[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 72 (Tuesday, May 12, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                COMMEMORATING THE ROCKY FLATS 1969 FIRE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JARED POLIS

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 12, 2009

  Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate one of the most 
fateful days in the history of the State of Colorado, the day the Rocky 
Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant outside of Boulder nearly became America's 
own Chernobyl, some 30 years before that terrible accident in the 
Ukraine.
  On Mother's Day of that year, a fire broke out amid the glove boxes 
in Building 776, where plutonium spheres were being manufactured for 
use as cores for some of the most powerful weapons in human history. 
The fire quickly spread throughout the facility, as many of the fire 
alarms had been removed to make room for more production. It is 
estimated that between 0.14 and 0.9 grams of plutonium 239 and 240 were 
released before a heroic band of perhaps 40 firefighters were able to 
control and eventually douse the fire. Those firefighters faced the 
immense decision of whether to battle the blaze with water, which could 
have set off a chain reaction with the resulting explosion literally 
contaminating the entire Denver metropolitan area. Luckily for us all, 
they chose correctly.
  Still, plutonium was released into the environment from that 
accident, through the air vents in the roof of the building and via 
firefighters exiting it. Thousands of Coloradans were exposed, although 
how many we'll never know. The firefighters, of course, were exposed 
most severely, and everyone nearby faced greatly increased risks of 
serious disease. Indeed, many of those involved have since contracted 
and died from cancers and other conditions tied to radiation exposure.
  I bring up the 1969 accident not only because today, May 11, is its 
40th anniversary. I bring it up because the Americans who worked at 
Rocky Flats and other nuclear facilities around the Nation deserve our 
thanks, and our support, now that the nuclear arms race is a matter for 
the history books. They faced enormous risks. They worked with 
materials that are among the most toxic known to mankind, with half-
lives of hundreds of thousands of years, all so that under the 
prevailing ideology of the time we were able to live our lives safely. 
They are American heroes every bit as much as our wartime soldiers. In 
a sense, they were wartime soldiers: Soldiers of the nuclear cold war, 
and many gave their lives.
  Several weeks ago, I along with my Colorado colleagues, 
Representatives Perlmutter, DeGette, Salazar, and Coffman, and Senators 
Udall and Bennet, introduced H.R. 1828, the Charlie Wolf Nuclear 
Workers Compensation Act. The act would finally cut through the red 
tape that has prevented America's nuclear workers from gaining the 
compensation they were promised in exchange for their dangerous 
service. I urge my colleagues to take a moment to remember the risks 
and sacrifices made by heroic men and women in our nation's nuclear 
production facilities, which were located in virtually every State in 
the country, and to pass this historic piece of legislation.

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