclear industry officials tell one epidemiologist, Dr. Gregg Wilkinson, not to publish his study on cancer in Rocky Flats employees. After officials attempt to control his future work, he quits and studies women’s health within the DOE. 

Rocky Flats also produces chronic beryllium disease, which, according to a 1990 study by the National Jewish Hospital in Denver, obstructs breathing in workers. Other studies link working at Rocky Flats with lung cancer, brain cancer, and similar conditions such as leukemia.

The federal government addresses illness due to working in the nuclear industry with a statement from Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act (EEOICA). This act seeks to provide financial assistance to former workers using a tool measuring past radiation levels in the body. Of the nearly 6,000 former Rocky Flats employees who applied for health-related compensation, two-thirds met rejection. Charlie Wolf, one of the cleanup workers at the plant, quickly develops a fatal brain tumor after beginning work there. His family receives a mere $150,000 in compensation after he dies (324). A bill named for Charlie Wolf, which would aid workers seeking compensation, does not make much headway. 

Tools used in the cleanup of Rocky Flats become contaminated, increasing the cleanup needed at the site. A press conference headed by Jon Lipsky, Wes McKinley of the grand jury trial, and former Rocky Flats employee Jacque Brever does not go to plan when the FBI tells Lipsky not to speak publicly about Rocky Flats. The DOE declares the site clean when the last of the radioactive waste leaves for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The agency keeps certain areas of the former nuclear plant but gives the rest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Although “clean,” there is still over a ton of MUF that likely resides in the plant life and other elements of the environment. The planned wildlife refuge promises hiking trails and other recreational features, and residential developments nearby continue multiplying.

Tamara Smith Meza receives an ultrasound scan for a suspected tumor in her abdomen. The technician surprises Tamara and her husband David by revealing it is not a tumor but a baby boy. 

Engineer and whistleblower Jim Stone takes Rockwell to court for fraud and wins $4.2 in damages, but he does not receive the money. The decision is overturned on appeal in a U.S. Supreme Court decision, and Stone passes away shortly thereafter.

The appeal case for Cook v. Rockwell International Corporation also sees the decision overturned. Peter Nordberg argues for the plaintiffs in front of three judges, with the total damages sought now totaling $926 million. Iversen and her siblings closely watch the case. The judges base their decision on a lack of evidence that plutonium contamination from Rocky Flats directly causes injury and disease (328). 

Meanwhile, Nordberg’s family returns from a vacation to find him unwell. At the hospital, he seems to recover, but soon after at 54-years old, he dies of a congenital heart condition. Nordberg does not live to hear the results of the appeal, which his wife Mykaila counts a small blessing. 

Although they acknowledge that high levels of radiation exposure harm human tissue, experts know less about the effects of low levels of radiation exposure over long periods. Recent studies suggest that all radiation can affect tissue at the cellular level and may cause cancers such as leukemia and lung cancer. Recent studies also corroborate Dr. Carl Johnson’s 1981 findings about high incidences of cancer in the Rocky Flats region (330). 

The Iversens’ neighbors, the Bunce family, suffer from cancers and other health conditions like thyroid issues; likewise, as a college student Kristin Dunn, who grows up near Rocky Flats, develops thyroid cancer. Her father learns that another girl around Kristin’s age also has thyroid cancer. Doctors and civilians alike suspect that these health conditions connect to living near the nuclear plant. 

Some civilians organize a test of soil near Rocky Flats, which indicates the presence of plutonium. In response to the results of the study and the group’s requests, the DOE and Fish and Wildlife Service do nothing. In 2011, the group pursues another soil study, but the Fish and Wildlife Service obstructs its efforts. 

The management of nuclear waste poses a long-lasting and complex set of problems for facilities throughout the United States. Radioactive elements such as neptunium-237 and plutonium-239 remain radioactive for tens of thousands of years and must be stored safely to avoid a criticality. 

Public statements from the DOE and CDPHE, such as a promotional video, proclaim the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge land immaculate and perfect for public use. A public survey about the proposed refuge shows that a majority of citizens oppose opening the site to the public. Former Building 371 worker Shirley Garcia doubts that the cleanup effort sufficiently removed toxic material from Rocky Flats. The DOE maintains its public position that Rocky Flats will provide a safe place for recreation and dismisses citizens’ concerns, although the agency acknowledges remaining radioactive material in the groundwater. 

On a visit to Colorado, Iversen and Karma take their father to a pizza parlor. Although in poor health, their father is in good spirits. Iversen asks him about the car accident and tells him it broke her neck. He apologizes and mentions that the accident broke his back. 

Iversen drives to Rocky Flats, observing extensive new developments, the former site of the nuclear facility, and Standley Lake. She tours her childhood home in Bridledale and observes how it has both changed and remained the same across the decades. She drives through Arvada to the cemetery, observing her grandparents’ tombstones. Iversen’s mother has recently passed away, but her ashes are buried in her home state of Minnesota. 

Iversen reflects on the familiar surroundings and how time has changed her body. She thinks about the horses that stepped on her toes and the scars she bears from rock-climbing and from the birth of her son, Sean. Her neck scars come from a childhood bike accident and her lymph node surgery. She has spots on her lungs that might be evidence of plutonium contamination. Karma has suffered from cancer, Kurt from rheumatoid arthritis, and all three have immune system issues.

Although government agencies maintain their position that Rocky Flats has not definitively caused harm to locals, Iversen doubts that all government workers stand by that position. She reminisces about Mark, and how her father lingered at the door when she found out he died. She remembers Rex Haag, whose daughter died young and who declined to take Rocky Flats to court for his loss. Iversen likens the community’s response to him to the broader response to the nuclear industry: denial and a reticence to assign blame.

Rocky Flats passes from people’s minds, although the land remains a silent witness to the effects of the nuclear industry. The plaintiffs of Cook v. Rockwell International Corporation pursue a hearing before circuit-court judges but do not get the chance to tell their story (although a Supreme Court case might occur). The results of the FBI raid and grand jury trial remain classified (340). 

Generations in the near future will not know about Rocky Flats, but its contamination will last at least 24,000 years (the half-life of plutonium). Human remains have gravestones, but the nuclear plant has none. Iversen, still sitting at the graveyard, departs as rain begins to fall and dark clouds approach.