Hello! My name is Judy Padilla and I'm a a former Rocky Flats nuclear worker. I worked at the now defunct nuclear weapons facility for 22 years in the steelworkers union #8031. I started at the Flats in 1983 and at this time, there were approximately 8K people employed, less than half were union (most were salaried: DOE, management, clerks, engineers, pencil pushers, and paper shufflers. The production workers, dressed in protective clothing , safety shoes and glasses, and handled or process the radioactive materials and toxic carcinogens on a daily basis. I started in the foundry and my job consisted of hands-on work with weapons grade plutonium and solvents such as carbon tetrachloride and peretheleyne chlorides. The fabrication of neutron bomb triggers was the primary production activity at Rocky Flats and required both metallurgic and chemical processing. This process included recycling pu metal into pu dioxide, conversion of dioxides into metals in a reduction furnaces, and rolling and machining. Because of the fissile nature of the metal, and the toxicity of the various chemicals, most of the works was done in a glove box.
A glove box is an enclosed, lead shielded container with windows and 2 mil thick, lead-lined gloves for access of the furnaces and crucibles where the pure plutonium buttons were brought to high temperatures, melted and poured into graphite molds. The resulting ingots were then laced on a chain-veyor line for transport into an argon atmosphere vault. After the ingots had been analyzed by lab personnel, they were processed into pits, (or triggers) for the detonation of an atomic weapon of mass destruction.
Working with plutonium was extremely dangerous because, aside from its toxic and carcinogenic qualities, pu metal is pyrophoric in oxygen, and many fires happened on the plant site over the years.
Workers at RF had the potential to receive internal radiation to several different pu isotopes and the carcinogenic effects have been well established in animal studies. In 2000, President Clinton introduced the EEOICPA act to compensate the nuclear workers who had contracted cancers, mesothelioma, berylliosis, silicosis, and other job related sickness due to the hazardous nature of nuclear weapons production. Over 1,800 claims were made from RPF, and most of them were denied. The convoluted and complicated methodology which the NIOSH regulators estimated assumed the dose reconstruction was a true travesty of justice. In 2005, the DOE turned over the responsibility to the DOL, and it has languished there since .
Meanwhile the RFP worker continue to sicken and die. While some claims have been awarded, the whole program is vague and the process is complicated and redundant in many instances. Calls for an audit or hearing have fallen on deaf ears. Our facility is gone, and so are our records. Widows who didn't know exactly what their husbands work consisted of (due to the secrecy of the program), were at a loss to prove their cases. A newspaper aricale by reporter Laura Frank, with the Rocky Mountain News, entitled "Deadly Denial" outline the problem. There were definitely many problems at the Rocky Flats Nulear Weapons Facility. Not only did we, as the production workers, produce weapons of mass destruction, we were not allowed to talk about our jobs, even to our own families, because our work for the government was considered classified. The worker had a "Q" clearance, which means that we had the highest security clearance that a private citizen acan hold in the United States. We had to have an extensive background investigation, and education qualifications beyond reproach. During the dismantling and decommissioning of RFP, I worked until the plant closed. I saw how the safety standards were lowered for a quick closure. The job that was supposed to take 30 years was finished in 6, and at a HUGE cose savings. The rewards all went to the subcontractors at a tune of $450 million.
The legacy for the nuclear workers: cancer, sickness, and death.
Plutonium is the most deadly substance on the face of the earth, and has the half life of 26K years. The gamma, neutron, and x-rays are invisible. It is odorless, tasteless, and has the airborne consistency of talcum powder. Cancer causing chemicals and heavy radion nuclides have tainted the ground at the site. Many buildings underground were merely filled with earth by bulldozers and earth movers when the upper structures were imploded.
After the subcontractors left the plant site laughing, with their huge bonus money and no responsibility, the Cold War Veterans who worked to protect American and keep her safe were left holding a giant, empty bag. No support from the tree huggers, who said "you polluted the earth". No support from the government who said you knew what you were getting into" and no support from the public who said "not in my backyard."
I was a fully qualified Radiation Control Technician at RFP for the last 10 years of its existence. I did surveys to the criteria and procedures of the documents provided by my direct supervision. But did I trust them? The best way I can answer this question is to tell you my own personal story. My legacy from Rocky Flats: after 15 years as a hands-on production, nuclear worker, I contract ductal carcinoma of the right breast. I had a radical mastectomy, (amputation), chemotherapy, and returned to work for 7 more years at RFP. My claim for compensation was denied.
My husband of 47 years, Charlie, also worked at RFP, as a chemical operator, has had skin cancer, prostate cancer, a renal tumor on the left kidney, a cyst on the pancreas, and liver cancer. His claim for cancers has been denied- except his chemical asthma is still being considered. While his claim is still pending, we have no hope of a positive decisions, It is my opinion that the program is a fake. The formulas and matrices are based on pseudo-science and false data. Their explanations boiled down seem to say "when you straddle an issue, it takes a long time to explain."
With this is mind I can only say that a government who would treat their patriots and soldiers such a fashion cannot be trusted to the the public the absolute truth. As an American we deserve the right to clean water, clean food, and clean air. We also deserve the right to the truth about our work environment and the hazardous situations in which we toil or play.
Imagine a program that squanders billions to deny compensation that would cost thousands. Nothing hurts worse than when your own country throws you under the bus.
POINTS TO PONDER:
1. The future makes no sense if you disregard the past
2. EEOICPA= promise everything, deliver nothing
3. What this country needs is more working men and fewer politicians.
4. America has the best politicians money can buy.
5. I am just like a politician- the I know about anything, the more I can say.
6. Colorado has many political COWARDS where Rocky Flats is concerned.
7. Honor is not only found on the battlefield.
Final Remarks:
My father was a paratrooper in WWII, at the Battle of the Bulge and D-Day. My mother, 2 Aunts, and Grandmother worked in munitions plants (Red River and Lone Star in TX). And finally: It's the hottest fires that make the hardest steel.
IF WE DON'T SPEAK OUT TO RIGHT A WRONG- IF WE SIT IDLY BY AND LET THIS CORRUPTION CONTINUE- OUR COUNTRY WILL CONTINUE TO SPIRAL OUT OF CONTROL.
Judy Helen Padilla
