Rocky Flats

Running head: Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant

Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant

Jefferson County, Colorado

Danielle A. Moore

Business 343

Introduction

Rocky Flats Plant Historic District is a 6,240-acre site and lies just outside of Denver, Colorado. For approximately 40 years, nuclear weapons parts were produced at Rocky Flats. In 1952, the industrial facility used radioactive plutonium to create weapon triggers called pits. The plant also used other materials such as uranium and beryllium to make weapons parts. Other chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride were used as a cleaning solvent. They also used more than 8,000 other chemicals in the manufacturing processes.

The plant stopped weapons production in 1989 after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) raided Rocky Flats to investigate allegations of environmental crimes. In 1992, they began cleanup of the contaminated site.

Ethical Issues

The issue of this plant was largely due to the manufacturing of plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs. The presence of plutonium caused numerous cases of cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma in the surrounding areas of the plant. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) once reported that the area was so badly contaminated, that it would take 70 years to completely clean up the site. In 2005, reports were released stating that the cleanup was finished, and that the space was inhabitable once again. This was not entirely true. There were approximately 1,000 acres that were so badly contaminated that they could never be cleaned up or used again.

Facts & Stakeholders

In 1989, an FBI agent exposed the deadly contamination at Rocky Flats nuclear-weapons plant, but the federal government concealed the findings. It wasn’t until 2001 that Congress voted to convert the area into a wildlife refuge with as many as 16 miles of trails for hiking and horseback riding. The intent was to open it...