Category Archives: An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats

Rocky Flats Site Selection

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I’ve often heard and read that the selection of Rocky Flats as the location where a new nuclear weapons production facility code named “Project Apple” would be constructed was flawed because those doing the selection used wind direction at what was then the Stapleton Field, which led them to believe the wind would frequently blow towards the mountains instead of toward Denver. I recently found a copy of the report prepared by the Austin Company titled “Engineering Survey and Report for Santa Fe Operations Office of the Atomic Energy Commission on the Location and Site for Project Apple” in the archives of the Rocky Flats Museum.  The report, which was submitted on March 27, 1951, says in the cover letter, “As we advised representatives of…the Atomic Energy Commission, the Site Review Committee and representatives of the Dow Chemical Company …on March 14 and 15, we have recommended site 4, at Rocky Flats northwest of Denver, as best satisfying the Site Selection Criteria…” The report states that the location was to be “West of the Mississippi River, North of Texas, but include Panhandle Area, South of the northern boundary of Colorado; East of Utah.” There were nine cities that met the preliminary criteria of being 5 to 25 miles from a city of at or near 25,000 people (from which to recruit a work force). The cities were Oklahoma City, Omaha, Lincoln, Amarillo, Springfield, Topeka, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo. There were 35 sites investigated in the vicinity of those nine cities. Six additional cities with populations fewer than 25,000 were added to the consideration, but none were judged to provide any advantage that would overcome the smaller population.

The site area was required to “…be a square, two miles on a side. Land presently owned or controlled by the Government is preferable.”  The plant area had to meet some basic suitability requirements for building construction and require a minimum displacement of homes and people. It was desired that the region have living conditions, community facilities, and recreational opportunities that would be attractive to workers. A low humidity climate was a primary consideration, since the plant would require significant air conditioning that was expected to be provided by evaporative cooling. Rail, highway, and air transportation factored into the evaluation as well as availability of power, water, and fuel. It was determined that the three Colorado cities were the only ones to meet the crucial climatic criteria. “Pueblo is less suitable than Denver in being less attractive to workers and in being home of Colorado Fuel and Iron’s vital industrial operations (a possible military target). Colorado Springs has the fundamental disadvantage of being served by a relatively small local electrical utility which has no interconnections with other utilities as emergency sources.”

It was determined that a site near Denver would be selected, and dozens of potential sites were evaluated. It is frequently asked why anyone would build a plant manufacturing plutonium components near a major metropolitan area. The report makes it clear that proximity to Denver was a positive consideration to those doing the evaluation. “The field survey reduced (the number of sites) to seven sites which lie nearest to the City of Denver and could be economically served with power, water, railroads, and highways.” (Emphasis added) The seven sites were:

North of and adjacent to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal

Six and a half miles northeast of Brighton

Gunbarrel Hill seven miles northeast of Boulder

Rocky Flats

South of the Federal Center

South of Marston Lake, two miles from Littleton, by the South Platte River

Two miles south of Littleton by the South Platte River

The selected site was Rocky Flats and the alternate was the one by the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. It is interesting that an “advantage” of the Arsenal location was it was nearer to present residential areas and considerably nearer to Stapleton Field. The advantages were overcome by “…the undesirable reaction of the public to having this additional ‘secret’ project close to the civilian installations northeast of Denver and in the South Platte Valley.” One mention of wind direction was in a table that lists “Unfavorable Factors” for the sites south of Marston Lake and the one south of Littleton that the prevailing wind was toward Denver.

I wrote in my book “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats, Urban myths debunked,” that I found arguments that Rocky Flats shouldn’t have been selected because wind directions were misinterpreted to be “tedious.” The Stapleton Field wind rose shows the wind blowing in all directions, including to the north just under a fourth of the time and to the south a tenth of the time. I predict no one who thought or thinks Rocky Flats was a poor place to build a nuclear weapons plant would have endorsed any of the seven Denver locations or the 35 original sites near other cities.

Soviet Support to Western Peace Organizations

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This subject was first discussed in a post dated February 25, 2011 after I had received comments from a senior DOE official about my book, “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats, Urban Myths Debunked.” One of the comments was about the massive support the Soviet Union had given to groups that protested places such as Rocky Flats. My most recent post was about an organization named Citizens Against Nuclear Disinformation In Denver (CANDID) that was formed by nuclear scientists and engineers frustrated by the flood rhetoric being spread by the ill-informed mainstream media and anti-nuclear groups following the highly publicized FBI raid of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in June 1989. There was a CANDID article authored by Dr. Michael R. Fox titled “The Counterfeit Peace Makers” published in December 1993 that discusses the work by the Communists to influence the “peace movements.” Dr. Fox mentions that a good scouting report would be useful to understand “…the values, agendas, tactics and influence on some to the participants. Specifically, the peace groups could stand a little more glare of scrutiny.”

“That these critics have reveled in portraying Rocky Flats workers as being a collection of careless devils incarnate, RF employees and friends may still be amazed as to how their critics could have reached such conclusions. A scouting report is thus provided.”

“To understand the Western Peace Movement (WPM)…it is best to understand the World Peace Council (WPC). The FBI has identified this organization as ‘the largest and most active Soviet international front organization, with affiliates in approximately 140 countries.’ The WPC worked through its U.S. supporting groups:  the U.S. Peace Council (USPC) and the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA). Since the ‘C-word’ turns off many Americans, the WPM developed into many nice-sounding appealing organizations. Most of them were either controlled or influenced by the WPC. Since most of these groups contain members having undiluted contempt for the U.S., for capitalism, for individual freedom, and especially the U.S. military capabilities, it is not essential for the KGB or other Soviet agents…to control them. Without external control and minimum external influence they voluntarily performed their men-spirited missions, including discrediting Rocky Flats workers. All of this, of course, is done in the name of ‘peace.'”

“The WPM, almost since its inception in the 1920s, has been cursed with infiltrators from the political left, including infiltrations from the CPUSA. The pursuit of peace by true pacifists was conducted in such a way as to be willing to criticize and oppose all belligerents in…conflicts. Not so the WPM. Its motivations were and still are to discredit and dismantle the U.S. military capabilities, not those of the Soviets…”

“A major player in all of this anti-American activity is the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)…This group has been very influential in promoting a decidedly anti-American agenda among the media, churches and clergy, and the Western Peace Movement on any number of issues has enjoyed the support of 100-200 members of Congress. It is no accident that these groups appear to be anti-American and critical of RF employees. They appear that way because they are that way, by design, training, and ideology.”

“An extraordinary debate about the nature of Pacifism has continued for 5 decades. A recent analysis of the debate was authored by Guenther Lewy…Lewy concludes, ‘While at one time pacifists were single-mindedly devoted to the principles of non-violence and reconciliation, today most pacifists groups defend the moral legitimacy of the armed struggle and guerrilla warfare, and they praise and support the Communist regimes emerging from such conflicts…”

“Finally, it comes as a surprise to many examining the peace issues to discover the existence of hundreds of peace groups in Eastern Europe. It is through their eyes that one can more clearly see the moral bankruptcy of the Western Peace Movement. People in these Eastern peace groups risked death itself fighting for their freedom through the use of the spoken and written word, and to rid themselves of their bestial tormentors, jailers, and murderers. Because the WPM is so heavily infused with Soviet apologists, it did not demand liberty, freedom, and civil rights for the people of Eastern Europe as a condition of nuclear disarmament of the West. In fact, the WPM ignored the appeals for human rights from Eastern groups….some leaders of the WPM forbade criticism of the Soviets.”

Citizens Against Nuclear Information in Denver (CANDID)

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CANDID was formed by nuclear scientists and engineers frustrated by the flood of anti-Rocky Flats Plant rhetoric being spread by the ill-informed mainstream media and anti-nuclear groups following the highly publicized FBI raid in June 1989. The federal search warrant that authorized the raid quickly made it into news reports and articles that popularized allegations of midnight burning of plutonium contaminated wastes and illegal discharges of toxic wastes. Of course none of the allegations were found to be true, and none of them were mentioned in the guilty plea “bargain” the government forced on Rockwell to save the reputations of those who organized the raid. (A full discussion is available in my book “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats, Urban Myths Debunked.) CANDID tried to balance the inaccuracies with fact-based articles and analysis.

The raid and allegations did succeed at poisoning the reputation of the plant and the people who worked there producing nuclear weapons components, including plutonium triggers. The people who protested the mission of the plant were encouraged to increase their rhetoric, and the news media fed it all to the readers and watchers. CANDID was established in the early 1990s in this atmosphere, and began publishing newsletters to present technical responses to refute some of the disinformation. This posting will discuss the purpose of CANDID from an article titled “Whether/Whiter CANDID?” published as Volume 2/Issue 10 in July 1992. There will be future postings based on many other articles that continue to have relevance today. There is consideration to making a link to the body of work by CANDID. The following are quotes from the CANDID article.

“Let’s revisit the original purpose of CANDID. As Citizens Against Nuclear Disinformation in Denver, we have attempted to correct some of the disinformation about Rocky Flats and its mission, as well as to bring scientific fact to bear on a lot of unscientific fiction. Our purpose has been to try to get the public, the politicians, and anti-nuclear/defense groups to approach technical issues with as little emotion as possible and to apply the scientific method to these technical problems. This has been extremely difficult, given the highly emotional issues of the morality of nuclear deterrence, the diversion of federal funds from other needs to the military/industrial complex, etc. Some folks have simplistically assumed that if they are ‘for’ peace, then anyone who disagrees with them is ‘for’ war, or at least greedy enough to take the chance of having a war for money…”

“But presumably these arguments are behind us. Now that the mission of Rocky Flats has changed from production of plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons to cleaning up the plant, the weapons issue has been eliminated…The planning process and actual cleanup in some areas has begun.”

“So what need is there for CANDID? This is easily answered. The technical issues still remain. The residue and backlog and waste backlog still remains. These materials must be processed at Rocky Flats or shipped elsewhere for processing. Every option is encumbered with seemingly insurmountable problems. People don’t want the material stored or processed at Rocky Flats, but don’t want it shipped on the highways or by railroad to any other site either…”

“All of which brings me to my main concern. The weapons issue is gone, but the environmental issues remain. The same mind-set exists with some environmental activists as with peace activists; if you’re not for their environmental package, you are against the environment…Making it impossible for RFP to operate has been the intent in the past during the Cold War years…with some of the ‘green movement’ devotees. As Petra Kelly of the German green movement put it, ‘Our objective is to make the Western democracies ungovernable.’ Hopefully, that is no longer the desire of any of the greens…we should be working towards the same end…But we are far apart on the means to accomplish this goal.”

“The bottom line is that we have a formidable task ahead of us…We all presumably have the same goal now, that of environmental remediation and economic conversion of the plant site. We are not going to have infinite resources to accomplish our goal. Let’s hope we can work together. Otherwise, we are going to spend all our resources on litigation and paper work, and the benefit to the environment–and mission transition at Rocky Flats–will only receive pocket change.”

“The greatest obstacle to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.” (Historian Daniel Boorstein)

Church Ranch and Rocky Flats Part I

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I recently met with Charles (Charlie) Church McKay to discuss his family’s history and  relationship with Rocky Flats. He was quite candid in discussing some of the past conflicts between his family and the Rocky Flats bureaucrats. He told me that Len Ackand’s book, “Making a Real Killing” is an excellent source of information, and he traded me a copy of that for a copy of my book, “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats, Urban Myths Debunked” (free on this web site or at Amazon as either a paperback or Kindle).  He also gave me a compendium titled, “Snapshots of History, Church Ranch and the Church Ranch Family.” That compendium and the summary history of his family on the Church Ranch web site on the heritage link were the sources for this posting. I intend to focus on the family history in this posting, and will detail some of the conflicts with Rocky Flats in Part II.

George Henry Church and Sarah Henderson Miller were married in 1861 in Iowa and departed for Colorado in what they called their honeymoon in a wagon pulled by an ox team. They began this venture despite the fact that most people who had attempted to make the trip with signs such as “Pikes Peak or Bust” had eventually turned around after making a new sign that said something such as “Busted.” Some Indians offered to buy Sarah for nine ponies and $100, and Sarah told George, “You will never have a better offer and better close the sale.” (To give an idea of what $100 was worth in those days, there is mention of buying half a bushel of potatoes and five dozen eggs for fifteen cents.)  A man arrived who told them the Indians weren’t joking, and the discussions ended. The Churches made it to Denver in nine weeks, and Sarah estimated the population at 3,000 to 4,000. They travelled on into the mountains to buy several mining claims. The mining didn’t work out, so they returned to Iowa, bought 50 head of cattle, and made the return trip to homestead. They eventually homesteaded in Jefferson County three and a half miles from the nearest neighbor, and eventually owned land where Rocky Flats was built after the Atomic Energy Commission offered the Church family a low price “under the threat of condemnation.”

The first mention of “Rocky Flat” or “Rocky Flats” I located was in an article titled “Snow Storm of 1913 at Church’s Ranch” by Marcus Church. The storm must have been one of those epic upslope storms where all the moisture is the air is dropped as snow on the Front Range. There was 3 1/2 to 4 feet of snow at the Church ranch, and up to 7 feet in Golden. Snow and wind continued off and on until a “Chinook” warm wind finally began melting some of the drifts on January 3rd. The ranchers battled to keep the horses and cattle dug out of the drifts, watered, and fed.

The Churches were ardent entrepreneurs, and had several firsts in the settlement and development of Colorado. George was the first farmer in to successfully harvest a crop of winter wheat, although he recognized early that farming would be much more successful with irrigation. He constructed a ditch from the mouth of Coal Creek Canyon and built the first irrigation reservoir, Church’s Upper Lake,  in 1870-1871 and Church’s Lower Lake a bit later. A contract was made with Golden and Ralston Creek Ditch Company to acquire rights of way and extend the ditch to cover the Church lands. The ditch takes water from Clear Creek and continues to operate today. Water rights were of premium importance when the system was being built and began to operate. An article in the compendium titled “George Henry Church” describes how his decision to build the first irrigation ditches and lakes “…brought enmity of neighbors on Coal Creek, from which he drew the water supply. So high ran the felling that it resulted in threats on his life and it seemed at times that serious trouble would ensue.”

The innovation and ventures didn’t end there. The Churches were the first to bring Hereford cattle to Colorado, built and operated a stage coach stop, and mined gravel. (The gravel business would eventually create significant conflict with Rocky Flats, but that will be covered in Part II.) As is the case for most families, there were also tragedies and failures. Perry Church, younger brother of Marcus, died at the age of 29. The Great Depression hit the family hard, and they were forced to sell 3,000 acres of Front Range properties, including much of the irrigated land. They were able to hold on to about 4,000 acres, which included part of what would become the site of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. The Churches were hard working and independent people, and they were forced to begin dealing with a bureaucracy that strives to make certain all the rules imposed by the bureaucracy are followed. As a self-described “part time libertarian,” it isn’t difficult to judge which side I would take.

Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge

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There was a recent article in the Denver Post announcing the opening of a new visitor center at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I have mixed feelings about that announcement. I’m pleased that the Arsenal was able to open that facility, but I would be more pleased if I would hear there is staff and money to develop a similar facility at the Rocky Flats site. There is some irony that the Rocky Mountain Arsenal refuge has opened, because Rocky Flats workers often had to listen to stories about the Arsenal when they told someone they worked at Rocky Flats. I recently told a man I had retired from Rocky Flats, and he told me about armed guards showing up when he was a child playing in a field near the Arsenal. For those who are confused, Rocky Flats was west of Denver and made components for nuclear weapons for the Department of Energy and the Rocky Mountain Arsenal was 10 miles east of downtown Denver and was a chemical weapons plant managed by U.S. Army.

There undoubtedly will be similarities between the Rocky Mountain Arsenal refuge and what hopefully becomes available at the Rocky Flats site. I don’t know whether the Aresenal was pressured to put up signs warning that the area had been used for manufacture and storage of various chemical warfare agents, but there was and is controversy about the planned refuge for Rocky Flats. The first link on a July 2007 press release from the Fish and Wildlife Service is “Rocky Flats Signage,” which explains in detail that public use was a controversial issue in preparation of plans for the refuge. The document explains, “…due to the site’s former use as a nuclear weapons production facility and the contamination that resulted from that use, many members of the public expressed concern regarding the cleanup of the site and the safety of future visitors. Based on the best currently available scientific data and unequivocal determinations by the EPA and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), that the extensive cleanup program resulted in a landscape that is safe for refuge workers and visitors, (the plan) provides for future public use of the site…”

The health risk of “low levels” of plutonium is what creates the controversy. The term “low levels” is in quotes because I’ve been taken to task for using the term with the admonition that all levels create health risks. As I explain in Chapter 25 of my book, “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats, Urban Myths Debunked,” (available free on this site and at Amazon as a paperback or as a Kindle version)  the entire earth is contaminated with plutonium and every person has many billions to trillions of plutonium atoms in their bodies resulting from atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. There are posts in the archives of this site dated January 18 and 25 that discuss the controversy. People worked in the industrial area of Rocky Flats for years, decades in many cases, and generally their health is as good as people who never worked there. (Some would argue with me about that statement, but I’m going to let them make their own arguments.) My belief is that a visit to areas outside the closed former industrial area won’t create a health risk to my family if I’m ever able to invite them to go there with me. I hope to recreate there early and often. Those who disagree can elect to not visit.

 

Now Enjoy “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats” as Kindle e-Book

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RockyFlatsFacts.com is pleased to announce that “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats: Urban Myths Debunked” is now available in an e-book (electronic book) version from the Amazon.com Kindle Store. The e-book version includes dozens of new color and b&w photos to enhance your reading experience, especially for those readers who have never visited the inside of a DOE nuclear facility. Once purchased the e-book can be promptly downloaded and enjoyed on your Kindle Reader. [Please note that Amazon’s hand-held Kindle Reader displays e-book images in black & white (4-bit grayscale), so e-book photos will currently display in grayscale on this device. Free PC and Mac reader apps (see below) will however display color images/photos. There are pictures of gloveboxes, plutonium, burning plutonium, damage from the 1969 fire, decontamination workers, and a couple dozen others.

Don’t have a hand-held Kindle Reader? No problem: a totally free Kindle e-book reader application is available for download here for both Windows PC and Mac platforms. Kindle reader app for your Apple iPad is also available here, as are reader apps for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android phones and mobile devices. With the free app download you also receive a few free e-books: Aesop’s Fables, Pride & Prejudice, and Treasure Island.

I had help with the pictures and e-book. The person who provided the know-how is my friend and colleague, Keith Motyl, and he can be reached at kpmotyl@comcast.net if you are interested in the process of e-book publishing.

Please let us know how you like the newly illustrated e-book.