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Why a federal grand jury investigating potential crimes at Colorado's Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant went public with what they learned while hearing secret testimony in the case.

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00:00Last November, in Denver, Colorado, members of a federal grand jury investigating the
00:11Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant made an appeal to President-elect Clinton.
00:16Please direct the district attorney to appoint a special federal prosecutor or a suitable
00:23independent person to investigate whether any federal criminal laws or rules may have
00:31been violated during the course of the special grand jury's investigation.
00:35But in December, the federal government began investigating the jurors themselves.
00:40And only today, the Justice Department announced it would take no action against them for allegedly
00:46leaking what they secretly learned about the nuclear bomb factory.
00:49But we were to exercise our own judgment.
00:55Tonight on Frontline, Inside Rocky Flats.
00:58I was the one who was contaminated.
01:02My face, my respirator, my hair, my hands, my sleeves, everything was hot.
01:10Correspondent Al Austin investigates 30 years of accidents, cover-ups, and contamination
01:16at Rocky Flats.
01:17After all the secrecy, it turns out, no one knows what's here, or what it may do.
01:22Tonight, Secrets of a Bomb Factory.
01:32Funding for Frontline is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
01:37and by annual financial support from viewers like you.
01:42This is Frontline.
01:49Frontline.
01:50Frontline.
01:51Frontline.
01:52At the feet of the Colorado Rockies, within sight of Denver, surrounded by farmland, and
01:57a farmland.
01:58At the feet of the Colorado Rockies, within sight of Denver, surrounded by farmland without
02:07crops, a collection of ugly buildings crouches behind barbed wire.
02:13Visitors are not welcome.
02:15It is the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant.
02:19Through 40 years of Cold War, outsiders have known only that atom bomb parts were made
02:25here, and that it was a place full of secrets.
02:28Some have suspected it was brewing an environmental disaster, it and all the other weapons plants.
02:35But Rocky Flats is special.
02:38It was forced to give up some of its secrets.
02:50This man knows a lot of those secrets, secrets he cannot tell.
02:54Wes McKinley lives 200 miles from Rocky Flats, in the southeast corner of Colorado.
03:02He denies it's desolate here.
03:04From almost any point, he says, you can see a tree.
03:07The last horizon, the last thing he's saying, that is Oklahoma.
03:12You're looking into Oklahoma.
03:14McKinley was a math teacher for a while.
03:16Now he's pleased to call himself a cowboy.
03:19But one day in 1990, the luck of the draw yanked him from his prairie serenity and made him foreman of a special federal grand jury.
03:28For two years, an FBI agent in Denver had been uncovering Rocky Flats secrets and thought they amounted to crimes.
03:46The cowboy, McKinley, and 22 other Colorado citizens were supposed to decide whether anyone should be put on trial.
03:56Ken Peck, a Denver lawyer, was also selected for the Rocky Flats grand jury.
04:01We met in the intermediate building, the federal courthouse over here.
04:05It is a 1960s vintage building, and in the far back side of it is where we met.
04:12We would meet there for about a week a month.
04:15For two and a half years, they met behind closed doors to hear the story of Rocky Flats.
04:21The very first witness, a plant technician, alerted them that the story bordered on the fantastic.
04:28Her name was Jackie Breaver.
04:31I was working with an experimental product.
04:35This product made me very ill, and I later found out that these symptoms were radiation sickness.
04:42I had really odd, big bruises on my body that you could touch that didn't hurt.
04:50All of my hair on my arms fell out.
04:53I was nauseated. I was vomiting. I had diarrhea for three weeks.
04:57I had this incredible, terrible rash on my skin.
05:03It was the most painful thing I've ever felt in my life, like the worst sunburn that you have ever had.
05:09And I went and complained to my management.
05:12They told me that it was from the caustic that they washed the coveralls in.
05:18And they weren't going to investigate or do anything about it.
05:21But they also were cracking the whip on me, you know.
05:24We don't care what you have to do back there.
05:31We need four or five more products this week.
05:35Government films offer glimpses of the kind of work Jackie Breaver did at Rocky Flats.
05:40Technicians handling plutonium with lead-lined gloves inserted in a wall of glass and stainless steel called a glove box.
05:49Inhaling a microscopic amount of this metal could be fatal.
05:54These pieces are machined into triggers that detonate nuclear bombs.
05:58I was talking about the material that we were overexposed.
06:05Jackie says when she told her bosses about unsafe conditions at the plant,
06:09they punished her by assigning her nasty and dangerous work.
06:13And then two weeks before she was scheduled to talk to the grand jury, something worse happened.
06:18I was called out of line, called in for overtime to come in at 3.30 in the morning to work.
06:25Both my and Karen's operations were running at that time,
06:31but they assigned us to another room completely different from our normal rooms.
06:37Just me and Jackie went into that room. Just me and Jackie.
06:40All the gloves were brand new on that glove box.
06:46I couldn't understand why we were assigned there, but the job is a job.
06:50She stuck her arm in. She had to go all the way up to the top of her shoulder to get this material.
06:57And she extended her arm and stretched that glove as far as it would go.
07:01The alarm sounded in the room.
07:04She had opened up a small pinhole in the end of one of the gloves.
07:09And when she pulled out the vacuum of actually just removing her arm out of there,
07:13had brought this fire ash up into her face.
07:16And I was the one who was contaminated.
07:19My face, my respirator, my hair, my hands, my sleeves, everything was hot.
07:25I remember looking in that window at her and feeling like I was going to weep.
07:32There she was. I still feel that way too.
07:35Totally contaminated. She had it on her face.
07:38She was breathing it because she didn't know.
07:43All I could see was Karen's face in the window and the door.
07:47It was the saddest thing.
07:50She looked totally helpless and frustrated.
07:54It choked me up.
07:57I mean, seeing her face, you know, I'm sorry, Jack.
07:59I'm trying everything I can do. I'm trying. I'm so sorry.
08:01Two fellow chem ops were coming down the hall and they saw me standing there with my little can.
08:11And they were laughing and pointing.
08:17And one of them came up and he said,
08:19that's what you get for making waves.
08:23I was shocked.
08:25I mean, there was stuff that I never knew went on.
08:29Shirley Kyle is a farmer's wife who says she knew nothing about the weapons plant
08:34before she was chosen to be on the special grand jury.
08:37She's not allowed to talk about anything specific that happened in the jury room.
08:42But she found it shocking and complex.
08:45Yeah, it was complex.
08:49Very complex.
08:52And I'm sure a lot of people didn't grasp even as much as I did.
08:56Connie Modecker is a suburban Denver grandmother
09:02who carries around religious medals and gives them to people she likes.
09:06She was on the grand jury, too.
09:08As time went on, I was more surprised of different things that were taking place.
09:14And also, I started beginning to feel confused about it all.
09:20I had the feeling that my purpose in there was to show that
09:29if this company didn't give a darn about its workers
09:35and, you know, here's one of the workers who's telling you
09:38about these terrible things that are going on,
09:40then they certainly don't care about the environment.
09:42I had a feeling I was just there to rile them up.
09:48And I don't even think they really believed me.
09:51We don't know if the grand jurors believed her
09:53or the hundred other witnesses they heard over the next two and a half years.
09:57But in the end, they did something unprecedented.
10:01President-elect William Clinton.
10:04There stood jury foreman Wes McKinley
10:09in front of the federal courthouse in Denver
10:11accusing the prosecution and the federal government
10:14of covering up the truth about Rocky Flats.
10:16Please direct the district attorney
10:18to appoint a special federal prosecutor
10:21or a student...
10:22The grand jurors still won't reveal the secrets they heard.
10:26But we've been able to piece together
10:27some of what they learned about Rocky Flats
10:30and what led to their rebellion.
10:32The grand jury's investigation.
10:34The atom bomb was born of a frantic coupling
10:43of government and civilian enterprise in World War II.
10:47A weapon beyond most of our imaginations.
10:50And everything about it said,
10:51look away, ask no questions.
10:56President Truman announces an atomic explosion
10:59detected somewhere in Russia.
11:01In a race with the Soviet Union,
11:02America built nuclear weapons factories
11:05as fast as it could,
11:07each with a specialty.
11:08Denver was thrilled when a nearby meadow,
11:14Rocky Flats,
11:15was chosen for one of the plants.
11:19It meant thousands of high-paying jobs.
11:25The Atomic Energy Commission
11:27and Dow Chemical would run it.
11:29Rocky Flats' specialty would be plutonium,
11:34the main element that destroyed Nagasaki.
11:38The work was too important and too sensitive
11:41for outside scrutiny or ordinary regulations.
11:44The public saw only some unrevealing government films
11:48of the plant interior
11:49and had to take the government's word
11:51that whatever was happening inside,
11:53it was necessary and safe.
11:55I became active in the Union in 57.
12:00And it was pretty no-no to talk about safety.
12:06Nobody did that.
12:08Jim Kelly became president of the Steelworkers' Union
12:10at Rocky Flats.
12:11I was a radiation monitor
12:13on what they called a site survey team.
12:16I kept complaining to my supervisions,
12:18you can't,
12:19those drums have hot stuff
12:21from 776 building,
12:23which was a plutonium building.
12:25Those drums...
12:26There were thousands of drums
12:27full of oil contaminated with plutonium
12:30sitting in the fields, corroding.
12:32Kelly says everyone at the plant
12:34knew they'd mean trouble.
12:35A rabbit ran across the road,
12:38what is right now
12:39the central dissecting streets of the plant.
12:44We got him.
12:45Got out and we caught him.
12:47Had no idea
12:49that we were,
12:50what we were about to find.
12:52But this rabbit
12:53was what we call screaming ass hot.
12:58I mean, he pegged our instruments.
12:59Our instruments at that time,
13:01the maximum it would count,
13:03or it went off scale,
13:04it was 100,000 counts a minute.
13:07The needle went like that.
13:09This rabbit was just hotter
13:11than a firecracker.
13:14The wind was the first thing
13:15that went wrong at Rocky Flats.
13:17It was supposed to blow away from Denver,
13:20but it didn't.
13:21Some in Denver suspected
13:22the people running the plant
13:24were hiding other mistakes as well.
13:26But it was almost two decades
13:28before a man named Edward Martell
13:30found proof of that in 1970.
13:32Dr. Martell worked for the National Center
13:36for Atmospheric Research,
13:38which is perched on a slope of the Rockies
13:40overlooking Rocky Flats.
13:42Other tumors that took a little longer.
13:45Dr. Martell is a nuclear scientist
13:48who took part in early atom bomb tests
13:50in Nevada and the Pacific
13:52and became one of the world's leading experts
13:54on the effects of radioactive fallout.
13:58Well, the plant is simply six or seven miles
14:01south of here as the crow flies.
14:05You can see a hazy outline
14:07of some of the Rocky Flats buildings now,
14:09but very hazy.
14:10There have been very frequent fires
14:14and accidents in the plant,
14:17but we didn't hear about them
14:18until the plant history was aired out
14:22more fully after the 69 fire.
14:25When they couldn't hide it anymore.
14:27When they couldn't hide it anymore,
14:28they made a remarkable number of admissions.
14:31One news report said a metric ton of plutonium
14:38burned in the 69 fire.
14:40Where had it gone?
14:42Rocky Flats insisted no plutonium ash
14:44had gotten out of the building
14:45and refused to allow outsiders to investigate.
14:50Exasperated, Dr. Martell and a colleague
14:52tested the soil outside Rocky Flats for plutonium.
14:56East of Rocky Flats,
14:57we found ratios that were 400 times higher
15:01than it should be
15:05if it were from fallout alone,
15:08which means that 99.975%
15:15of the plutonium we found
15:17one mile east of the plant
15:18came from Rocky Flats.
15:21No question about it.
15:23The government, embarrassed,
15:24finally conducted official tests.
15:27When they checked out our measurements,
15:29east of Rocky Flats, at the east fence,
15:34just outside the east fence,
15:36they found levels ranging up to 1,500 times
15:40fallout levels.
15:43So they simply confirmed.
15:45A mile farther east, it was 400 times.
15:47So, uh, our results were confirmed.
15:52But the plutonium contamination
15:53was not from the 1969 fire, after all.
15:57It was from those barrels of plutonium-laced oil
16:00that Union President Kelly had warned about.
16:03Which corroded and broke open
16:06and leaked into the ground.
16:09Melinda Kasson was an environmental attorney
16:12and now is part of a governor's council
16:14that tries to keep watch
16:15on what Rocky Flats is up to.
16:17And it turned out
16:18that they leaked about
16:2011 curies of plutonium
16:23into the ground.
16:24What does that mean?
16:2611 curies.
16:27If properly distributed,
16:29it would be a lethal dose
16:30to every human being on this planet.
16:35Winds roaring down from the Rockies
16:37had been distributing the plutonium
16:39from those corroded barrels
16:40eastward toward Denver.
16:42And that's the plutonium
16:44Ed Martell's soil tests had found.
16:47The government bought up
16:48most of the contaminated land
16:49and fenced it in.
16:51But landowners outside the fences sued,
16:54claiming Rocky Flats
16:55had contaminated their land, too.
16:58The case dragged on for 10 years
17:00and uncovered more secrets.
17:03Radioactive and hazardous waste
17:05had been incinerated for years.
17:06And had been sprayed
17:08in nearby fields
17:10as irrigation
17:11and stored in barrels
17:13which were surreptitiously
17:14and illegally buried.
17:17Threatened with exposure
17:18about that,
17:19a plant official
17:20had suggested claiming
17:21the mound created
17:22by the buried barrels
17:23was the work of Indians
17:25burying their dead.
17:27But these secrets
17:29didn't get beyond the court.
17:31The case was settled
17:31for $9 million
17:33with the provision
17:34that the evidence be sealed.
17:35And there it stayed.
17:42Public distrust
17:43of all the weapons plants
17:44was growing.
17:46In 1975,
17:48a new agency
17:48was put in charge
17:49of the plants,
17:50the Department of Energy.
17:52And at Rocky Flats,
17:54Dow Chemical was replaced
17:55by Rockwell International
17:56as the civilian contractor.
18:00But nothing seemed to change.
18:01Rocky Flats continued
18:06to enforce the keep-out signs
18:08with heavily armed security,
18:10trained to repel terrorists.
18:13Much of the plant
18:14was off-limits
18:14even to the Environmental
18:15Protection Agency
18:17and the Colorado
18:18Department of Health.
18:19They were told
18:20the plant's hazardous wastes
18:22were none of their business
18:23if they had any
18:24nuclear ingredient.
18:25Melinda Kasson
18:27suspects it was
18:28not a matter of principle
18:29but a necessity.
18:31They couldn't get
18:32a permit
18:33to operate it legally.
18:34That's true
18:35with most of the functions
18:36at Rocky Flats
18:37and unfortunately
18:38it's true
18:39with the weapons complex
18:41generally.
18:43If these facilities
18:44had to get
18:45hazardous waste permits
18:47for everything
18:47that they did,
18:48they couldn't do it.
18:50DOE understood that.
18:52Rockwell,
18:52the operator,
18:53understood that.
18:55That's the reason
18:55that we have
18:56these environmental battles
18:58is because the plant
19:00can't operate
19:01in compliance
19:03with the law.
19:05These reports here
19:06were submitted
19:07pursuant to the
19:081986 agreement.
19:10Finally,
19:11bending under public
19:12and legal pressure,
19:13the Department of Energy
19:14gave the Environmental
19:15Protection Agency
19:16a mammoth report
19:17describing the hazardous
19:19waste at Rocky Flats
19:20and what had been
19:21done with it.
19:23The hieroglyphics
19:25in these notebooks
19:26translated into
19:27bad news
19:28and a lot of it.
19:31Not easy reading.
19:32No, no,
19:33it wasn't easy reading.
19:35There was data
19:35about hazardous waste
19:37stored and buried
19:38and sprayed
19:39and heading toward
19:40creeks and reservoirs
19:41and into the air
19:42from Rocky Flats.
19:45And there was
19:45more bad news
19:46to come.
19:47A man named
19:49Jim Stone,
19:50an engineer
19:51who'd been fired
19:51at Rocky Flats,
19:52came forward
19:53with a frightening story
19:54about some of the
19:55buildings there,
19:56blaming his firing
19:57on his refusal
19:58to keep quiet about it.
19:59The ductwork in
20:01building 881,
20:03which was one
20:04of the original
20:04buildings built
20:05in 53,
20:07and it had
20:09all the crud
20:10of the ages,
20:12a lot of
20:13radioactive material.
20:17Stone said
20:18he alerted
20:18the contractor,
20:19Rockwell,
20:20that plutonium
20:21had accumulated
20:21in the ventilation
20:22ducts of other buildings.
20:25Pounds of it.
20:25Pounds of it,
20:26they found 62 pounds
20:28in 71 or 707,
20:31one of them.
20:3262 pounds
20:34when one
20:35microscopic particle
20:36could be lethal.
20:38Oh, yes.
20:40It takes about
20:40four pounds
20:41to make a bomb.
20:42Stone became
20:43a whistleblower.
20:44He went to the FBI.
20:47As luck would have it,
20:49the FBI's
20:50Denver office
20:50had an aggressive
20:51environmental specialist,
20:53John Lipsky.
20:55Lipsky would spend
20:56two years
20:57investigating Rocky Flats.
21:00He won't talk
21:01about the investigation,
21:02but we know
21:03he studied
21:04all 27 volumes
21:05of the waste report
21:06the environmental
21:07inspectors had pried
21:08out of Rocky Flats.
21:10He took samples
21:11from the creek
21:11that runs past the plant.
21:16He hired a helicopter pilot
21:18to take infrared pictures
21:19of the plant at night.
21:21Lipsky thought
21:22those pictures
21:22showed hot spots
21:23that could mean
21:24radioactive
21:25or hazardous waste
21:26was being incinerated
21:27illegally.
21:29And he was given
21:30a confidential memo
21:31from a Department
21:32of Energy official
21:33writing to his superiors.
21:36Rocky Flats,
21:37the memo said,
21:38is in poor condition
21:39generally
21:39in terms of
21:40environmental compliance.
21:41some of our waste
21:44facilities there
21:45are patently illegal.
21:48Here was a smoking memo,
21:50evidence that the people
21:51running Rocky Flats
21:52knew they were
21:53breaking the law.
21:57Lipsky drafted
21:57a 116-page affidavit
21:59describing what he knew
22:01and what he thought
22:02he could prove
22:02if he could get
22:04into the plant.
22:04It turned out
22:08to be the perfect time
22:09for Agent Lipsky
22:10to get action.
22:111989.
22:14The new president
22:15had declared himself
22:16the environmental president
22:17and appointed
22:19a fire-breathing
22:20secretary of energy
22:21named James Watkins
22:22who promised
22:23to clean up
22:24the weapons plants.
22:26President Bush
22:27told me
22:27on the 11th of January
22:291989
22:31that
22:34he had a mess
22:37in the
22:38Department of Energy
22:39facilities.
22:40Will you clean up
22:41a mess?
22:41And I said,
22:42well,
22:43because you're a friend,
22:44because you ask me
22:44personally,
22:45I'll do it.
22:45But let me tell you,
22:46it's a task.
22:48Bush also appointed
22:49a very ambitious
22:50new U.S. attorney
22:51in Denver,
22:52Mike Norton.
22:55Norton and FBI
22:56agent Lipsky
22:56prepared for
22:57Operation Desert Glow.
23:01On the morning
23:03of June 6,
23:041989,
23:06federal agents
23:07wearing blue coveralls
23:08raided the Rocky Flats
23:10nuclear weapons plant.
23:14At about 9 a.m. today,
23:16approximately 75 agents
23:17of the Federal Bureau
23:18of Investigation
23:19and the Environmental
23:20Protection Agency's
23:21Office of Criminal
23:23Investigations,
23:24assisted by representatives
23:25of the Department
23:26of Energy's
23:27Inspector General,
23:28began the execution
23:30of a federal criminal
23:31search warrant
23:32at the United States
23:33Department of Energy's
23:34Rocky Flats
23:35nuclear weapons plant
23:36near Denver, Colorado.
23:38Here was something
23:39brand new.
23:41One government agency
23:42raiding another.
23:43The government
23:44raiding itself.
23:46When the FBI
23:47left Rocky Flats
23:48nine days later,
23:50it had 960 boxes
23:51of evidence,
23:52three and a half million
23:53pages of documents.
23:56U.S. attorney Norton
23:57said it would take
23:57a special grand jury
23:59to get to the bottom
24:00of it all.
24:01The grand jury
24:02turned out to be
24:03more special
24:03than Norton had in mind.
24:10It began on a promising note.
24:12Federal Judge Sherman
24:13Feinsilver,
24:14seen here swearing in
24:16new U.S. citizens,
24:17made the grand jurors
24:18feel very important.
24:19In essence,
24:21he told our grand jury,
24:24as his predecessors
24:25had told other grand juries,
24:27that we had the responsibility
24:29to act in the best interest
24:31of the people
24:32of the state of Colorado,
24:33and that we should act
24:34independent of him,
24:35we should act independent
24:37of the FBI,
24:38and we should act independent
24:39of the prosecutors.
24:40The grand jury would hear
24:42complicated testimony
24:43about some very strange
24:45alleged crimes.
24:47Concrete,
24:47for instance.
24:49Rockwell had mixed
24:50radioactive and hazardous
24:51sludge with cement
24:53and made thousands
24:54of gigantic blocks of it
24:56so it could be stored
24:57and shipped.
24:58But it didn't work.
25:00Many of the concrete blocks
25:01became mushy.
25:03The waste leaked
25:04onto the ground,
25:05where it could drain
25:06into a creek.
25:09Frontline obtained
25:10a confidential investigator's
25:11report that documents
25:13how the managers of Rockwell
25:15knew the concrete
25:15was a serious
25:16environmental hazard,
25:18but did nothing about it.
25:22The grand jurors
25:23also saw pictures
25:24and heard testimony
25:25that Rockwell
25:26was disposing
25:27of hazardous waste
25:28by spraying it
25:29non-stop,
25:30even in the winter,
25:32into the fields,
25:33calling it irrigation.
25:35Many times
25:35what the ground
25:36could absorb,
25:37resulting in sheet runoff
25:39downstream
25:39to municipal water supplies.
25:44Complicated as it was,
25:45the grand jurors
25:46began to understand
25:47the evidence.
25:48I know from the evidence
25:51and what I heard
25:53that there were some people
25:55that should have been indicted.
25:57I think they should have
25:58been indicted.
26:03But in Washington,
26:04they saw things differently.
26:06Attorney General Richard Thornburg
26:08had approved of the FBI raid
26:10on Rocky Flats,
26:11but now it appeared
26:12the Justice Department
26:13realized their country cousins
26:15in Colorado
26:16had gotten them
26:16into a deeper trough
26:17of truth
26:18than Beltway politics permits.
26:22Executives of Rockwell International,
26:24one of the government's
26:25most important contractors,
26:27were about to be put on trial.
26:30Unlike most federal prosecutions,
26:32environmental crimes
26:33are routed through Washington,
26:35where higher-ups
26:36in the Justice Department
26:37must okay everything that's done.
26:39Assistant Attorney General
26:42Barry Hartman
26:42had charge
26:43of the Rocky Flats case.
26:45We were concerned
26:46about a lot of things
26:46with the case.
26:47We wanted to make sure
26:47that this case
26:48was going to ultimately be won
26:49if it was going to be brought.
26:50That's for sure.
26:51We wanted to make sure
26:52that we weren't sacrificing
26:53larger policy issues.
26:56One of Washington's concerns
26:58was that Rockwell's lawyers
26:59were playing hardball.
27:02Prosecute Rockwell,
27:03they warned,
27:03and we'll prove
27:04Rockwell's employees
27:05were merely following orders
27:06from the Department of Energy.
27:08your client.
27:10I know,
27:11and I don't think
27:12there's any mystery,
27:13that Rockwell
27:13said at several points
27:15that their intention
27:18in terms of building a defense
27:19was to put DOE on trial.
27:24Denver's U.S. Attorney Norton
27:25insists he was running
27:27the prosecution,
27:28not Washington.
27:29But his assistant,
27:30who was actually presenting
27:32the case to the grand jury,
27:33wrote a memo saying
27:34he didn't think Washington
27:35had enough fire in the belly.
27:39And Norton himself
27:40saw that.
27:40Because early on,
27:42people in Washington,
27:44they actually thought
27:46less of the case
27:47than we did.
27:47It's one reason why...
27:48What were they doing
27:49in Washington, D.C.?
27:50Okay.
27:54So that's where their orders
27:55were coming from.
27:57Evidently,
27:58I don't really know.
28:02It's all confusing,
28:03and I wish it could be simple.
28:05But it wasn't simple.
28:07While the grand jurors
28:10were planning indictments,
28:12the prosecutors and Rockwell
28:13were planning a deal.
28:15On December 9, 1990,
28:18the prosecution team
28:19met in Washington
28:20to review the case.
28:22Rockwell had offered
28:23to pay a million-dollar fine
28:25in exchange for no indictments
28:27against its employees.
28:29Over the next six months,
28:30the two sides haggled over money.
28:33U.S. Attorney Norton
28:34said $52 million.
28:35Rockwell countered with 10
28:38if the prosecution
28:39would make a statement
28:40saying the crimes
28:41had caused
28:42no threat to public safety
28:44and no environmental damage.
28:48In Denver,
28:50FBI agent Lipsky
28:51was told to stop
28:52collecting evidence
28:53against individuals.
28:57The grand jurors
28:58knew none of this.
29:00Did something go wrong
29:02between the prosecutors
29:03and the grand jurors?
29:05It fell apart.
29:07That point occurred
29:09whenever the grand jury
29:11started looking
29:12at some directions,
29:14wrongdoings that they felt
29:15may be investigated.
29:17Well, then the prosecution
29:18seemed to have abandoned us
29:19at that point.
29:21We weren't allowed
29:22to do anything.
29:23We were told to go home.
29:25It was in March of 1992,
29:271992, and we were to meet
29:29for the last time.
29:32And Mike Norton told us.
29:36Told you what?
29:37That a plea bargain
29:39had been reached.
29:40Rise, please.
29:42Suddenly, it was over.
29:44A plea bargain.
29:44Rockwell pleaded guilty
29:47to 10 environmental crimes
29:49from 1987 to 1989
29:51and agreed to pay
29:53an $18.5 million fine,
29:55about the same amount
29:57the company had collected
29:58in bonuses
29:58during that period.
30:00No, I don't.
30:01Excuse me.
30:02In your guilty plea,
30:02is the corporation...
30:03Rockwell's attorney
30:04refused to talk about it
30:05and the company
30:06has maintained
30:07that silence ever since.
30:09Sir, does Rockwell
30:10have any comments, sir?
30:12No.
30:14The plea agreement
30:14said the crimes
30:15had caused
30:16no dangerous contamination
30:17outside the plant.
30:19And, after all the commotion,
30:21the sensational raid,
30:22the years of investigation,
30:24no individuals were indicted.
30:29I was sick.
30:31I was really disappointed.
30:33I think there was
30:34a multitude of emotions
30:36which ranged from
30:38people who laughed,
30:41thought it was a joke,
30:43you know,
30:43April Fool's
30:44or something like this,
30:46to people who realized
30:47and appreciated
30:48that it was not a joke
30:49and were outraged.
30:52But they could not
30:53express their anger
30:54or talk about
30:55what they knew at all.
30:56The case was closed.
30:59Then, an extraordinary
31:00thing happened.
31:02A story appeared
31:03in a weekly newspaper
31:04in Denver
31:05saying the grand jury
31:07had written up
31:08indictments
31:08of five Rockwell employees
31:10and three employees
31:11of the Department of Energy.
31:13But the prosecutor
31:14and judge
31:15had blocked them.
31:17The reporter,
31:18Brian Abbas,
31:19says 12 unnamed jurors
31:21were so frustrated
31:22with the plea bargain,
31:23they had risked prosecution
31:24for contempt of court
31:26to talk to him.
31:27These jurors
31:28are not naive
31:29about what they did
31:30in talking to me.
31:31They understood
31:31that they violated
31:32their oath,
31:33they understood
31:34that if they were ever caught
31:36it's proved who talked,
31:38that they have certain
31:38legal consequences
31:39to pay for that.
31:40One time fairly major project...
31:42Though he denies it,
31:43the prosecutors
31:44suspect lawyer Ken Peck
31:45of being the ringleader
31:47of the grand jury rebellion.
31:49They learned that Peck
31:50had once actively opposed
31:51a plan to incinerate waste
31:53at Rocky Flats
31:54and had not told the court
31:55about that possible conflict
31:56when he was chosen
31:57as a juror.
31:59The jurors did go up
32:00into Peck's office
32:01late at night
32:02and write a report
32:03after the prosecutor
32:04had told them to go home
32:05and not do a report.
32:07The judge,
32:09whose instructions
32:09had said they could write one,
32:11ordered the report sealed.
32:13But someone gave it
32:14to reporter Abbas.
32:16It omits names
32:17and most other details,
32:19but it calls
32:19the Department of Energy
32:20and Rockwell
32:21indistinguishable
32:23co-conspirators
32:24who engaged
32:25in a continuing campaign
32:26of distraction,
32:28deception,
32:28and dishonesty.
32:30Rocky Flats
32:30is an ongoing
32:32criminal enterprise,
32:33the jury said,
32:34and should be closed.
32:35And it didn't come
32:36from a government agency.
32:38It didn't even come
32:39from a collection
32:39of lawyers
32:40or scientists.
32:42It came from citizens,
32:43ordinary citizens,
32:45a school teacher,
32:46a bartender,
32:48a bus driver,
32:49a retired sheriff,
32:50a rancher.
32:51They're not prosecutors.
32:53They're lay people
32:54who did a great job
32:55and who probably thought
32:56there was enough evidence
32:57to indict.
32:58But enough evidence
32:59to indict,
33:00and in addition,
33:01the evidence
33:01that a grand jury sees
33:02is not necessarily
33:03evidence that's
33:03admissible in court.
33:05The prosecutors say
33:06they got almost
33:07no information
33:08from the plant's employees.
33:10Rockwell had found
33:11a way to orchestrate
33:12the familiar silence
33:13of Rocky Flats.
33:13Even after its removal
33:15as civilian contractor,
33:17Rockwell provided employees
33:19with attorneys
33:19who coached them
33:20and attended their interviews
33:22with investigators.
33:23The prosecutors say
33:24they couldn't pierce
33:25this defense
33:25enough even to find
33:27a chain of command
33:28at Rocky Flats.
33:29There were no
33:30high-level individuals
33:32to whom criminal conduct
33:34could be attributed.
33:35What we found instead
33:36was that what we called
33:38a DOE culture
33:39or mentality
33:40that had prevailed,
33:41which elevated production
33:43of nuclear materials
33:45above concern
33:46for environmental compliance.
33:48Did all of you agree
33:49about that?
33:50Yes, without exception,
33:52the conclusions we reached
33:54were unanimous
33:55among the prosecutors
33:56and the investigators.
33:57Maybe not.
34:00Do you solemnly swear
34:02to all the truth
34:02or all the truth
34:03and nothing but the truth?
34:04I do.
34:04Behind closed doors,
34:06FBI agent Lipsky
34:07told a congressional subcommittee
34:08that when he learned
34:10of the plea agreement,
34:11he became physically ill
34:12and that Norton's
34:14lead prosecutor
34:14in the case
34:15had said he thought
34:16there was enough evidence
34:17to indict individuals,
34:18but he was outvoted.
34:21How can you have crimes
34:23but no criminals?
34:24We did have a criminal.
34:25The criminal was the company
34:26in this case.
34:27The company can't go to jail.
34:29That's true,
34:30but there are many cases
34:31when you don't have
34:32enough evidence.
34:32In an area like this,
34:34as I said before,
34:36you may have a crime
34:37but not have enough evidence
34:38to convict a particular individual.
34:39In any large organization,
34:42you have individuals
34:43who each of them may know.
34:48Out on the Colorado prairie,
34:50that sort of reasoning
34:51doesn't make sense.
34:53Cowboy grand juror
34:54Wes McKinley
34:55sees the Rocky Flats matter
34:57in more down-to-earth terms.
34:59If there has been a crime,
35:01somebody should be held accountable.
35:03The grand jurors
35:04could find individuals
35:06to indict
35:06and could find
35:07the chain of command.
35:08Why couldn't the prosecutors?
35:11The judge's instructions
35:12told us
35:13we were to use
35:14our own judgment
35:16without fear,
35:18favor,
35:19or criticism
35:19of the court,
35:22the public,
35:23or the prosecutors.
35:24Still bound
35:25by the grand jury
35:26rules of secrecy,
35:28Wes McKinley
35:28can only talk
35:29about the Rocky Flats case
35:30obliquely.
35:31I can't tell
35:32what it was
35:33but I got the feeling
35:33that there was factors
35:34that was outside
35:35of what we were doing
35:37that motivated this.
35:40And that's why
35:41they wanted us to leave
35:43without finishing the job
35:45that we were sworn to do.
35:47Congressman Howard Wolpe
35:53was chairman
35:53of the Congressional Subcommittee
35:55that looked into the way
35:56the Rocky Flats case
35:57was settled.
35:58It's outrageous.
36:00Basically,
36:01the Department of Justice
36:02wrote into this plea bargain
36:03every one of Rockwell's
36:06essential conditions.
36:08What our investigation revealed
36:11is that there really is
36:13no accountability
36:14in government.
36:15that if you have people
36:17justifying individual behavior
36:21on the grounds
36:22that the culture
36:23of the agency
36:24sanctions that behavior,
36:27basically,
36:27you have no way
36:28of changing the behavior
36:29or of holding individuals
36:32accountable
36:32for illegal activity.
36:34Can you reform it?
36:36Can you create
36:36a new culture
36:37without holding
36:39individuals accountable?
36:41No, you cannot.
36:42You cannot.
36:43You must hold.
36:43That's why...
36:44Even former Energy Secretary Watkins,
36:46though he won't say
36:47there should have been
36:48indictments,
36:48agrees with part
36:49of the grand jury's message.
36:51I agree with the concept
36:53that fixing accountability
36:55and responsibility
36:55on all of these issues
36:57is critical
36:58to good government.
37:00And we had lousy government
37:02working this Department of Energy
37:03for too long.
37:05One phrase above everything else
37:07in the grand jury's
37:08clandestine report
37:09gets the prosecution's goat.
37:11The one calling Rocky Flats
37:13an ongoing criminal enterprise.
37:16The prosecution insists
37:17the crimes are over with.
37:20The true story is that,
37:21yeah, there were serious problems.
37:23They've been addressed.
37:24They're not problems currently.
37:32How are things
37:33at Rocky Flats today?
37:36Rockwell has been replaced
37:38by a new contractor,
37:39EG&G.
37:41And the Department of Energy
37:42is supposed to have
37:43turned over a new leaf.
37:45The Cold War is over.
37:47The plant isn't making
37:48bomb parts anymore.
37:51Everyone's talking about
37:52cleanup and dismantling.
37:54And the government
37:55keeps insisting
37:56the public is safe.
37:57Vinnie Abbott has raised
38:14miniature donkeys
38:15and horses
38:15next door to Rocky Flats
38:17for 33 years.
38:19It was near here
38:21that Ed Martell
38:22took his soil samples
38:2320 years ago
38:24and found them heavy
38:25with plutonium.
38:26It is good,
38:28don't you think?
38:28Can you taste any
38:29plutonium?
38:29No, no,
38:30you really can't.
38:32Once Rocky Flats
38:34is cleaned up,
38:35a sports complex
38:36and golf course
38:37may go here.
38:38From about here
38:39where the ball fields
38:40would be
38:41is about three and a half miles
38:42over two Rocky Flats.
38:45Vinnie knows
38:45that mysterious waste
38:47which seeped underground
38:48at Rocky Flats
38:49has spread her way.
38:50But she's not
38:51about to leave.
38:52She plans for her children
38:54to take over here
38:55when she dies.
38:57You've had some unusual
38:59things happen to animals,
39:00haven't you?
39:06Yes, we have,
39:08but we don't know
39:09the causes of them.
39:10And so I,
39:13as I say,
39:14I don't want to
39:15be damning
39:16something when
39:17I don't know
39:18the cause.
39:20But we have had
39:21some definite
39:22peculiarities.
39:24That's kind of
39:25all I want to say
39:26about that.
39:28Does it seem
39:29as though there have been
39:29more than
39:30you might expect?
39:32Yes.
39:32Even as people
39:42wonder about
39:43the dangers
39:43of Rocky Flats,
39:45they keep moving
39:45closer to it.
39:50For three years,
39:51Vinnie and others
39:52who live near Rocky Flats
39:53have been attending
39:54meetings to hear
39:55about studies
39:55into what the weapons
39:56plant has done
39:57to the environment.
39:59The studies are directed
40:00by the Colorado
40:00Department of Health
40:01but are paid for
40:02by the Department
40:03of Energy.
40:04We don't expect
40:05you to believe us
40:06at the outset.
40:07We feel that we have...
40:09Last week,
40:09the Health Department
40:10released a preliminary
40:11report on the studies.
40:13It indicates
40:14the plutonium
40:14that escaped
40:15from the plant
40:16may not be the problem
40:17the neighbors feared.
40:19We would like to know
40:20what's in our backyards.
40:21I mean,
40:22and we have never
40:23been able to find out.
40:26While further studies
40:28depend on information
40:29that's still classified,
40:30the preliminary report
40:31reflected soil samples
40:33that found plutonium
40:34well below the danger level.
40:36But no one really knows
40:37how dangerous plutonium is.
40:39Plutonium standards
40:40have been set
40:41by groups of scientists,
40:43most of whom
40:43work for the nuclear establishment,
40:45and they have fluctuated,
40:46sometimes conveniently.
40:49Twenty years ago,
40:50for instance,
40:51when suburban Denver lawns
40:53tested in the danger zone,
40:55the Colorado Department of Health
40:56and the Atomic Energy Commission met,
40:58and simply raised the safety limits
41:00by ten times.
41:03We haven't seen anything
41:04that shows a significant
41:06danger to the public.
41:09Are you satisfied...
41:11The Colorado Health Department team,
41:13now assigned to measure
41:14the contamination,
41:15works with the standards
41:16it inherited.
41:17Could you build homes
41:18in this area?
41:21There aren't any homes
41:22being built in those areas.
41:24You know, I know,
41:24but, well,
41:25I'm just trying to get...
41:26See, I'm frustrated here
41:28trying to find out
41:30what is dangerous.
41:31Where does it...
41:32Where does plutonium contamination
41:34in the soil
41:34become dangerous?
41:38And to whom?
41:38Well, in a sense,
41:44you're asking the question
41:45how clean is clean enough
41:47or how dirty is dangerous.
41:49And, again,
41:50that's a question that has...
41:52Well, let me put it
41:53in these terms,
41:54life-threatening.
41:55And you're saying
41:57that it's well below
41:58too much.
42:00The standard...
42:00The levels of contamination
42:02by plutonium out there
42:03are well within safety limits.
42:06Well, zero is desirable.
42:08More than zero
42:09is less than desirable.
42:13When does it become
42:14dangerous?
42:18Point...
42:18At two?
42:20Two point zero?
42:26With regard to
42:27the plutonium workers,
42:29we found elevated risks
42:30for leukemia
42:31and the lymphopoietic cancers.
42:33In the early 80s,
42:34epidemiologist Greg Wilkinson,
42:36working for the Department of Energy,
42:38found that, statistically,
42:39too many Rocky Flats workers
42:41had died of certain types of cancer.
42:44When management
42:44and the Department of Energy,
42:46certain folks
42:46in the Department of Energy,
42:47became aware of our findings,
42:50they got rather upset
42:51and attempted to make it difficult
42:53and attempted to make it difficult
42:57for us to get those findings published.
43:00And in the decades since,
43:02Wilkinson says,
43:03the DOE has not allowed
43:05another such study
43:06of plutonium workers anywhere.
43:07when did you start working on
43:12standards for radiation?
43:15Hoping to find out
43:16how the government decides
43:18what are safe and unsafe levels
43:20of plutonium contamination,
43:21we went to Oak Ridge, Tennessee,
43:23to find the man
43:24who's probably most responsible
43:26for setting the original standards,
43:28Dr. Carl Morgan,
43:30known as the father of health physics.
43:32Well, in the very early period
43:34when I came to Oak Ridge,
43:36in September of 1943,
43:41there were no standards.
43:43Initially, the standards
43:44that I set here at the laboratory
43:47for plutonium
43:48were based on his studies
43:50of three rats.
43:52In the years since,
43:53Morgan has come to believe
43:55he was wrong,
43:56that much smaller amounts
43:57of plutonium can cause cancer.
43:59In these studies,
44:00we found that the present levels
44:01were at least 500 times too high.
44:05When he began to testify
44:06against his own standards,
44:08Dr. Morgan says he was removed
44:10from the organizations
44:11that set them.
44:13They decided I'd been
44:14on the International Commission
44:16and the National Council
44:17long enough,
44:18so I was made...
44:20That's true if you're looking
44:21only at the average.
44:22Ed Martell has sounded
44:24the same warnings
44:25as Carl Morgan
44:25and says he too
44:27was ostracized.
44:29So long as the DOE
44:30and the nuclear industry
44:32control the plutonium
44:33and pay the scientists
44:34who study it,
44:35Martell suggests,
44:36we won't get the truth.
44:38It's a conspiracy
44:40of sorts.
44:43It's not just
44:44ignorance and wishful thinking.
44:46A conspiracy.
44:48It's a conspiracy
44:49of such a nature
44:51that if Carl Morgan
44:53and I and a few others
44:54that think
44:54that plutonium standards
44:56are not conservative
44:57by factors of a hundred
44:58or a thousand,
45:00if we're right,
45:02then they're suppressing
45:06information and research
45:10on such possibilities
45:11is a crime against humanity.
45:13This is the primary entrance point
45:21for all employees,
45:22vehicles, etc.
45:23The big building
45:24directly behind you
45:25is building 707,
45:26which is...
45:28After weeks of asking,
45:29we finally got to take
45:30a tour of Rocky Flats,
45:32sort of.
45:33Two public relations
45:35representatives
45:35accompanied us,
45:36one from the Department
45:38of Energy
45:38and one from the new
45:40contractor,
45:41EG&G.
45:41Rocky Flats
45:43has quadrupled
45:44its public relations force
45:45since the FBI raid,
45:48part of the new culture
45:49of cooperation
45:50with the public.
45:51This building here,
45:52this is a high bay
45:53loading facility.
45:54That brown one?
45:55Yep.
45:55Yep, this one right here.
45:56We didn't get to go
45:57into any buildings,
45:58but we did get to see
46:00some of the things
46:00we'd been hearing
46:01and reading about.
46:04This is the most
46:04notorious spot of all,
46:07the 903 pad.
46:09Everything has a number
46:10at Rocky Flats.
46:10How thick is that?
46:12Do you know?
46:13I think it's about 12 inches.
46:14I can find out for you.
46:16This is what became
46:17of all the oil
46:17contaminated with plutonium
46:19that leaked out of
46:20thousands of corroded
46:21barrels.
46:22Enough plutonium
46:23to kill everyone
46:24on Earth.
46:26They buried it here
46:27and put a thick layer
46:28of asphalt over it.
46:30I can't help feeling
46:31a little uneasy
46:33standing here.
46:35It's a good thing
46:36the public relations
46:37people were along
46:38to reassure us.
46:40I don't feel at risk
46:41here.
46:41I've worked here
46:41for three and a half
46:42years.
46:43Still, there was that
46:44story about the hot
46:45rabbit.
46:46True, that was 20 years
46:47ago, but plutonium
46:49has a half-life
46:50of 24,000 years.
46:52There's some very low
46:52levels out here,
46:53very manageable levels.
46:57Our next stop
46:58was the 881 hillside.
47:01No one knows exactly
47:02what was dumped here
47:03or how much.
47:05When we did our
47:06assessments,
47:07there were reports
47:08of people that had
47:08taken things out
47:09of the back door
47:10of 881 in the late
47:1150s and just dumped
47:12them.
47:13Now, that was,
47:14you know,
47:14it may have been
47:15a thing of water.
47:16It may have been
47:17a pan of salt.
47:18It was pretty common
47:18practice.
47:19Down below is the creek
47:20that fed the drinking
47:21water of several
47:22towns.
47:27And we got to see
47:28the concrete,
47:29the debacle the DOE
47:31couldn't deny
47:31and wouldn't deal
47:32with, the attempt
47:34to get rid of
47:34radioactive sludge
47:35by encasing it
47:36in cement that
47:38collapsed.
47:39It's been reprocessed
47:40or repackaged
47:41and is no longer
47:42leaking, but it
47:44still looks unworthy
47:45of scientists.
47:46And still, no one
47:47knows what to do
47:47with it.
47:50They wouldn't let
47:52us go into the
47:52hot side, the
47:54fortress within the
47:55fortress where the
47:55bomb triggers were
47:56made, even though
47:57all production at
47:58Rocky Flats has been
47:59shut down.
48:00The problem is in
48:02the prep time.
48:03It's difficult to
48:04explain why can't
48:05you get in there.
48:06And it's really
48:07It's not because
48:08it's dangerous to be
48:09in there.
48:10No, I...
48:10We may be able to
48:13get in there.
48:13You probably could.
48:15But it...
48:16We applied to get
48:17into the hot side,
48:19waited several weeks.
48:20They said, no.
48:22Hmm.
48:25I don't think we're
48:26going to be able to
48:26get you a shot from
48:27here because I can't
48:28see any way to get
48:29the...
48:29So we didn't get to
48:30see where Jackie
48:31Breaver was
48:32contaminated.
48:33And we didn't get to
48:34see the ventilation
48:35system that had 62
48:36pounds of plutonium in
48:38it that no one knew
48:39about.
48:40A lot of it's still
48:40there that no one
48:41knows what to do
48:42with.
48:43And of course,
48:44we didn't get to see
48:44the vaults of pure
48:45plutonium, hundreds of
48:47tons of it, some
48:48sources say.
48:50We asked the
48:51Colorado Department of
48:52Health about those
48:53buildings.
48:55Oh, and in fact,
48:56you don't really know
48:56what's inside some of
48:59those buildings.
48:59Is that fair to say?
49:02There are certain
49:02materials they deal
49:03with out there,
49:04classified materials
49:06that we have no need
49:07to know what's in
49:08those buildings.
49:09You have no need
49:10to know those?
49:10No need to know for
49:11some of the
49:12classified materials
49:13they have in there
49:14that are materials
49:15that they manage and
49:16process and that
49:17sort of thing.
49:18The Department of
49:18Energy will have to
49:19take care of that.
49:20That's correct.
49:20That's correct.
49:22These environmental
49:22problems were caused
49:23by the same people
49:25who are now in
49:26charge of cleaning
49:27it up, supposedly.
49:28Peter Johnson and
49:29Amelia Govan, who are
49:30congressional advisors
49:31on technical issues,
49:33doubt that the
49:34Department of Energy
49:35and its partners,
49:36the contractors,
49:37have reformed.
49:37Even when new leaders
49:42come in to the
49:43Department of Energy
49:44and say, there shall
49:46be a new culture,
49:47there shall be
49:48openness, the public
49:50will be let in.
49:52It's very difficult
49:53to get that message
49:54down to each of the
49:57sites and to the
50:00contractors who have
50:02been running these
50:03sites over the past
50:05years.
50:07Rocky Flats is not
50:08alone.
50:09There are all the
50:10other buildings and
50:11all the other nuclear
50:12weapons plants dotting
50:13the country, 2,700
50:15buildings.
50:16There are buildings,
50:19huge buildings, that
50:21are totally contaminated
50:23and nobody has even
50:26begun to estimate how
50:29much it will cost to
50:31clean up those buildings.
50:34there is no process
50:36yet in place for
50:38deciding what to do
50:40with those buildings.
50:41Say you've got an
50:42office pool and you
50:43have to pick a final
50:44number, the final cost
50:45for this clean up.
50:47I'd like to hear your
50:48bets.
50:51Well, we could easily
50:52spend a half a trillion.
50:58At the end of the
50:59tour, we got to see
51:00the fields where they
51:01sprayed hazardous waste
51:02year after year.
51:04sprayed them far beyond
51:05saturation, calling it
51:07irrigation.
51:08No one knows how much
51:10of it or where it all
51:11went.
51:14There isn't much to see
51:15now, like a battleground
51:17long after the battle.
51:20After all the secrecy,
51:21it turns out no one
51:22knows what's here or
51:24what it may do.
51:26That's some secret.
51:27of all the nuclear
51:43weapons plants, we know
51:45most about the problems
51:46of Rocky Flats because
51:47of the grand jury that
51:48got mad.
51:51Some of the jurors say
51:52they have more to tell
51:54people if they could.
51:57Do you think it would
52:00be important for us to
52:01know what you know?
52:04I think it would.
52:06I think it would be in
52:07your best interest.
52:10Connie Modecker and
52:11Shirley Kyle became fast
52:13friends during their two
52:14and a half years on the
52:15grand jury.
52:16At the end of it all,
52:18there was one final
52:19bizarre twist.
52:21The judge in the
52:22Rocky Flats case has
52:23asked for a federal
52:24investigation of his
52:26own grand jury for
52:27talking.
52:31So the tragic turnabout
52:33this did turn out to
52:35be.
52:36I'm very sad.
52:38We were there to do
52:39our duty and now we're
52:40being prosecuted for
52:41coming forward and
52:43wanting the citizens to
52:46know what they need to
52:46know and should know
52:47and have the right to
52:48know.
52:49Does that make sense to
52:50you?
52:56Connie Modecker
52:57recently moved.
52:59She has just discovered
53:00that despite all her
53:01misgivings about Rocky
53:02Flats, she has moved
53:04to within sight of it.
53:05Mother Mary, pray for
53:06us.
53:07I can't believe you got
53:08this close to it, Connie.
53:10How far can you run?
53:12Where can you go?
53:13You can.
53:14Not this area.
53:15I feel pretty good, to
53:17tell you the truth.
53:19I have my day.
53:21I have and I am
53:23disabled.
53:24And I have learned to
53:26compensate.
53:27I know that...
53:28Jackie Breaver sued
53:29Rockwell and several of
53:31its employees for
53:32harassment, intimidation,
53:33and assault.
53:34Convinced her plutonium
53:36contamination from the
53:37leaking safety glove was
53:39intentional.
53:39program.
53:41In August 1992, a federal
53:44judge dismissed the case
53:46for lack of evidence.
53:48She has been unable to
53:49find employment or medical
53:50insurance.
53:52But I have some things on
53:54my wish list, and that is
53:57I want a congressional
54:00investigation, a real one.
54:03A real investigation in
54:05front of God and
54:06everybody.
54:07Let's all tell the truth.
54:10I want that.
54:12No more congressional
54:20hearings on the Rocky Flats
54:21case are planned.
54:23Next week, the Energy
54:24Department will finally
54:25begin releasing some
54:26classified information about
54:28Rocky Flats, including an
54:29inventory of leftover
54:31plutonium, more than 28,000
54:33pounds of it.
54:35But the full truth about
54:36Rocky Flats may be buried
54:37forever.
54:39Buried in the fields of
54:40waste, and eventually buried
54:42with those who made the
54:43bombs.
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