77 pages • 2 hours read
Kristen IversenFull Body Burden
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “Doom with a View: 1990”
At the turn of the new year in 1990, the company EG&G takes over the management of Rocky Flats as part of its burgeoning involvement in the government’s nuclear production industry. Rocky Flats is an integral facility in this industry, which consists of seven factories with corporate management. Rocky Flats has enjoyed a 40-year run of producing about 70,000 plutonium triggers, but production stopped as of the FBI raid in 1989.
Although EG&G intends to continue plutonium trigger production, President George H.W. Bush’s cancellation of a nuclear warhead effort causes the company to rethink the future of Rocky Flats. EG&G decides to change the name of the plant and fields suggestions from the public that include “Doom with a View” (242). In 1994, the name becomes the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) (243). Mark Silverman speaks to the press about the lingering plutonium throughout the facility and the mismanaged waste. Representatives from the DOE predict that cleaning the extensive waste at Rocky Flats will be long and costly.
Not only has Iversen returned to Arvada with her sons, she also lives next door to Kurt and his family. Iversen struggles with money and juggling many responsibilities. She gets a basset hound named Heathcliff. After finding out her father is in the hospital, she takes her sons to meet him for the first time. She enters his hospital room to find him looking ill, and the two share a brief conversation during which she introduces her sons to their grandfather. Iversen has an awkward interaction with her father’s nurse, who informs her that her father has trouble with his heart and a high blood alcohol level.
Iversen discovers that Rocky Flats is hiring temporary secretaries and file clerks. Iversen interviews the following day and anxiously takes a typing test. The administrator lets her take the test twice due to her mistakes the first time, and hires her on the spot.
Iversen visits her mother to tell her about her new job, and her mother informs her that the divorce from her father is complete. She demurs about her almost lifelong smoking habit but after Iversen’s son Sean challenges her not to hide it, Iversen’s mother more openly smokes. Flipping through photo albums, she reminisces about her Norwegian ancestors and her early days with Iversen’s father.
Iversen drives her sons and Heathcliff out to Rocky Flats to observe her new workplace from outside the fence. She wonders whether she should work at the plant. Her first day of work is September 14, 1994, and she readies her sons for school before arriving at the plant. The guard at the entrance welcomes her and provides her with a map. She observes the drab collection of buildings and drives around the facility before obtaining her badge and heading to the administration building.
Iversen encounters a terse secretary who leads her to Trailer 130F where Iversen will work with other new employees. She reads a “Radiological Health and Safety” (251) form that notifies workers of the dangers of radiation exposure and assures them that the DOE strives to keep exposure levels low. An announcement in the trailer alerts employees to the high winds outside. Iversen sits at her cubicle, where a new colleague greets her and invites her to lunch. Iversen types the documents given to her and takes lunch alone at the cafeteria. She meets George, who refuses to eat food from the cafeteria because plutonium contaminates it. This "joke" later reveals to be true.
Her first weeks of work orient Iversen to the dense operations of the plant, which employs about 6,000 people. Randy Sullivan also works at Rocky Flats as part of their fire department. Before his test, he attempts to find the fire station and feels nervous driving around the facility because of the armed guards there. He passes the physical agility test and gets the job at Rocky Flats in 1991 as a “nuclear firefighter” (255).
Iversen’s fast typing earns her a promotion out of Trailer 130F and into the administrative building. She is one of many working in cubicles under the authority of male managers and senior administrative assistants Debra and Diane. Debra recommends that Iversen get manicures and wear makeup. Diane tells her she cannot leave her desk without notifying her or Debra, even if Iversen needs to use the restroom.
Rocky Flats ships its premade triggers for tests out of state and does other work for the nuclear industry that remains undefined. Iversen learns the strict social divisions among Rocky Flats workers, and about how little she conforms to them. Part of her work involves transcribing “the weekly ‘Hot List,’ a list of ‘incidents’ or problems, milestones, and events that is sent to the higher-ups at the DOE in Washington” (257). In these reports, Iversen is surprised to encounter several acronyms used at Rocky Flats, such as MUF: “‘material unaccounted for,’ that is, missing plutonium” (257). She also learns about the particulars of environmental contamination around the site. Iversen feels conflicted about what goes on at Rocky Flats, but she enjoys the steady wages and does not speak about her work with non-colleagues.
Her curiosity about the plant’s secrets lead her to keep a journal about her work. Debra criticizes the protesters as Iversen’s father once did. Iversen asks Debra about pollution at the plant, but Debra says she knows nothing. Soon thereafter, a breach in plant operations occurs in Building 771, leading to a freeze in plutonium processing and the firing of the workers involved.
A manager named Mr. K takes Iversen to lunch one day; she wonders if he is trying to involve her in an affair. Dissatisfied in his work, Mr. K speaks at length about the inevitable layoffs at Rocky Flats. He describes hazardous practices like pondcrete storage and the plutonium that has lingered throughout the production facilities since the raid.
In anticipation of Halloween, Iversen drives her children to the craft store to buy supplies for their costumes. A taxi nearly runs into her car, and she realizes her father is driving the cab. She tells Sean and Nathan that the driver was their grandfather and did not see them.
Debra shows Iversen her approval by inviting her on a lunchtime walk around the plant. They observe the stunning natural landscape as well as the 903 Pad, a waste storage area and the site of a plutonium leak. Iversen wonders aloud why the police tape cordons off the area if plutonium could pass that boundary, but Debra says, “Plutonium doesn’t travel” (262).
Iversen returns from her walk and chats with Anne, the secretary who was curt with Iversen on her first day. Anne references local Preble mice, a rare species the EPA is trying to protect. Anne wonders why the agency is advocating for a tiny animal and not caring for the humans at risk due to Rocky Flats’ contamination.
Iversen makes a friend in Patricia, another Rocky Flats employee and a postgraduate student. She has lunch with Patricia and a technical writer friend, who claims the plutonium pit, or trigger, is actually a bomb. Iversen and Patricia, both well acquainted with the pits through their clerical work, argue with him.
Rocky Flats guards go on strike after negotiations between their security company and union break down. Iversen and her colleagues fear layoffs, and her manager warns that they are likely. After spying a joke about the layoffs on the women’s bathroom mirror, Iversen looks at her exhausted face.
The guards stop their strike. Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary visits Rocky Flats, but Iversen must work during O’Leary’s speech. George tells Iversen that O’Leary’s visit is ceremonial and that Rocky Flats officials won’t show her the “hot zone” (265) or other difficult realities of the plant.
One afternoon, Iversen retrieves her sons from the babysitter’s and drives them home as they misbehave in the backseat. She puts them to bed and turns on the television to find a news report about Rocky Flats.
The story describes the dangers of Buildings 771 and 776, as well as the current state of the plant since the FBI raid. It also details the dangerous storage of nuclear waste. In an interview, Mark Silverman says that an unknown quantity of plutonium spread throughout the facility. Iversen writes what she hears in her journal as the ABC Nightline report continues.
The program’s narrator, Dave Marash, describes the extent of groundwater contamination from the plant. Jim Kelly, who helped put out the Mother’s Day Fire in 1957, speaks about the plant’s preference for productivity over safety. Marash details the grand jury investigation, as well as the residential boom near Rocky Flats. Seeing the program sends Iversen pacing around her room, and she stays awake that night.
The following morning, Iversen’s workday first appears ordinary and quiet. In the afternoon, however, she and her colleagues discuss what they learned from the ABC story. One states that employees in the plutonium production facility are all contaminated, but another counters that the plant is safe. Another says that the media does not tell the truth. A woman with a beehive hairdo says the plant makes waste but that she still enjoys the perks of her job. Iversen remains silent but feels the shock of the story’s revelations.
On Iversen’s way out that afternoon, Debra gives her a large tray full of homemade baked goods for Christmas. At home, Iversen leaves out the tray, and Heathcliff the dog eats all the cookies. The following day, Iversen tells Debra how much her family enjoyed the treats.
Iversen enjoys Christmas with her family, particularly with her Rocky Flats paycheck to cover gifts and a tree. She dreams about Mark, who she sees in the parking lot at Rocky Flats. In the dream, he is still young, and she hugs him. She sees that he has something to say, but the dream ends.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Fire, Again: 1991-1996”
In his work as a firefighter, Randy Sullivan receives a long orientation to Rocky Flats. He must study the complex buildings whose labyrinthine designs pose difficulties during a fire. He endures a grueling schedule and must maintain physical health at the onsite gym. Randy learns to fight glove box fires and address medical emergencies both inside and outside the plant. The plant endures many fires that do not receive much public attention, and sometimes firefighters from nearby departments address them without taking into account the specific procedures needed when nuclear materials are involved.
Randy enjoys the familial atmosphere amongst his team and abides by the heightened security measures at the plant during the Gulf War. Although the plant employs more people than ever, the FBI raid changed operations and introduces the possibility that the plant might move or close. Randy rises to the rank of captain.
Diane surprises Iversen with an invitation to lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Boulder. Diane tells her that her husband is leaving his post at Rocky Flats and that she might do the same. She bemoans how she would lose the high pay if forced to find secretarial work elsewhere. She says operations at Building 771 are less safe than they appear and that Rocky Flats covers up its indiscretions. She recommends that Iversen quit her job and take the opportunities offered by her postgraduate degree. That night Iversen writes about the meeting in her journal. She also experiences prolonged health problems like fatigue and pain that no doctor has diagnosed.
Iversen’s Bridledale neighbor Tamara Smith experiences serious health problems too, but hers last from childhood into her adulthood. She becomes a teacher and develops severe headaches and eczema. Although her family resists medical care, she visits a doctor and receives a series of different diagnoses for her issues. They later discover a large tumor in her brain (277).
The case of Cook v. Rockwell International Corporation begins in 1989 with homeowners worried about radioactive pollution and decreased property values of their Rocky Flats-adjacent homes. The group hires Philadelphia attorney Peter Nordberg as prosecutor, along with Merrill Davidoff, Louise Rosell, and other local lawyers for this class-action suit. The attorneys are denied access to classified information. The judge resists Rockwell’s motions but disallows the inclusion of health risks in the case, so the proceedings continue on the basis of property values.
The Rocky Flats case consumes Nordberg for many months. The DOE poses many delays, perhaps because the defendants’ legal expenses will ultimately fall upon taxpayers. Documentation is both slow to arrive and heavily redacted. The DOE explains away the MUF (material unaccounted for), although it shocks Nordberg that they behave so flippantly about the estimated missing ton of plutonium at Rocky Flats.
Nordberg starts communicating with a woman from AOL, Mykaila, who sends him an automated birthday message. They fall in love and marry a few months later. His work on Rocky Flats continues to consume each day, including holidays, although he makes time for Mykaila’s daughters and his two sons. Mykaila shares his passion for the case. Peter reads of a similar case in the book A Civil Action.
Iversen considers all the animals in the area around Rocky Flats and wonders if they might be contaminated. She quits her job there to teach college classes part-time. She gives her badge to the security guard on her final day and does not need to sign any of the paperwork she expected. She decides to write a book about the plant based on her journals and copious research, and she shares this decision with Karma.
During a hike with a friend, Iversen collapses and has contracted a fever. A doctor tells her she has chronic fatigue syndrome but that most of her condition is psychosomatic. She completes her dissertation and sees doctors for her swollen lymph node. An oncologist orders a biopsy and recommends that Iversen consider who might care for her children in case she passes away.
Peter Nordberg maintains his dogged pursuit of justice, hoping to expose the public to the serious risks of nuclear sites like Rocky Flats. In tandem with Mykaila, he writes a brief and barely stops working for any reason.
Surgeons remove Iversen’s left lymph node days before her dissertation defense. Test results show no signs of cancer in the tissue. She passes her defense and graduates with her Ph. D. with bandages on her neck. A follow-up meeting with her oncologist reveals that he cannot help her, although he observes her body defending itself from disease. The scar on Iversen’s neck is what her friend calls a “downwinder scar” (286), a mark shared by those living downwind from the Hanford, Washington, nuclear site. Although Iversen’s siblings share similar symptoms, in keeping with how their parents raised them, none complains.
Tamara Smith Meza has her tumor removed, and her doctor recommends chemotherapy and radiation despite the high likelihood of her tumor returning. She decides not to pursue these treatments and seeks alternatives. She finds help from a doctor in New York who attributes her cancer to spending her childhood so near Rocky Flats. For three years, no tumor grows back (287).
The company Kaiser-Hill Inc. comes to clean up Rocky Flats. Soon after, Mark Silverman resigns as Rocky Flats' manager, citing its high demands on his time and energy. He also expresses concern that no one, including politicians, will support the cleanup effort at the plant. Silverman develops a brain tumor in the years after his departure (288). Although the DOE stated that the cleanup would require extraordinary time and money, Kaiser-Hill accepts the job of cleaning the plant in six years at a $3.96 billion budget.
Randy’s initial time in firefighting requires that he put out grass fires rather than plutonium fires. The DOE struggles to find a solution for controlling vegetation and proposes a “prescribed burn” (288) of land around Rocky Flats, which some suggest would spread contaminated smoke. The DOE orders a “test burn” (289) in 2000, and local Paula Elofson-Gardine measures the radiation from the burn while news media records her doing so. Her meter shows a sharp spike in radiation levels as the smoke passes her home and lingering high levels during the days after the burn. The news story does not cause a stir.
In May of 2003, Randy Sullivan and a fellow firefighter named Paul buy breakfast from a food vendor at Rocky Flats. An alert tells the men there is a fire in Building 371, currently “the most active plutonium building on-site” (290). The complex building stabilizes and stores plutonium later shipped to South Carolina.
Authorities evacuate Building 371 and a manager tells Randy and Paul that the fire is out. The firefighters enter the building and hear on their radios that the fire is back. In the sub-basement, people not wearing protective gear move through smoke. Someone tells them the fire is in a glove box, which workers have attempted to cordon off. The box is a “guillotine” (292), fitted with a trapdoor that can sever body parts if activated during an emergency.
Randy tells people in Building 371 to leave and tells other firefighters he needs more carbon dioxide cans. Workers near the glove box point to the fire, which rises high in blue flames. He sprays the fire with carbon dioxide, which does nothing, then sees eight fire extinguishers beneath him that indicate how Building 371 workers did not follow proper procedure.
Randy uses a thermal imaging camera to take photographs of the fire inside the glove box. This reveals that the fire began in some wood-containing filters in the trash glove box. He tries to retrieve these pieces of trash by reaching inside. Since the carbon dioxide has no effect, he calls for water to put out the fire. He and a fellow firefighter spray the radioactive trash while their respirator tanks run low. The fire goes down, and another crew of firefighters relieve Randy and the others.
Randy emerges from the building just after his respirator tank runs out. Because he stayed in the room so long, he has contracted internal contamination and contamination on his skin. Randy goes to the decontamination room in full body protection. A doctor administers DTPA via needle, which aids the elimination of radioactive material from the body. Doctors extensively and repetitively scrub his skin. Monitors try to gauge how much plutonium might have entered Randy’s internal organs.
Randy’s day on the job ends, but he remains closely monitored for months. He later learns that the guillotine box should have cut his arm when he reached inside.
Tamara Smith Meza has not suffered for three years after her the removal of her tumor, but one day she collapses at home and goes to the emergency room. It’s another tumor, leaving her with serious health problems after its removal. Another tumor grows in place of the first. Tamara and her husband move, and she quits her job, but she does not blame Rocky Flats for her health problems.
Chapters 6-7 Analysis
Those without prior knowledge of Iversen’s full story might be surprised to read about the writer’s employment at Rocky Flats. The tandem narratives of the nuclear facility and Iversen verging toward each other throughout prior chapters now intertwine as she learns about the plant’s operations from the inside. She perceives its secretive culture up close, so much so that she remains ignorant about the true nature of the plutonium triggers the plant manufactures. Likewise, her colleagues—such as Debra, who claims plutonium cannot cross police tape—maintain different stories about the plant. Even those supposedly on the inside of the nuclear industry are not privy to its essential secrets.
Working at Rocky Flats shifts Iversen’s view of the nuclear industry, as colleagues share confidential information about contamination and failure to follow regulation at Rocky Flats. Her transcription work also exposes her to the lack of safety in the production facilities. She responds to her doubts and questions by journaling, making good use of her watchful nature and fervent writing habit. These notes lay the groundwork for the book that will become Full Body Burden.
Her viewing of the ABC Nightline report, confirms the rumors she heard, and prompts a major change in her perspective. Discussing the story with her coworkers after a sleepless night, the quiet Iversen reacts with great emotion she doesn’t verbalize: “I don’t say anything. I’m afraid to open my mouth. Inside I am shaking with anger and fear” (269). Her code of silence, learned at home, cannot conceal the writer’s internal horror and her desire to leave the plant. Soon after, she dreams about Mark, who was opposed to Rocky Flats. Her dream about him might indicate her unspoken desire to leave the place he resisted when he was alive.
Although Rocky Flats’ operations have changed, the plant remains as active as ever. The FBI raid and its faltering public image results not necessarily in systemic improvements but in a cosmetic name change. This initiative resembles the plant’s hosting public tours after the 1969 fire tarnishes its public image. Iversen also demonstrates the plant’s wide reach in the stories of a Philadelphia lawyer and her former neighbor Tamara Smith Meza.
Randy Sullivan, mentioned throughout the text, returns in this chapter as the protagonist of a dramatic scene at Rocky Flats. Like the fires Iversen narrates in Chapter 1, the May 2003 fire represents the great dangers of working with radioactive materials. This event begins in a glove box, as did the 1969 fire. The fires in 1957, 1969, and 2003 all include the failure of carbon dioxide and the dangerous use of water, risking a nuclear reaction. Furthermore, like the accidental failures of power lines in 1957 and 1969 that helped keep the fires under control, the guillotine glove box’s failure to activate preserves Randy Sullivan’s arm as he fights the fire inside. The events of this emergency imply that the plant still lacks effective procedures for fighting plutonium fires.
