Lessons learned from a nuclear weapons plant

book cover

New book follows the saga of Rocky Flats

It took 520 weeks at one page a week to complete his latest book "because all the relevant information was deemed secret by the government and its military-industrial contractors," John M. Whiteley, professor of social ecology, says about "The Saga of Rocky Flats: Lessons Learned for a Safer Nuclear World in the 21st Century."

Whiteley's book, published by the Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, is an examination and analytical assessment of Rocky Flats, which was established in 1951 to make the explosive devices to detonate hydrogen bombs.

"By the time production ceased in 1989, Rocky Flats was surrounded by suburbs of Denver. Rocky Flats fabricated 70,000 explosive devices, each the power of the bomb which destroyed Nagasaki 75 years ago," Whiteley notes. "The Department of Energy was willing to be in contempt of court to a Federal District Court judge in an effort to avoid admitting to having lost 2,600 pounds of plutonium when a hydrogen bomb can be fabricated with 10 pounds."

Today, taxpayers are paying the $384 million to the neighbors of Rocky Flats for depositing plutonium on their properties, he says. "A civil jury determined that contractors — Dow Chemical and Rockwell International — acted in a manner that was 'willful and wanton.' As a taxpayer, you paid your share of $100 million to defend them."


Media Contact:
Mimi Ko Cruz
Director of Communications
949-824-1278
mkcruz@uci.edu

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