page_title: Radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats Plant
section_title: 1969 fire
hierarchical_section_title: Radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats Plant / Sources of contamination / 1969 fire
caption_attribution_description: English: View of area damage from the 1969 plutonium fire at the Rocky Flats Plant.
context_page_description: The Rocky Flats Plant was a former U.S. nuclear weapons production facility located about 15 miles northwest of Denver.
  Historical releases caused radioactive contamination within and outside its boundaries. The contamination primarily resulted from releases from the 903 pad drum storage area – wind-blown plutonium that leaked from barrels of radioactive waste – and two major plutonium fires in 1957 and 1969. Much lower concentrations of radioactive isotopes were released throughout the operational life of the plant from 1952 to 1992, from smaller accidents and from normal operational releases of plutonium particles too small to be filtered. Prevailing winds from the plant carried airborne contamination south and east, into populated areas northwest of Denver.
  The contamination of the Denver area by plutonium from the fires and other sources was not publicly reported until the 1970s. According to a 1972 study coauthored by Edward Martell, "In the more densely populated areas of Denver, the Pu contamination level in surface soils is several times fallout", and the plutonium contamination "just east of the Rocky Flats plant ranges up to hundreds of times that from nuclear tests."
context_section_description: Another major fire occurred on May 11, 1969 in building 776/777 (the Plutonium Processing Facility), again starting due to spontaneous combustion of plutonium shavings in a glove box. Fire fighters again resorted to fighting the fire with water after dry extinguishers proved ineffective. Despite recommendations after the 1957 fire, suppression systems were not built into the glove boxes.
  While the fire bore marked similarities to the 1957 fire, the level of contamination was less severe because the HEPA filters in the exhaust system did not burn through (After the 1957 fire, the filter material was changed from cellulose to nonflammable fiberglass). Had the filters failed or the roof (which sustained heavy fire damage) been breached, the release could have been more severe than the 1957 fire. About 1,400 kilograms (3,100 lb) of plutonium was in the storage area where the fire occurred, and about 3,400 kilograms (7,500 lb) total plutonium was in building 776/777.
  The 1969 fire released 13-62 mCi (140–900 milligrams or 0.00031–0.00198 pounds) of plutonium, about 1000th as much as was released in the 1957 fire. The 1969 fire, however, led local health officials to perform independent tests of the area surrounding Rocky Flats to determine the extent of the contamination. This resulted in the first releases of information to the public that populated areas southeast of Rocky Flats had been contaminated.
caption: A room in building 776 damaged by the 1969 fire.
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