Full Body Burden: Growing up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats

Posted on by

body-burdenThis book by Kristen Iversen is a nearly encyclopedic collection of negative stories and rumors about the Rocky Flats nuclear weapon plant and there is a companion review of the book on that link of this web site. The author did a significant amount of research and numerous interviews, but there are indications that some of the information was misinterpreted, misunderstood, or exaggerated.

The author emphasizes that the neighbors believed the Rocky Flats plant made cleaning supplies despite the fact the one headline mentioned in the book celebrating that the plant would be built near Denver referred to the Atomic Energy Commission plans to build an “A-plant.” The theme that no one knew what was going on at Rocky Flats is continued through the author’s childhood despite documentation in the book about several scientists doing sampling and analysis that identified plutonium downwind of the plant after the 1969 fire. Plutonium contamination from the plant had been well-documented and advertised by people who opposed the plant and its mission when Colorado voters considered a constitutional amendment to outlaw production of nuclear weapons components at Rocky Flats in November 1982. Voters decided they wanted the jobs and resulting positive economic impact on the metro area despite the news reports about contamination from the plant. Slightly under a two thirds majority voted against the amendment and in favor of retaining the plant. That vote isn’t mentioned in the book.

I’ve decided I only have enough space for a few of the subjects where I disagree. Where should I start? The descriptions of the 1957 fire in Building 771 and the plutonium contamination from the 903 pad are somewhat similar to factual accounts, although the statement that the 1957 fire might have released “…as much as 92 pounds of plutonium or more…” is clearly an exaggeration. The account of the 1969 fire begins by saying it was in Building 771 and then describes black smoke coming out of the stack of Building 776/777. The only stack visile off site was the one at 771. Also, I saw the plenums after the fire, and could not even see the damage that was reported to the first stage. The other three stages of filtration were undamaged, which means “black smoke” wouldn’t have been coming out of any stack or vent. The orange and white hazmat suits the author mentions weren’t used until decades after the 1969 fire.

The litany of accusations about accidents is less important than the many accusations about health effects of Rocky Flats.  I’ll restrict myself to a few key points. There are discussions about tons of plutonium missing from Rocky Flats, and it is ignored that those “tons” are later accounted for at waste disposal sites. Just about every governmental agency and several private groups have done sampling and analysis of soil samples in the vicinity of the plant, and releases in the tons of plutonium would be quite easy to detect. A ton of weapons grade plutonium contains over 60,000 curies of activity. Add twelve zeros to that number and you arrive at the picocurie unit of measure used for amounts of plutonium in soil.

There are mentions of autopsy samples from people around Rocky Flats that found plutonium contamination. There is also a mention  that plutonium was recently detected in the crawl space of a home near Rocky Flats. There isn’t a person in the world who does not have plutonium contamination and there isn’t a location in the world where you won’t find plutonium  It will be found in any crawl space in any city and in the tissue of any resident in the world.

There is mention of a rancher who had a deformed pig he took to meetings and that thorium was found in the gonads of some of his animals. There are higher levels of background thorium in Colorado than most locations, but they were there before the Rocky Flats plant was constructed. Rocky Flats did not process thorium.

The author thought she had caught the plant in a lie when she wrote, “Despite insistence there has never been a criticality…a memo reports an average of two ‘nuclear criticality infractions’ each month.” “Criticality infraction” was the term used when the aggressive program to prevent criticalities found something in a glovebox that wasn’t mentioned in the strict criticality limits required to be posted on the box. A criticality infraction was certainly not the same as a criticality, although I can understand why that would be confusing. On the subject of criticalities, it is mentioned that during a fire in Building 371, “The criticality alarm blares…indicating there is plutonium contamination in the air.” The alarm that sound when there is airborne plutonium contamination is called the Selective Alpha Air Alarm (SAAM) and not a criticality alarm.

There are other passages in the book that bothered me because of inaccuracy or misinterpretation, but what is important is that the author suspects illnesses of herself, her family, friends, and neighbors were caused by Rocky Flats. One study by Colorado concluded that laborers were and are the most at risk from plutonium released from Rocky Flats, and that risk “…is about the same as a person’s risk from plutonium released during past nuclear weapons testing.” That risk is listed 0.5 in a million. The risk of being killed by a lightning strike is given as 110 in a million. It is estimated that 46 percent of people living in Colorado will develop cancer in their lifetime. So there will be 460,000 out of a million Coloradoans who develop cancer in their lifetimes. It would seem we could find something other than one chance in a million to worry about. I liked Vincent Carroll’s explanation in his opinion column about “Full Body Burden” titled, “Again, raising a false alarm.” The first sentence is, “We never want to stop scaring one another, do we?”

The book mentions that an appeals court reversed the class action lawsuit verdict that had awarded hundreds of millions to land and home owners around Rocky Flats. There is no explanation for the why the court took that action. The court ruled that irrational fear cannot be grounds for a judgment. To the extent Plaintiffs rely on anxiety from an increased risk to their health as an interference with the use and enjoyment of their properties, that anxiety must arise from scientifically verifiable evidence regarding the risk and cannot be wholly irrational.”

Since irrational fear is just as debilitating as rational fear, it is my hope that people who have become fearful because of what they read in Ms. Iversen’s book will read my free book about Rocky Flats. Perhaps Chapter 25 will help some people be less fearful. The table of contents lets you go directly to specific chapters. The book is also available for purchase on Amazon as Kindle or paperback for those who prefer to pay for books. The subtitle of my book “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats” is “Urban Myths Debunked.” I suggest the subtitle for “Full Body Burden” could have been “Urban Myths Perpetuated.”

In the Garden of Beasts

Posted on by

garden-of-beastsThe title reveals of the book reveals what Erick Larsen thinks of Hitler and his henchmen. The subtitle “Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin” begins to explain the content of the book. William E. Dodd, his wife Martha or “Mattie,” daughter Martha, and son William Jr. “Bill” was the American family, and William Senior was appointed to be ambassador to Nazi Germany in 1933 after several others had turned down the position. The Dodds arrived in Berlin believing initially that the mistreatment of Jews might have some understandable basis. Daughter Martha commented, “We sort of don’t like the Jews anyway.” Dodd clung to the idea Hitler wanted peace for several months.

By the time the Dodds left they had become disgusted with the Nazis and concerned that the German people had been drawn into the clutches of monsters. The outside world did not understand Hitler was merely playing for time while he consolidated power and built a military machine that he intended would dominate the world. It should have been quite easy to understand Hitler’s motives. He announced that Germany was withdrawing from the League of Nations and the disarmament conference underway in Geneva. Consul General Foreign Service officer George Messersmith was filing frequent reports to warn about what he was observing. He wrote that “What they most want to do, however, definitely is to make Germany the most capable instrument of war that has ever existed.” He called the Nazis “a global threat.”

The book was recommended to me by my wife. She knew I would be fascinated with the content. She also knows I am a fan of any book that refers to the Venona project and the uncovering of the massive espionage network established by the Soviet Union in the United States during World War II. (The Venona project was the subject of the first book review I posted on this web site.)The two Dodd children and Martha’s second husband Alfred Stern make it into the Venona list of 349 Americans and U.S. residents who had covert relationships with Soviet intelligence agencies.

It is easy to understand why the first choices for the German ambassador position refused the appointment. The primary assignment of the new ambassador was to see that the $1.2 billion dollars owed by Germany to American creditors was repaid, and that must have been considered an impossible task in the midst of the Great Depression. Also, the atmosphere in Germany was anything but diplomatic. The brown-shirted Sturmabteilung, Storm Troopers or SA, had launched brutal state-condoned violence and were arresting, beating, and murdering Jews, Socialists, and Communists. Dealing with Hitler would not be a prize assignment. The Gestapo and SA are described as being attractive to sadists.

Dodd was not the typical diplomat. Most were wealthy and lived extravagantly. Dodd was not wealthy and strongly believed that frugal living was appropriate. That attitude gained him many enemies in the State Department who decided to think of him simple and shallow instead of frugal. I will admit that I became a fan of Dodd’s as I read the book, so I didn’t think highly of the people in Washington D.C. who undermined Dodd’s reputation and the advice he was giving Roosevelt. His detractors called themselves the “pretty good club,” and Dodd was not a member. At least one member of the club called him “Ambassador Dud.” Germans who dealt with Dodd referred to him as kind, brilliant, and willing to accept open discussion of difficult issues.

Ambassador Dodd and his wife were the picture of proper decorum and daughter Martha was not. She had numerous affairs in the U.S., including one that ended in a failed marriage, and with dignitaries including Carl Sandberg. In Germany she has affairs with several senior Nazi officials, and at one point she was even suggested as a mistress for Hitler. Hitler, proving his reputation of being ambivalent about women, wasn’t interested. She did have a lengthy romantic relationship with the first secretary of the Soviet embassy who was also an “operative” of the NKVD. (He was eventually executed in one of Stalin’s innumerable purges after being forced to write Martha a farewell letter designed “…to keep his death from destroying her sympathy for the Soviet cause.”) One of the staff members of the U.S. embassy referred to it as a house of ill repute. Martha made many other friends, and not all survived the Nazis.

The American reaction to the treatment of Jews is difficult to comprehend with the advantage of historical hindsight. Roosevelt and most State Department officials were eager to avoid any direct statement of condemnation regardless of any inhuman and outrageous behavior reported to them. There was a baffling policy that only a small percentage of the visas available were issued to Jews desperate to escape. Even more baffling is the large number of Jews who did not try to escape. They apparently believed they could “ride out the storm” with careful behavior. Germany’s economy was improving in late 1933 and Hitler seemed to be moderating his hatred. Some Jews actually returned to Germany.

The book has many interesting details and asides. As an example, there is a description of the “bold, black broken cross, or Kakenkeuz” that later became known as the “swastika.” I found it quite odd that Hitler’s favorite movie was said to be King Kong.

Ambassador Dodd rented the bottom floors of a mansion for a very low price by a Jewish family who retained the top floor. Dodd did not understand that the family was buying their safety by having the American ambassador living under them. Daughter Martha especially enjoyed the library’s large brown leather sofa as an asset to her romantic life.

The Dodds began to be swayed against the Nazis by attacks against U.S. citizens who failed to give the Nazi salute as they casually watched parades. Ambassador Dodd said he had hoped to find decent people around Hitler. He then wrote, “I am horrified to discover that the whole gang is nothing but a horde of criminals and cowards.” The State Department reacted to comments such as those by criticizing Dodd. Martha was the slowest to change, saying that she was in the early days intoxicated with the spectacle of the Nazis. “I Heiled as vigorously as any Nazi.”

The trial of five people accused of the Reichstag fire, which Hitler blamed on Communists despite the evidence to the contrary, has a central place in the book. Marinus van der Lubbe insisted he was the only person responsible for the fire, but the prosecution presented massive amounts of evidence there had to be several people involved. Only van der Lubbe was convicted, and he was beheaded by guillotine.

The greatest risk to Hitler was internal. One Nazi observed “There is nobody among the officials of the national Socialists party who would not cheerfully cut the throat of every other official in order to further his own advancement. The commander of the SA Ernst Rohm wanted to take control of the military. Hitler responded by publically praising Rohm while beginning to plan for the murder of Rohm and several hundred other SA members in the “Night of the Long Knives” under the code name ” Kolibri,” or “Hummingbird.” Official Nazi reports said there were under a hundred people executed, but other reports were that as many as fifteen thousand were arrested and several hundred disappeared. All doubt the Dodds had about the possibility that Hitler might have a peaceful nature was eliminated as they noted numerous people who had attended various diplomatic functions had been removed by imprisonment or execution. Dodd hoped the murders would outrage the German people and Hitler would be overthrown. Hitler’s power instead increased. No country filed a protest and the populace did not rise in revulsion. Hitler assumed the position of president as well as chancellor when Hindenburg died, and the world was doomed to endure a long and brutal war.

Dodd’s critics in the State Department finally won their quest to have him ousted. Hull sent Dodd a letter in November 1937 saying that Roosevelt was “requesting” that he leave Berlin. Dodd embarked on a tour giving speeches warning of the German threat that brought protests from Germany. Hull responded that Dodd was a private citizen and could say whatever he wanted. Dodd died a hero to many Germans.

I have violated my guideline of keeping reviews to two pages or less. There are enough interesting and important facts described in the book that would fill more pages. I recommend reading the book to learn how much I left out.

Pay Through the Nose

Posted on by

There is no dispute that the expression means to pay an excessive amount for something. The origin is less clear. The Idioms Dictionary thinks it might come from the “nose tax” imposed in Ireland in the ninth century. Delinquent taxpayers were punished by having their noses slit. The Word Detective says it first appeared in the seventeenth century, and might equate being overcharged to being punched and given a nosebleed. “The theory is strengthened by the use of ‘bleed’ …to mean ‘cheat or defraud’.”

Supreme Court Refuses to Consider Rocky Flats Lawsuit

Posted on by

News of the Supreme Court action about the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant was nearly hidden in a week of momentous rulings on health care and an Arizona law.  The story begins in 1990 when a lawsuit was filed by landowners downwind of the plant following the FBI/EPA raid alleging environmental crimes. The jury in the original trial reached a verdict for the plaintiffs “…because of damages from plutonium contamination.” The decision was possible because one juror who wanted to rule for the defendants was removed by the judge after leaving the jury room to beg for someone to intercede and end harassment by jury members who wanted to find for the plaintiffs.

The announcement of the verdict made the headlines on the front page of the Denver Post in February 2006. Another front page story was written when the Denver-based

U.S. Circuit of Appeals threw out the verdict and sent the case back for a new trial. The court ruled, in part, that the evidence presented by the plaintiffs did not, “…reveal evidence of an increased health risk…” Testimony indicated that the exposure created an “…unquantifiable increased risk of health problems.” The ruling mentioned that irrational fear was not justification for damages.

The Supreme Court refusal to reinstate the judgment and send the case back for a new trial attracted much less news coverage.  The entry about from the ruling in the June 26, 2012 “Colorado Roundup” section of the Denver Post consisted of a headline and four sentences.

Bloomberg had an article by Bob Drummond that gives significantly more space to explaining the history of the suit and the decision of the Supreme Court. I find it curious that the local news barely found space to mention the story.

I have just received a library copy of Kristen Iversen’s book “Full body Burden, Growing up in the shadow of Rocky Flats.” The front flap says the book is “…a detailed and shocking account of the government’s sustained attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic and radioactive waste released by Rocky Flats…” Whoever wrote that statement had to ignore the substantial evidence that concludes Rocky Flats did not harm nearby residents. So far the courts agree with that conclusion.

“An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats, Urban Myths Debunked” is a book that is free on line for anyone interested in what actually happened at and around the plant. The book is also available in paperback and Kindle.

Understanding the Palestinian—Israeli Conflict: A Primer

Posted on by

israeli-conflictThis is the second book I’ve reviewed by Phyllis Bennis, and she uses answers to questions about an issue to present her views. The writing isn’t engaging, and the views are clearly anti-Israel and by extension anti-US, especially in regard to any of George W. Bush’s policies. However, there are many interesting tidbits of history.
 
I did find it somewhat disappointing that there is no discussion of Harry S. Truman’s pivotal role when the UN created the State of Israel. I lost track of the number of times it is mentioned that Israel’s occupation of Palestine violates international law and creates violence. The Palestinians in Israel are citizens, can vote and several Palestinians serve in the Knesset, or parliament. However, the Palestinians are dominantly second class citizens living mostly unemployed and in poverty.

Palestine became part of the British Empire after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. Britain was weakened by World War II and pulled back from Israel after the 1947 UN Partition Agreement that designated 55 percent for a Jewish state and 45 percent for a Palestinian Arab state. Jerusalem was to be left as a separate body under International control. The United States moved into the breach when the British pulled back. Israel took over the West Bank, Gaza, and the last of historic Palestine after the 1967 war. Israel had been giving the green light by President Johnson for that war. The areas taken are called the occupied territories. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but controls the lives of residents. There are about a million Palestinians living in the occupied territories with millions more as refugees in neighboring countries. General Sharon was elected prime minister in 2001 and created the “Jordan is Palestine” campaign in 2002.

There are interesting discussions of the Jewish people who make up 80 percent of the population of Israel. About half arrived from Europe, and many of the earlier settlers were Jews who escaped pogroms in czarist Russia. The other half is called the Mizrahi Jews who arrived from diverse origins in Africa, Asia, Spain, and Latin America. Most of this group emigrated from Arab countries.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization or PLO was formed in 1964. Yasir (or Yasser) Arafat untied several factions to become the leader in 1968. The UN recognized the PLO as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian People” in 1974. The PLO was invited to participate as an observer within the General Assembly. The PLO drafted a “two-state solution” in 1976 that was put before the Security Council. The US vetoed and the resolution. The PLO was significantly weakened by their decision to side with Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Oil-rich Arab countries that had bankrolled them withdrew their support and Palestinians were expelled from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other Gulf states. There were secret negotiations between the Israelis and PLO in 1993 that led to the famous handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat presided over by President Clinton. The Oslo peace process established the Palestinian Authority (PA), a quasi-governmental body with limited authority.

The intifada or uprising began in 2000 saw resistance in the form of suicide bombers. Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for most of the attacks. The al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade linked to the Fatah organization led by Yasir Arafat began a suicide bombing campaign. Most were in public places such as cafes when. Israel responded by beginning construction of a 24-foot high wall in the western sector of the West Bank. The International Court of Justice ruled the wall to be illegal. The author names some dignitaries who have described Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as “Apartheid,” which was the Afrikaans word for “apartness” or “separate.” Arafat died in 2004, and with him died much of the Palestinian national identity.

The book has little if anything good to say about George W. Bush. The “illegality of the Iraq war” and the negative effect on the entire region is mentioned. Bush also accepted Sharon’s plan to annex the West Bank settlement blocs and repudiate the Palestinian right of return, which the author judges banished the possibility of a solution to the Palestinian—Israeli conflict.

There is an interesting history of Hamas, which is a Palestinian Islamist and nationalist organization. It was basically a Muslim Brotherhood organization that was created in Gaza in 1987 and was soon seen as a competitor of the PLO. It gained support by establishing a network of social welfare agencies including schools, clinics, hospitals, and mosques that provided services to Palestinians. Hamas also targeted Israel for suicide bombings, and Israel has targeted many Hamas leaders for assassination. The author writes that the huge turnout for Hamas in the 2006 election was created by frustration with the status quo and “…was not really a statement of an Islamist social agenda…” Sanctions imposed by the U.S. created a dramatic decline in the already dangerous humanitarian crises. Non-political civilians were and are paying the price for the conflict. The conflict spread to include the Hezbollah in Lebanon with Israel destroying infrastructure and hunting enemy soldiers while Hezbollah began indiscriminate rocket attacks into Israel.

The U.S. has long welcomed Israel as a valued ally in the Middle East, and supports that country with financial, military, and diplomatic aid. Israel is said to receive 25 percent of the entire U.S. foreign aid budget. Israel receives about $4 billion in aid from the U.S. government and another $5 billion in tax-exempt contributions from private citizens. The U.S. has used the veto power in the UN to protect Israel on numerous occasions. Israel is referred to as the “fifty-first state.”

A peace conference to resolve the Palestinian issue was convened in Madrid in 1991 under joint U.S. and Soviet invitation. However, the U.S. was in charge as the Soviet Union was about to collapse. President George H. W. Bush proposed a plan close to the Oslo formula. The negotiations that plodded along for months and years made little if any progress. The process went on into the Clinton administration, and Secretary of State Warren Christopher accepted Israel’s positions.

The lack of a solution is discussed in the later parts of the book. The author believes a comprehensive peace plan would include establishing equal states for Israel and Palestine and include recognition of the right of Palestinians to return to their homes. The Zionist political movement was established to call for creation of a Jewish State. The Zionist slogan was, “a land without a people for a people without a land.” Adherence to the idea that Palestine was “a land without a people” continues to be accepted by Israel. They therefore have refused to agree that the Palestinians are entitled to any of the land now occupied.

In answer to the question of whether a Palestinian state would be a threat to Israeli security, it is mentioned that Israel has at least 200 nuclear weapons at Dimona in the Negev desert and that it has refused to be a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). There is no discussion of how nuclear weapons could be used in a conflict within the borders of Israel.

Dime a Dozen

Posted on by

There is no argument that the idiom refers to the obvious explanation that something is cheap and sufficiently abundant to be easily acquired. Knowyourphrase.com explains that the dime, or “dimes” as it was originally called when the coin was introduced as U.S. currency in the 1790s, was actually worth a dime with the dominate metal being silver. The Coinage Act of 1965 changed the composition to 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel. That debasement could have been the origin of the expression, but there was a reference in the Galveston Daily News in   1866 about peaches being a dime a dozen and pigs being even cheaper. A 1937 reference describes “Smiles being a dime a dozen in the Yankee clubhouse.”