This is the second half of my review about the book by Len Ackland. The first half was about the history of homesteading and development of the area that included Rocky Flats by the Church family beginning in 1861 and the selection of part of their land for the construction of a new nuclear weapons production plant. This part of the review will briefly summarize what was written about early years of operation when the plant was more or less considered “invisible” to neighbors and the later years when accidents and incidents led to a precipitous decline in the reputation of the place.  I wrote that I would restrict myself to doing a non-editorializing review, and I succeeded at that in the first half of my review of the book. I disagree with some of what is mentioned in this half, and I intend to post a blog discussing those items. An asterisk indicates that you can read a differing view on the blog site. I suggest reading that blog and my book “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats, Urban Myths Debunked to get another perspective about Rocky Flats.

The first building constructed on the Rocky Flats site, was named “Building D”, and would eventually be called Building 991. The book calls it “…the atomic bomb assembly building.”* In those early days everyone working at the plant had to have a “Q clearance” issued after background investigations by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Building 771 was constructed later to allow a multitude of operations including the ability to process solutions containing plutonium, and it would be the location of the first major accident in 1957 resulting in an uncontrolled release of plutonium. A fire breached the filter plenums in the exhaust system until fire fighters brought it under control with water. The workers (there were about 2000 at the time) were concerned that the facility would not be brought back on line, and that their jobs would be lost. However, resources were dedicated to decontamination and repair, and the building was brought back into production. Not surprisingly, the fire created an increase in focus on safety. However, there was little outside attention given to the accident, in part because the official accident report issued by the AEC called it a “serious accident,” but didn’t name Rocky Flats. The accident had occurred within the memory of the harsh Soviet suppression of the 1956 uprising in Hungary, which “…confirmed the regime’s brutality…” “Most Americans, including the managers and employees at Rocky Flats, accepted the notion that the United States had to win the nuclear arms race in order to defeat communism.” Continue reading →

This book by Len Ackland is researched well, and I recommend it as one book to read about the Rocky Flats plant that produced components for nuclear weapons in Colorado. The title gives away the fact that Mr. Ackland’s point of view differs from the views I presented in my book “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats, Urban Myths debunked.” However, in several instances of where common subjects are discussed, factual information in the two books is often virtually identical. I give Mr. Ackland credit for his extensive discussion of the history of the area and the Church family, which is not included in my book. I intend to restrict myself to doing a non-editorializing review in this first part of the review. The part of the review is about homesteading in the Rocky Flats area by the Church family in 1861, development of the area, and the “taking” of some of the Church land for the construction of a new nuclear weapons production plant. The second half will be about the operation of Rocky Flats, accidents, legal actions, and controversies. I will post a blog after that review discussing some points of disagreement I have with what is in the book.

The history of the Church family is nicely woven into the book, and the first chapter gives a well-written description of when George Henry Church and Sarah (Miller) Church beginning with when they arrived in Colorado in 1861 “…seeking adventure and gold.” Striking it rich with gold didn’t work out, and the couple eventually settled down to farm and raise cattle. Henry built a system of ditches and reservoirs to provide water to the enterprises, and that was a significant contribution to the settlement and development of the entire area. Homesteaders were subsidized by the federal government, “But that reality wouldn’t make the government’s later taking of Rocky Flats land go down any easier for the Churches.” The government offered $18 an acre but paid several times that figure after Marcus Church rejected the first offer and took legal action.

The second chapter details the influence of U.S. Senator Edwin Johnson , or “Big Ed,” of Colorado in the selection of a Colorado location for “Project Apple,” which was the name given to the effort to select a location for the new nuclear weapons plant that would eventually adopted the name “Rocky Flats.” He formed a bipartisan team with Eugene Milliken, and the two of them together were able to influence the location of several military facilities in Colorado. The first was the Rocky Mountain Arsenal followed by the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) and the Air Force Academy. Both senators were on the Congressional Atomic Energy Committee and were strong supporters of anything that would be advantageous to U.S. uranium mining. Johnson was chairman of the Senate’s Military Affairs Committee by the end of World War II. Milliken helped draft the Atomic Energy Act that formed the cornerstone of U.S. nuclear policy. The Atomic Energy Commission was busy in the late 1940s demanding increasing numbers of nuclear weapons. They identified seventy Soviet targets requiring 133 atomic bombs. The military contended that “…scheduled bomb production should be substantially increased and extended,” and that they needed more than 133 nuclear weapons. The military had identified 5,000 to 6,000 “…prospective Soviet nuclear targets…” by the time construction had begun at Rocky Flats. Continue reading →