[justinator]

I don’t believe danger is imminent but it is incredible how close this fire is to the former Rocky Flats.

This is the second time in as many years I’ve been surprised to see fires close enough to be viewed from the front yard - in exact opposite directions.

I’m at the N Boulder rec center with my partner (a reporter) covering this for the NYT. Thankfully it seems quiet and the wind is dying down.

Pray for snow!

[JPKab]

I live west of Rocky Flats. I actually walked onto the now refuge that surrounds the plant tonight and took photos of the fires in the distance.

It should be noted that the contaminated areas of Rocky flats are extremely secure and buried under massively overbuilt layers of concrete containments. The EPA milked the site for super fund money for probably a decade longer than it needed to for the cleanup. If you're wondering how I know this it's because I have several neighbors who used to work at the plant and then worked on the EPA-led cleanup when it was a super fund site.

[monocasa]

The remediation started in 1997, and ended in 2006, so I'm not sure how it could have lasted an extra decade given that it didn't last an entire decade total. And that was using only $7B of the original estimate of $35B.

[JPKab]

There's not an increased rate of cancer around the area. People have lived in this area for a long time. My neighborhood is upwind not downwind. There's no increased cancer cluster anywhere downwind of the site.

The data should be driving these decisions instead of the paranoia of anti-nuke idiots.

[dredmorbius]

Context: Rocky Flats, Colorado, is the site of the former Rocky Flats Weapons Plant, a manufacturing facility for US nuclear weapons, and since the 1990s, a major environmental contamination and cleanup site.

Though much radioactive material was removed (including 21 tons of weapons-grade material), concerns over residual radioactive contamination being made airborne through fire or other disturbance remain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Flats_Plant

[elpakal]

Didn’t they confirm over 600 homes burned? And the entire towns of Louisville and Superior evacuated (as well as a big hospital - Avista). That seems dangerous to me!

[sritchie]

I am in Boulder too and I think the comment means, imminent in Boulder proper. But you are of course right, this is a horrifying thing happening right now for many people just a few miles away.

[justinator]

I meant imminent to the Rocky Flats area. Of course all the buildings were razed, but I would assume it wouldn't be a Good Thing for that place to also be on fire.

[nyokodo]

> I would assume it wouldn't be a Good Thing for that place to also be on fire.

The radioactive stuff was all removed or well buried. I’m more worried about the large subdivision built on the site burning down.

[monocasa]

Eh, the place that built the subdivision sues the crap out of anyone that tries to get more testing done. And there's a lot of methodological issues with the tests that they do have. Like using gamma radiation tests for plutonium contamination (plutonium is primarily an alpha emitter as it decays).

Also the fuckers had the audacity to name the subdivision 'Candelas'. For those following along at home, Rocky Flats was a plutonium warhead manufacturing facility raided by the feds back in the day for doing crazy stuff like lighting plutonium on fire, and not coming anywhere near close to what would be expected for storing contaminated materials. It then became one of the first super fund sites.

[JPKab]

I live in the subdivision.

When you purchase a home there you are legally required to be provided and then sign a document that outlines the history of the Rocky Flats plutonium facility. I was provided this document and had to sign it as do every other homeowner here.

What I've learned is that people who don't really know anyone that lives there or have never bothered to talk to anyone who purchased homes make assumptions about the entire area. They assume that the people that purchase homes were ignorant rubes who weren't aware of the sites history. I knew about the site and researched it for well over a year before I chose to buy a home in the neighborhood.

I spoke with a nuclear physicist who lives in the neighborhood. I also have a co-worker who is also a physicist and was once in charge of a nuclear reactor at his university.

There were over a quarter million soil samples taken from the area surrounding the core containment area. There was decades of testing by the EPA. It was a super fund site for decades.

Additionally the neighborhood is not built on the site. It is built outside of a perimeter, well over a mile and a half from the core area that was covered over with concrete where the soil still contains traces of plutonium.

As you pointed out plutonium is indeed in alpha emitter rather than gamma. It's also extremely heavy and oxidizes on contact with oxygen. It's not the kind of substance that's going to blow around. It will kill you if you inhale it or ingest it of course.

I have many photos of herds of elk in the refuge that surrounds the core site. It's not at all the wasteland that people make it out to be.

Additionally your first statement claiming that a single company sues people who want to do testing is completely incorrect and can't be backed up by any references. I live here and I happen to know that no single company developed the subdivision. It was purposefully set up by the government of Arvada as a zone and split amongst multiple developers. Additionally more testing has been done in the land around the refuge which the developers have no control over or legal standing. As to testing within the subdivision, the homeowners can test whatever they want in their yards with no permission from the developers. Like a lot of anti-nuclear misinformation it doesn't even make sense when you dig into it.

Additionally the fire never got to a point where it was going to hit Rocky flats. Rocky flats and the surrounding area were placed under a pre-evacuation order in the event that the wind shifted. I live here that's why I know this.

[olliej]

I think the issue is how well remediated it’s actually is. I presume that there are a reasonable number of people who doubt that the remediation was actually complete enough to be safe against wild fires

[bitexploder]

Rocky Flats is famous for one of the few times two federal agencies fought one another. I don’t trust they remediated it properly at all.

[JPKab]

The remediations are massive concrete structures covering large swaths of the ground. A brush fire being pushed by heavy winds isn't going to do anything to it.

Additionally the large subdivision was not built on the site but surrounding the perimeter to the site. The core site is off limits to anyone as a precaution to prevent anyone from tampering with the remediations or deliberately vandalizing them.

Surrounding the core site is a wildlife refuge that is fairly large. On the outside of this refuge is the subdivision.

[tamaharbor]

But what about the several plutonium fires during Rocky Flats operation and the associated plumes of contamination to the immediate south then east of the plant?