This book by Clayton Lagerquist could be considered a companion to my book, “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats, Urban Myths Debunked.” We write about many of the same subjects and issues. However, I was careful not to identify other people and he was careful to identify everyone he could remember. I worked with Clayton after I was transferred from production support research and development to the environmental and health organization in the early 1970s. (He calls himself “Clayt” in messages, so I’ll begin using that name.) He is an interesting person who holds numerous technical degrees, and much of the book is about his role in the early days of Health Physics Department and the people in that organization. He is complimentary to most of those people, but there are others who receive less than glowing reviews. He refers to one manager “an arrogant ass.” He describes another manager as “easy to dislike.” But then he writes, “For some reason, I liked him.” Clayt’s assessment of the FBI raid and ensuring fiasco is quite blunt. He writes at the end of the Introduction, “The Federal Government closely supervised all activities with an on-site office and conducted numerous audits using outside experts. I say all this to remind everyone that in the end, the Federal Government sued Rockwell International for environmental misconduct in federal court and won. This has to be the most colossal act of arrogant stupidity that I have ever seen.”

The book would be of interest to anyone wanting to know more about the people of Rocky Flats and the constant efforts to improve the technology for monitoring external and internal dosimetry. There are descriptions of an unfortunate incident involving a gentleman who lost a thumb and forefinger from an explosive reaction between plutonium chips and carbon tetracholoride in the glovebox where he was working. There are details about the actions that followed to treat the worker and measure the extent of plutonium contamination in his hand and body. Clayt writes that he spent considerable time with the injured man, “…and was amazed at the patience he exhibited during this time. He was a first case in many ways and was willing to go along with all suggestions even though it involved inconvenience to him.” Clayt also writes about the autopsy program and the research program using beagles to investigate how plutonium translocates in the body following a contaminated puncture wound.

There is an account of a fire in 1965 that didn’t gain the notoriety of the fire in 1969, but it should have. A repair crew tried to open a line plugged with plutonium fines with a chisel. The fines ignited, the fumes spread inside the building, and over a hundred people were exposed. The body counter wasn’t effective at detecting the amount of the exposure until, “After many years the in-growth of americium from the plutonium made the detection easier…” There are also accounts to the infamous 903 pad, where most of the contamination that was lost off site originated, and the 1969 fire that I describe in my book.

Both Clayt’s book and mine both also describe how the reputation of the plant declined. I think I can safely say his descriptions of groups that protested Rocky Flats are “less measured” than mine. For example, he mentions that perhaps the decline began when hippies arrived in Boulder. “They lived in the foothills in tents and smoked whatever they could get a hold of. They didn’t work and probably never did. They expected to be free spirits without contributing anything.” He describes anti-nuclear activists as “…nothing but terrorists without guns,” and he was especially peeved about opposition to nuclear power, which “…is the only answer to our oil crisis.” He lists sympathizers and contributors to the decline of the plant’s reputation as several public officials in both the Federal Government and State government. The Union also gets its share of criticism for exaggerating safety issues to gain bargaining power. The news media and their influence on public opinion is also taken to task. Clayt gives an example of a newspaper headline that announced 47% of Rocky Flats workers were dying of cancer while the article said the workers were dying of cancer at a rate no different than the national average. He called the writer and was told someone else had added the headline after the article had been submitted.

Clayt describes the tritium incident, departure of Dow Chemical and arrival of Rockwell, and the DOE audit of the radiation safety program that I attribute to contributing greatly to the demise of the reputation of the plant. There is significant discussion of the raid toward the end of Clayt’s book, and I can say that what I wrote in my book agrees with his opinions perhaps in all but one case. As mentioned in the first paragraph he called the settlement a “…colossal act of arrogant stupidity.” I don’t think it was stupidity. I think it was worse than that. I believe it was consciously done by federal authorities who had been duped by people who didn’t like Rocky Flats and were willing to use threats to indict innocent people to save their reputations.