page_title: Nuclear labor issues
section_title: Rocky Flats Plant – Colorado, US
hierarchical_section_title: Nuclear labor issues / American nuclear industry / Nuclear weapons production facilities / Rocky Flats Plant – Colorado, US
caption_attribution_description: Rocky Flats Plant. Aerial view of the Rocky Flats Plant from directly overhead in 1954. In 1950, Dow Chemical Company was chosen by the Atomic Energy Commission to establish the Rocky Flats Plant as an atomic bomb trigger fabrication facility. The criteria for siting such a plant included a location west of the Mississippi, north of Texas, south of the northern border of Colorado, and east of Utah; a dry moderate climate; a supporting population of at least 25,000 people; and accessibility from Los Alamos, NM, Chicago, IL, and St. Louis, MO. Twenty-one areas in the United States were suggested; seven locations were screened in the Denver area. This four-square mile area was selected and construction began in 1951.
context_page_description: Nuclear labor issues exist within the international nuclear power industry and the nuclear weapons production sector worldwide, impacting upon the lives and health of laborers, itinerant workers and their families.
  A subculture of frequently undocumented workers do the dirty, difficult, and potentially dangerous work shunned by regular employees. They are called in the vernacular Nuclear Nomads, Bio-Robots, Lumnizers, Glow Boys, Radium Girls, the Fukushima 50, Liquidators, Atomic Gypsies, Gamma Sponges, Nuclear Gypsies, Genpatsu Gypsies, Nuclear Samurai and Jumpers. When they exceed their allowable radiation exposure limit at a specific facility, they often migrate to a different nuclear facility. The industry implicitly accepts this conduct as it can not operate without these practices. The World Nuclear Association states that the transient workforce of "nuclear gypsies" – casual workers employed by subcontractors – has been "part of the nuclear scene for at least four decades."
  Existent labor laws protecting worker's health rights are not always properly enforced. Records are required to be kept, but frequently they are not.
context_section_description: The employees at Rocky Flats Plant near Denver Colorado made plutonium warhead triggers (known as pits) for the United States nuclear weapons arsenal.  The area surrounding the plant is contaminated with radioactive plutonium. According to Marco Kaltofen, and engineer and president of the Boston Chemical Data Corporation, "The material is still there, it's still on the surface." According to the EPA and the Colorado health department, former plant workers, as well as current construction workers might have greater exposure through inhaling radioactive dust than the average construction worker. The 1982 documentary film, Dark Circle, discloses worker safety issues at the Rocky Flats Plant, and lack of workplace regulations. Hazards at Rocky Flats included perforated (damaged) gloves for handling radioactive materials, and incidents when workers directly inhaled irradiated air.
caption: Rocky Flats Plant – 1954 aerial view
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