Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West

Format: Paperback Language: English ISBN: 0826327982 ISBN13: 9780826327987 Release Date: February 2002 Publisher: University of New Mexico Press Length: 320 Pages Weight: 1.00 lbs. Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0" p>Just as huge nuclear explosions result from small spheres of plutonium, the story of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver, Colorado is much larger than itself. It is about the Church family, who came West seeking gold in 1861, stayed to raise cattle, watched the federal government take a large piece of its land for the weapons plant in 1951--and now is busily developing real estate in the booming suburbs next to the contaminated plant site. It is about the government and private corporations that produced the deadliest devices in history for thirty-seven years, concealed problems behind the wall of national security secrecy, and came close to a Chernobyl-scale disaster during a 1969 fire. It is about plant managers who cut corners to main