Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West [Hardcover]

Len Ackland (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0826318770 | ISBN-13: 978-0826318770 | Publication Date: September 1, 1999

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 maintain weapons production, workers who saw themselves as loyal Cold War soldiers, and citizen activists who challenged the plant's very existence. And it is about a community that profited from thousands of jobs and contracts but now faces long-term environmental and health risks.

Making a Real Killing examines the way Americans participated in building a nuclear weapons arsenal capable of destroying the human species. To read it is to learn some sobering lessons, including the fact that the democratic process lagged decades behind technological developments.

"As Americans reckon with the legacy of the Cold War, Making a Real Killing deserves a place at the center of our attention. Len Ackland's integrity and hard work remind us how crucial energetic journalism is for a successful democracy."--Patricia Nelson Limerick

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A hard-edged history of a center of Cold War death-dealing technology. Ackland, a former editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and now a professor of journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder, offers a history of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility just a few miles south of Boulder. The plant was carved from a vast cattle ranch thanks to the efforts of hawkish Senator Edwin Johnson, who, Ackland writes, embodied the peculiar relationship Westerners had developed with the federal government, a relationship that mixed a kind of state socialism with myths of rugged individualism. The Rocky Flats facility went on to process staggering quantities of strontium, uranium, and plutonium, materials that periodically posed a threat to public health in the Denver area, especially after catastrophic 1957 and 1969 fires, the second of which foreshadowed the disastrous Chernobyl meltdown 17 years later. Both fires were controlled. Local newspapers generally ignored the first, muted, Ackland says, by the aura of national security surrounding the plant. But the second came under more critical scrutiny, and the facility thereafter became a centerpiece of antinuclear activism in the West. More than offering a history of the plant alone, Ackland also serves up a useful summary of American nuclear policy in the Cold War era, noting that in 1948 the military petitioned President Truman for custody of the nations nuclear-weapons program, including Rocky Flats. Truman refused, saying of the atomic bomb, You have to understand that this isn't a military weapon. It is used to wipe out women and children and unarmed people, and not for military uses. So we have got to treat this differently from rifles and cannon and ordinary things like that. The scary workings of Rocky Flats were far from ordinary. So, too, is this fine book of reportage and history. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

A riveting story. . . . I couldn't put it down. -- Charles Rankin, Montana

As Americans reckon with the legacy of the Cold War, Making a Real Killing deserves a place at the center of our attention. Len Ackland's integrity and hard work remind us how crucial energetic journalism is for a successful democracy. -- Patricia Nelson Limerick

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826318770
• ISBN-13: 978-0826318770
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > History > Military > Weapons & Warfare > Nuclear

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A case study of Cold War America, March 9, 2000

By 

Dr. Denny Wilkins (St. Bonaventure University, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West (Hardcover)

As a journalist, I'm proud of "Making a Real Killing." Its compelling attention to detail underscores its credibility. Without the detail, the book succumbs to a dull existence as an uninformed environmental screed.

As a reporter, I'm proud of the book's clear, concise explanations of highly complex nuclear technology. The workings of a nuclear bomb and the sources and effects of ionizing radiation are set forth in a clear and compelling manner.

As a storyteller, I'm proud of the fundamental organizing tools the book uses. Telling the history of Rocky Flats from the point of view of the participants in the story makes the book readable and adds a dramatic element that is effective without being cloying or sensationalistic. Also, telling the story of the land itself is a wonderful device.

As a professor of journalism, I'm reinvigorated by the book. It reflects an author in full command of his reporting and writing skills. Each semester I show one particular overhead transparency repeatedly in class: "Use more detail. Reveal more truth." I have read passages from the book to my students to demonstrate the power of carefully used detail.

As a copy editor, I'm particularly proud of the masterful editing. Believe me, I looked very, very hard for errors and even harder for ways to tighten wording or clarify organization. I found only two commas I might quibble with. The University of New Mexico Press did a superb job in designing, editing, and publishing this book.

As a person who practiced "duck and cover" in elementary school, I'm struck by the compelling arguments the book makes about the insane politics and economics of national weapons and defense policies. For this reason alone, the book should earn a Pulitzer prize.

Len Ackland produced a rich, valuable, compelling piece of book-length journalism. As a work of history, it should provide sound lessons for those who create public policy.

(Disclosure: Len Ackland served on my dissertation committee while I was a doctoral student at the University of Colorado-Boulder.)

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Review From Southwest BookViews Fall 2002, January 25, 2005

By 

Kim Messier (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West (Hardcover)

The specter of America's nuclear legacy hangs like a pall over the Western landscape. Nearly 15 years after the end of the Cold War, we are confronting the consequences of 50-year-old political decisions. From Fat Man and Little Boy of the Los Alamos National Laboratories to Nevada's Yucca Mountain which will someday become the repository of this nation's nuclear waste, the West has seen its share of America's atomic heritage. The perceived isolation and wide-open spaces of the post-war West were ideal sites for top-secret government nuclear installations. But it's the 21st century now and Westerners aren't nearly as captivated by the atomic age as they once were. The facilities we welcomed with open arms for economic growth are now damned for their environmental, ethical and health threats.

In this updated paperback edition of his 1999 hardcover, Ackland, Director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder, documents the complete history of Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver. Starting from the very beginning of nuclear weapons production, he takes us through the formation of the Atomic Energy Commission, the building of the Rocky Flats plant and its administration by Dow Chemical and the Department of Energy, to present day and the efforts to clean up the plant site. This is not just a story about an infamous nuclear weapons assembly plant. This is also a story about assembly workers and middle managers who were more concerned with keeping their good jobs than what it was they were producing, as well as adjacent land owners, environmental activists, anti-nuclear protesters and, of course, the politicians.

The amount of research presented in this remarkable work is mind-boggling, and it is relayed in a clear, concise journalistic style. But one wouldn't call this an unbiased book. Ackland is sympathetic to the production workers of Rocky Flats, environmentalists, peace activists and neighboring land owners and extremely critical of the management by Dow Chemical and the Department of Energy.

The continuing threat of an atomic catastrophe haunts the Denver area as the DOE attempts to clean up the mess it let grow out of hand while it turned its back on safety for the sake of production. Certainly the most shocking aspect of this exposé is discovering what those in power are capable of doing to keep the gravy train of nuclear production continuing even in the face of endangering their own workers, neighbors, and citizenry. Plant managers were involved in cover-ups, lies, and illegal dumping of toxic waste-all in the name of continuing production. It is appalling to realize what the DOE concealed behind a veil of secrecy they called National Security. The FBI finally raided Rocky Flats in 1989, temporarily shutting down operations.

As luck would have it, due to the end of the Cold War and various arms reduction treaties, 1989 was the last year of production for Rocky Flats; its only function now is as an EPA clean-up site. The irony of it all is that more Americans will probably die from the consequences of nuclear weapons production and testing than any real or imagined threat from the "Evil Empire" or any of its successors. And the threat of Rocky Flats, even without the production of nuclear bomb components, will probably never go away.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I worked there too., June 30, 2006

By 

P. Ormsby (New Lenox, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West (Paperback)

I look forward to reading this book. I was a Nuclear Engineer at Rocky Flats in the 80's. I quit after less than a year on site because I feared for my health. The plant was a mess. Everyone should read about what the cold war did to our country.

*I have read the book now* and I can say honestly that what I knew then was not half what I know now....this Nuclear plant was a disaster. I quit for fear for my health, and now I know I did the right thing....EVERY American should read this book...The price that the weapons race cost our country. And to think that suburban Denver is only a short distance away from this site...scarey.