Remediation, land use, and risk at Rocky Flats, and a comparison with Hanford

Abstract

US Department of Energy (US DOE) responsibilities for its former national atomic weapons complex include remediation of the Rocky Flats facility near Denver, Colorado. In 1993, the site's primary mission shifted from “production'' of plutonium components for atomic weapons to cleanup of extensive radioactive and chemical contamination representing the legacy of production activities. Remediation was governed by the agreements between the US DOE as the responsible party and the US Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Colorado as joint regulators. In 1995, the Rocky Flats Future Use Working Group issued its final report, recommending among other features that long‐term cleanup reduce contamination levels to background. This article describes the circumstances that led the US DOE to complete the Rocky Flats cleanup more quickly and makes comparisons to the situation at the US DOE's Hanford site. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Rocky Flats, plutonium, and controversy: Citizen activists provide institutional memory

“…Upon its formation, the USDOE inherited Rocky Flats from predecessor agencies. From the Department's own history (USDOE, 2003) and other sources (Abbotts, 2011; Ackland, 2001; Moore, 2005), the “lowlights” at Rocky Flats include the following: In 1972, Edward Martell and a colleague at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, operated under contract for the National Science Foundation, published a scientific paper (Poet & Martell, 1972) reporting that plutonium contamination in surface soils just east of Rocky Flats ranged up to “hundreds of times that from” atomic testing fallout, and “several times fallout,” in more densely populated Denver areas. The article concluded that the contamination most likely resulted from plutonium leaks in oil drums on site, then winds carried contamination offsite in the late 1960s.…”