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.

Shoo-in

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World Wide Words observes that this expression is so often wrongly spelled “shoe in” that “…it’s likely it will eventually end up that way.” The term originated with horse racing, where a shoo-in was the certain winner of a rigged race. It comes “…from the verb shoo, meaning to drive a person or animal in a given direction by making noises or gestures, which in turn comes from the noise people often make when they do it.” The shift to the description of rigged horse races began in the early 1900s. C.E. Smith used the term ‘shooed in” to describe winning through manipulation in 1908.

The Looming Tower, Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11–Part II

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I wrote in the first part of this review of the book by Lawrence Wright that I thought it should be required reading for any public official who refuses to use the term “war on terror.”The first part focused on the origins of the radical Muslim organization called al-Qaeda. This part will cover the many failures in initial attempts by bin-Laden to develop a fighting force of world Arabs to help the mujahideen combat the Soviets in Afghanistan. That is followed by his struggles to keep his ideas about combating the west and the U.S. in particular alive after the Soviets were defeated. However, Soviet defeat wasn’t expected in the early days after the invasion. The Muslim world was shaken by the invasion, and Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal travelled to Pakistan to gauge what was going on there. He and other visitors to follow were appalled at the conditions in the refugee camps. He believed Afghanistan was lost, and that the only hope was to delay the expected invasion of Pakistan. The U.S. was hoping that the Soviets now had their own “Vietnam war.”

The mujahideen standing against the Soviets were little more than disorganized mobs. The Pakistani Intelligence Service (ISI) insisted that they would only provide aid to six factions with a warlord at the head of each, and the estimated 3.27 million refugees had to sign up with one of those six parties to be eligible for aid. Turki insisted on a seventh party that would better represent Saudi interests. The seven mujahideen leaders became known to the CIA and other intelligence agencies as the Seven Dwarves. Bin Laden stayed away from the battlefield for years in “Fear of Bodily Participation,” a fact that caused him great shame. He also lost his business in Medina and forfeited about $2.5 million in profits. In 1984 he was taken to a mujahideen camp that was attacked by Soviet jets, but the missiles failed to explode. The Afghans had not even jumped into trenches with the frightened Arabs. Bin-Laden was so impressed by the bravery of the Afghans that he immediately returned to Saudi Arabia and raised millions of dollars to support efforts to help refugees. A fatwa was issued that required every able-bodied Muslim to support the jihad in Afghanistan, which was even to take precedence over the Palestinian struggle against Israel. Bin Laden was “paying the rent” for the Arabs who arrived to join the fight. Continue reading →

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.”

Bite the Dust

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There is irony that I attempted to post the description of this expression several days ago, and a software error on SiteBuilder cased the web site to bite the dust, or at least make the site inaccessible for a few days. The expression was often used in cowboy movies when someone fell to the ground wounded or dead, but its origin comes from much earlier than those movies. “Lick the dust” to describe being wounded or killed is in the Bible, including in the King James Version in Psalms 72. A 1750 translation of The Iliad by Samuel Butler contains the line, “…that full many of his comrades may bite the dust as they fall dying around him,” although there is some argument that the words were from Butler and not Homer. One reason for that belief is that a Scottish author used the term “bite the dust” in another 1750 publication.

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)