Timeline by Patricia Buffer, July 2003
- President Franklin Roosevelt charges the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with constructing industrial plants that will produce Plutonium-239 and Uranium-235. To accomplish this task, a new division, the Manhattan Engineer District (MED) is established in New York City – it is formed to secretly build the atomic bomb.
- A group of scientists, led by Physicist Enrico Fermi, achieves the first man- made, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in a lab at the University of Chicago.
- Roosevelt approves detailed plans for building production facilities and producing atomic bombs.
- Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves is named to head the MED, and Groves selects Oak Ridge, Tenn., as site for the pilot plant.
- Design and development of the first nuclear weapons, the plutonium-fueled Fat Man and uranium-fueled Little Boy, takes place at the Los Alamos, N.M., facility established by the MED in 1943. The effort is the beginning of what has become the nationwide laboratory and industrial complex of the Department of Energy (DOE).
- The decision is made to shift the plutonium production plant from Tennessee to another location and the Hanford site in Washington is selected for the first, full-scale plutonium production plant.
- The MED moves its headquarters to Oak Ridge, Tenn.
- The D-Day invasion marks the end of World War II in Europe.
- The Manhattan Project’s chances for success advance from doubtful to probable as Oak Ridge and Hanford produce increasing amounts of fissionable material, and Los Alamos makes progress in chemistry, metallurgy and weapon design.
- (May 8). Germany surrenders and Victory Day is celebrated May 8, 1945, officially ending the European phase of World War II.
- An atomic bomb, hailed as the most destructive force in history and as the greatest achievement of organized science, is dropped on Japan.
- After the death of President Roosevelt in April, Groves briefs President Harry S. Truman on the Manhattan Project.
- The first nuclear test detonation, code named Trinity, is conducted in central New Mexico on what is now the White Sands Missile Range – the first detonation has a yield of 19 kilotons.
- The first combat use of nuclear weapons occurs when the gun model uranium bomb “Little Boy” is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, and the implosion model plutonium bomb “Fat Man” is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
- Japan surrenders and World War II ends.
- The Cold War begins.
- As a result of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 1946, the newly formed and civilian-managed U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) takes over the nation’s atomic energy program; the Commission assigns the mission of nuclear weapons research, development, testing, production and storage to the AEC-directed Santa Fe Operations in Albuquerque, N.M.
- (Dec. 31). Responsibilities of MED are transferred to AEC.
- (Jan. 1). The newly created AEC takes formal control of America’s atomic program.
- (August). The MED is abolished.
- The Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb.
- Rocky Flats begins operations with Dow Chemical as the primary contractor.
- The vehicle fleet at the site grows from three sedans to 21 vehicles including “flat rack” trucks, pickups, passenger cars and a 1947 Ford station wagon converted to an ambulance.
- No personal cars are allowed on plant site. The one access road to the site is a dirt road and employees park outside the fence and are bused on site. Work at the site is a highly guarded secret. Protective force personnel are housed in a fire barn until quarters are built for them in June.
- Because the Power Plant has not yet been completed and there is concern about heating occupied buildings, a 1200-series locomotive is brought in and its steam power is used for temporary heat. Later, the plant is heated by gas or switched to oil.
- The average hourly wage of Dow workers at Rocky Flats is $2.31 per hour.
- Bomb component production begins at Rocky Flats.
- After permanent buildings are constructed on plant site, temporary administrative buildings are sold, one of which is used in construction of what is known as the Rocky Flats Lounge on Highway 93.
- (February). The first photo of the Rocky Flats Plant is published in the local press – it is an outside view of the administration Building 11.
- The Company and Union establish the first progression program; lab assistants and technicians are able progress through a testing procedure.
- AEC and Dow agree to a pension plan for both hourly and salary employees.
- The plant’s production is linked to the manufacture of atomic bombs; prior to this, Rocky Flats is referred to as an “atomic plant,” giving the implication of an energy-producing not a weapons components-producing facility.
- (August). The Credit Union is organized with 35 percent of the plant’s employment joining.
- The AEC announces further expansion of the plant by construction of new buildings (83, 76, 77 and 99) and additions to buildings (44, 81, 64 and 71).
- Dinner-dance events become a form of recognition for safe performance at Rocky Flats.
- Dow Chemical is honored by the National Safety Council for completing more than 3,000,000 hours of work without a disabling injury.
- Many construction, expansion and additions to the plant are completed – Building 99, Building 64, the evaporation pond on the east side of the plant, both exhaust stacks for Building 83 and additions to Building 47, Building 44 and Building 81.
- Many Rocky Flats employees scan the skies for jets and large planes as part of an air defense program called Operation Skywatch. Rocky Flats had been designated a ground observer post in 1956 and volunteer plant personnel were trained and served as observers until the program came to a close in early 1957.
- $21 million of expansions are completed, making the plant a $65 million facility comprised of 27 structures. This includes two new production buildings, 76 and 77.
- A fire occurs in a glovebox in a fabrication development line in Room 180 of plutonium processing Building 71. The accident results in contamination of the building and an estimated property loss of $818,600.
- The plant encounters its first reduction in work force. The drop of approximately 60 employees occurs primarily from a sudden readjustment of production loads within the AEC Complex.
- The Rocky Flats invention of a gamma spectrometer, an instrument to confirm the presence of plutonium in wounds, becomes public knowledge. Working together, Ed Putzier, John Mann and Val Johnson had developed the instrument; however, a patent wasn’t issued until 1963.
- An incinerator, used for burning plutonium-contaminated waste, is installed in Building 71. The incinerator is the only one of its kind in the country and perhaps in the world.
- It is discovered that waste drums are leaking radioactive waste onto an open field. The leakage isn’t admitted until 1970 when winds redistribute contaminated soil particles throughout the Denver metro area.
- At a time when Rocky Flats desperately needs engineers and draftsmen, there is a shortage. The Rocky Flats Apprenticeship Program is started with the training of toolmakers.
- Employment at Rocky Flats reaches 1,813.
- (October). Access to the plant from the east side is made possible.
- Security guards vote for representation by the International Guards Union of America.
- The average hourly pay rate for security guards and firefighters is $2.91.
- Large-scale leaking of waste oil drums is discovered at the 903 Pad where more than 3,500 drums containing machining lubricants and chlorinated solvents contaminated with plutonium are stored; it is also discovered that soil contaminated by the low-level leakage has been spread by the wind.
- Large-scale leaking of waste oil drums is discovered at the 903 Pad where more than 3,500 drums containing machining lubricants and chlorinated solvents contaminated with plutonium are stored; it is also discovered that soil contaminated by the low-level leakage has been spread by the wind.
- Black and white security badge photos are replaced by color photos.
- Buildings on plant site are assigned three-digit numbers.
- The Building 779A Plutonium Laboratory, the Building 750 Production Engineering Support Facility and enlarged cafeteria and the Building 559 Plutonium Analytical Lab begin operations.
- A major re in a Building 776/777 glovebox results in the costliest industrial accident in the U.S. at that time. Cleanup takes approximately two years and some 600 workers participate in cleanup efforts. As a result of the re and in an effort to prevent similar res from occurring, major new safety features are implemented – water sprinklers and more firewalls are installed and all plutonium work is to be conducted in an inert atmosphere.
- The 903 Pad is covered with gravel fill and coated with asphalt.
- The 18,000-square-foot Building 440 production control warehouse begins operations.
- Employment at the end of 1969 is 3,534.
- The “Life is Fragile – Handle with Care” safety program is kicked off.
- Contract negotiations with the United Steelworkers of America, Local 8031, lasts from March until September when an agreement is finally reached.
- Ground is broken on Building 371, a plutonium recovery and waste treatment facility.
- Due to a gasoline shortage, employees are asked to refrain from using government vehicles except for emergencies and the daily mail service runs are cut from four to two.
- A 3,700-square-foot, low-level radiation surveillance laboratory is completed as an addition to Building 123.
- Higher than normal plutonium levels on plant site in the topsoil southeast of the 903 Pad are found.
- Following their 1974 election to office, Governor Richard Lamm and Congressman Tim Wirth appoint a citizens’ task force (Lamm-Wirth Task Force) to prepare a report on the public and employee safety issues surrounding Rocky Flats.
- More than 4,500 acres of Buffer Zone are purchased for approximately $6 million.
- In recognition of superior performance in safety, environmental control, production and energy use reduction, Dow Rocky Flats employees are each paid cash rewards equivalent to 6.5 percent of their 1973 base pay.
- Rockwell International replaces Dow chemical as managing contractor.
- Area landowners sue Rocky Flats for property contamination.
- The change in contractor is preceded by the breakup of the Atomic Energy Commission, with the Weapons Complex facilities becoming the responsibility of the newly created Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA).
- Correspondence Control is initiated in order to have one central le on all incoming and outgoing correspondence referring to company matters.
- Rockwell begins a monthly public tours program.
- Rocky Flats is selected as a test and research center for Small Wind Energy Conversion Systems.
- A personal vehicle identification sticker system goes into effect.
- (October). ERDA becomes the Department of Energy.
- Negative public outcry egged on by a report by Dr. Carl Johnson, director of the Jefferson County Health Department, suggests that incidents of cancer are higher near Rocky Flats.
- Congressman Tim Wirth announces the initiation of a DOE study regarding future activities and possible relocation of Rocky Flats; Wirth and Colorado Governor Richard Lamm announce they will appoint 12 individuals to a “blue ribbon” committee to oversee the DOE study.
- The two-story, 3,000-square-foot Fluidized Bed Incinerator in Building 776 makes its first continuous 108- hour run after nine years of research and development.
- Employment at the site reaches 3,324.
- Construction is completed on Building 850, an administration building.
- Precision Forge in Oxnard, Calif., becomes a part of Rocky Flats.
- New coded vehicle permits to be displayed to security guards before a vehicle is allowed to enter plant site are issued.
- New east and west access control gates and guard stations are open.
- The plant switches from its 497-telephone pre x to 966- to accommodate the large volume of calls made from Rocky Flats daily.
- A plant wide smoking policy goes into effect establishing designated smoking areas.
- Employees begin receiving weekly paychecks – prior to that, they are paid every two weeks.
- The 229,000-square-foot B460, designed to consolidate all non-nuclear manufacturing at Rocky Flats into one facility, becomes operational.
- Real-Time Radiography, a sophisticated system for inspecting transuranic (TRU) waste is implemented. The new technology inspects waste packaged in drums or crates for shipment to the Nevada Test Site or the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory is used to characterize waste.
- Employees celebrate as they surpass a 22-year record for continuous safe work hours under the SENTRY Safety Program when they rake in 25,000,000 continuous safe hours.
- Rockwell earns the coveted IR-100 Award for the ferrite waste treatment process which significantly improves the method for removing actinide contamination from waste-water at Rocky Flats.
- The new Perimeter Intrusion Detection Assessment System (PIDAS) is installed, allowing the detection of any unauthorized passage through the Protected Area, then known as the PSZ.
- The plant is shut down Sept. 3-8 when Rockwell and DOE take cost- reduction actions.
- DOE, the Colorado Department of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency sign an agreement to allow regulation of radioactive/ hazardous waste at Rocky Flats.
- The Advanced Size Reduction Facility (ASRF) in Building 776 is completed.
- The site receives a National Safety Council Award of Honor for outstanding safety performance.
- A bomb threat incident results in a two-hour temporary closure of the plant.
- Construction continues with the completion of buildings 130 and 131 which includes a Visitor’s Center and warehouse space.
- Colorado Governor Roy Romer and Congressman David E. Skaggs establish the Rocky Flats Environmental Monitoring Council.
- Construction is completed on Building 115 which houses DOE personnel.
- The site mourns the death of J.D. Martinez, an electrician, who dies as the result of burns received Jan. 14 while performing electrical work in Building 371.
- (January 25). The Rocky Flats Environmental Monitoring Council is established.
- (March). It is disclosed for the first time that DOE is considering closing the plant as part of its plan called the “2010 Report.”
- A U.S. DOE safety appraisal of the plant is highly critical of safety procedures and recommends major changes.
- An Energy Department report on modernization of nuclear bomb facilities recommends phasing out plutonium operations at Rocky Flats over the next 20 years.
- Rockwell is fined by the EPA for leaks of cancer-causing PCBs from an electrical transformer.
- Design work begins on the Supercompactor and Repackaging Facility.
- The site discovers that the cemented waste form, pondcrete, has not cured properly and is seeping from its containers.
- The new Emergency Operations Center in Building 115 is put into operation, and Building 119 housing the Alarms & Surveillance and Communications Systems groups as well as the physical fitness facility for security inspectors, is officially opened.
- A boxcar loaded with TRU waste is returned to plant site following Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus’ refusal to allow further shipments of radioactive waste into his state.
- Chromic acid is released from Building 444 when a plating bath tank overflows due to an employee leaving a faucet running – the chromic acid winds up in the sanitary waste water treatment system.
- Certified detection dogs are brought on site as part of a new DOE policy to prevent the introduction of illegal drugs or explosives onto government property.
- (June 6). Some 80 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agents storm the plant site in search of evidence to support alleged criminal environmental violations, including violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery and Clean Water Acts. The agents enter the plant site armed with guns and a search warrant led in the U.S. District Court of Colorado. Agents remain on site until June 26.
- The first complex-wide, Five Year Plan establishes the year 2019 as the goal for completion of the cleanup of weapons production facilities across the U.S.
- The Energy Department announces an agreement to end Rockwell’s contract and EG&G is chosen to take over operations.
- Office space is prepared for Colorado Department of Health and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency personnel to work full time at the plant site.
- Plutonium production is suspended because of safety violations.
- The Personnel Access Control System (PACS) that includes a hand-geometry reader and log-in system becomes operational for access to the Perimeter Security Zone.
- Employment at the site reaches 5,243.
- A new dosimetry program is implemented that requires only radiation workers to wear dosimeters.
- At a special ceremony, the American ag originally scheduled to be own after resumption of operations, is raised in support of those serving in the Persian Gulf.
- An Interagency Agreement between DOE, the Colorado Department of Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is signed, outlining multi-year schedules for environmental restoration studies and remediation activities fully integrated with anticipated national Environmental Policy Act documentation requirements.
- As a result of an 18-month effort, the Complex Reconfiguration Study is officially released by DOE Headquarters. The study specifies several options that would create a Weapons Complex that is smaller, less diverse and less expensive to operate.
- Environmental assessment activities at the 881 Hillside and 903 Pad areas begin.
- A new hand geometry identification/verification system to enhance the plant’s security by tightening entry into the Protected Areas goes into full effect.
- More than 30 members of the local news media tour B559. This is the first time the news media have entered the plant’s Protected Area.
- Rocky Flats receives a permit issued by the Colorado Department of Health and required under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for treatment and storage of nine hazardous and low-level mixed waste sites. It is the first such permit issued in the country.
- Energy Secretary James Watkins proposes phasing out plutonium operations. Watkins announces transfer of non-nuclear production from the plant and says production of triggers for the W88 warhead is virtually the ‘only thing left for Rocky Flats to do.’
- Jefferson County begins organization of the Rocky Flats Local Impacts Initiative, a coalition of local and municipal governments, for the purpose of managing the economic impacts of proposed employee layoffs resulting from the change of mission at the plant.
- A U.S. District Court Judge denies an injunction requested by the Sierra Club that would have kept plutonium activities from resuming until certain mixed residue waste issues are settled.
- (July 1). The Beryllium Health Surveillance Program officially begins.
- DOE announces plans to move some production work from Rocky Flats to Kansas City.
- In his State of the Union address, President George H.W. Bush announces cancellation of submarine-based missiles, including the W88 produced at Rocky Flats.
- Energy Secretary Watkins announces elimination of 4,000 Rocky Flats jobs by 1996 with 4,500 workers to remain on site for a $1 billion cleanup.
- After more than two years of Grand Jury investigation, Rockwell pleads guilty to criminal violations and pays an $18.5 million fine. In the investigation of wrongdoing at Rocky Flats, it is confirmed that the charges of midnight burnings and experimentation with exotic chemicals are unfounded.
- (March 28). Several hundred employees, their families and members of the public turn out at a rally to show their support for Rocky Flats and appreciation for Rocky Flats workers. The rally is organized by two site maintenance persons and is held on the steps at the State Capitol.
- EG&G signs a five-year lease for 42,000 square feet of office space at Interlocken in Broomfield to house the Environmental Management Division.
- The Rocky Flats Plant Transition Plan is released outlining the process for moving the plant from weapons production to environmental restoration and cleanup.
- DOE reveals that 28 kg of plutonium are in exhaust ductwork in six plutonium buildings.
- Just seven months after Watkins’ announcement of pending reductions, 478 Rocky Flats employees leave plant site through an early retirement program.
- An Economic Development Office is established to examine future uses for the plant site.
- The Nevada Test Site grants approval for the resumption of low-level radioactive waste shipments from Building 559.
- The actual transition from DOE Headquarters Defense Programs to Environmental Restoration and Waste Management begins with the transfer of five buildings and their support facilities; mid-year, most of the remaining buildings are transferred to environmental management.
- (February 8). DOE releases its Five-year Plan for environmental restoration and waste management within the Nuclear Weapons Complex, including future use of the Rocky Flats Plant.
- (June). In anticipation of work force restructuring, a Career Assistance Center is established.
- DOE announces a one-year salary freeze for Fiscal Year 1993 for all salaried contract employees – this is preceded by EG&G’s Jan. 6 announcement of a general freeze on merit increases for that current year.
- The first shipment of uncontaminated enriched uranium is sent to the Oak Ridge Plant.
- DOE transfers landlord responsibilities at the Wind site to National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for use in wind energy research efforts. The Wind site had been used during the 70s and 80s as an energy research center and in recent years as a Wackenhut Services training center for the guard force.
- The Colorado Department of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency form a 29-member Citizens Advisory Board to provide advice on technical and policy decisions related to cleanup and waste management activities at Rocky Flats.
- (Mid-November). After nine months of intricate planning, the first shipment of plutonium pits is sent to Los Alamos in New Mexico. The shipment, consisting of 10 pits, is the first such shipment in four years.
- Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary announces an “Openness Initiative,” a comprehensive plan to make DOE facilities and information more open to the public.
- (December). At a news conference, an announcement is made of the nation’s first economic conversion project at a DOE facility – the announcement is made by Governor Romer’s office and DOE in cooperation with the CDH and the EPA. The pilot project at Rocky Flats would clean and transition buildings for use by a private, industrial manufacturer to recycle contaminated scrap metals.
- (February). Rocky Flats gains approval to resume low-level radioactive waste shipments to the Nevada Test Site for disposal, and the first shipment of waste since 1990 is sent.
- The Supercompactor and Repackaging Facility (SARF) in Building 776 begins full operations.
- Cleanup workers finish emptying 200,000 gallons of sludge from the solar evaporation ponds.
- A new name for the site – Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site – is chosen by a stakeholder panel to more accurately reflect the site’s environmental restoration and cleanup mission.
- Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary presents a check for $9 million to the site as part of the National Conversion Pilot Project (NCPP), a program designed to make available the unique skills of former defense workers and the technological resources of facilities for commercial ventures.
- An unprecedented collaborative agreement between Rocky Flats and the Los Alamos National Laboratory is signed. The agreement provides for development of unique technical approaches to environmental cleanup and restoration activities at the site.
- The final Rocky Flats Strategic Plan is submitted to DOE Headquarters – the plan is a collaborative site-wide effort with input from employees and stakeholders.
- Construction begins on a new site sanitary land fill in the Buffer Zone.
- Studies of the Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse that populates the Rocky Flats Buffer Zone becomes news as the tiny creature vies for a spot on the threatened or endangered species listings.
- Twelve Russians visit Rocky Flats as part of the reciprocal inspection program between the U.S. and Russia, and in November, a seven-member delegation from Kazakhstan visits Rocky Flats in an economic conversion information-sharing effort.
- The final shipment of approximately 235,000 pounds of depleted uranium is shipped off site for use at other DOE facilities.
- Construction is completed on the 25,000-square-foot Centralized Waste Storage Facility, Building 906.
- The last of the five Solar Ponds that make up Operable Unit 4 are emptied when sludge removal is completed days ahead of schedule.
- The Plutonium Working Group Report on Environmental, Safety and Health Vulnerabilities Associated with the Department’s Plutonium Storage,
- A 28-volume, 8,300-page report, is officially released. The report looked at plutonium environmental, safety and health vulnerability issues at DOE facilities complex-wide and listed Rocky Flats as having five of the 14 most vulnerable facilities – Building 771 (No. 1), Building 776 (No. 2), Building 779 (No. 7); Building 707 (No. 8), and Building 371 (No. 9).
- At the Rocky Flats Summit (a meeting of community activists, regulators, state officials and Rocky Flats staff and oversight group members), the slogan, “Make it safe. Clean it up.” is suggested.
- Twenty-one drums of contaminated soil from the 881 Hillside are shipped to Envirocare of Utah. This marks the first time in five years that mixed waste from the site is shipped off-site for disposal and is the first time Rocky Flats ships radioactive waste of any type to a commercial facility.
- (April). An announcement is made of the award of the Rocky Flats Performance-Based Integrating Management contract to Kaiser-Hill Company effective July 1.
- Kaiser-Hill offers a proposal to DOE to release 4,100 acres of the site’s Buffer Zone for general public access.
- Seventy-five pallets of protective clothing and safety equipment are donated as part of a Denver-area relief shipment to assist rescue workers at the site of the bombing of the Oklahoma City, Okla., Federal Center building.
- (July 1). The largest layoff in the history of Rocky Flats occurs when 1,226 employees leave the site and Kaiser-Hill takes over the facility.
- Kaiser-Hill and DOE kick off an interim end state, a project calling for an aggressive approach to consolidation of material, stabilization and cleanup of the site, actively involving stakeholders throughout the process. The project outlining the path the site will take to closure takes on a new name – Accelerated Site Action Project (ASAP).
- A new automated system for employees entering the site is put in place. The automated system requires each employee to have a key tag to authorize access to the site.
- Workers complete venting of 2,696 solid residue drums nine months ahead of schedule. The residue drums are vented to prevent pressurization and flammable gas accumulation and as a worker safety precaution.
- As part of the DOE’s Economic Conversion Plan, DOE sells the Oxnard Facility in California. For more than 10 years, the metal-working and welding facility had produced high-precision forgings from stainless steel and other used metals to support Rocky Flats’ manufacturing processes.
- In a push to consolidate all operations to the site, five off-site leases are terminated – Boulder, Building 030; Denver West, Building 051; McIntyre, buildings 013, 014 and 015.
- Rocky Flats is the first Department of Energy site in the Complex to receive and operate prototype equipment for a Plutonium Stabilization and Packaging system (PuSPS).
- Kaiser-Hill signs a Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) Agreement with the United Steelworkers of America, Local 8031, providing the classifications and other terms and for the Steelworkers to perform cleanup activities in addition to production and maintenance work.
- U.S. DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, Alvin L. Alm, issues a memorandum directing all EM sites, including Rocky Flats, to develop draft 10-year plans to serve as the unifying DOE EM Program direction which would drive future budget decisions, sequencing of projects and actions taken to meet EM Program objectives. And Rocky Flats develops a draft plan to ensure consistency with the final RFCA and the site’s own cleanup plan known as the ASAP.
- The final Rocky Flats Cleanup Agreement (RFCA) and the Rocky Flats Vision are signed in Governor Roy Romer’s office at the State Capitol in Denver. The RFCA is the result of more than two years of negotiations among the U.S. Department of Energy, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the lieutenant governor and describes the process to be followed to accomplish the vision and defines the legal relationship between the agencies that regulate the site.
- Two fuel oil tanks that once held more than 2.3 million gallons of fuel oil on site, are demolished. The tanks, constructed in the mid-50s store No. 6 fuel oil that was initially used as the fuel source for generating steam at the site steam plant. Later, the oil was retained as a backup fuel source.
- The walls come down on Building 889. A former uranium and beryllium waste repackaging facility, it is the first radioactively contaminated structure at Rocky Flats to be demolished.
- Work is completed on the removal of contaminated soils from a small area of ground at Trenches 3 and 4, two of the top 10 hazardous substance sites and used in the past primarily for the disposal of radioactively contaminated sanitary sewage sludge.
- DOE Rocky Flats Field Office Manager Jessie Roberson and Kaiser- Hill President Bob Card sign the first ever Authorization Agreement under ‘work-smart’ standard in a Hazard Category II facility.
- Removal of raschig rings in Building 886 is completed when 120,000, or 20 tons, of rings are “hand-scooped” from 110 drums and sent to the Nevada Test Site for disposal.
- Congressman David Skaggs announces increased funding of $632.1 million to expedite the work of moving plutonium off site and taking the buildings down. With this approach, it is hoped the cleanup can be completed in 2006 rather than 2010.
- Secretary of Energy Federico Pena announces that Rocky Flats will be the first large-scale accelerated closure pilot project for the DOE’s Weapons Complex.
- Workers complete the treatment of more than 700 cubic yards of chemically contaminated soils from a former waste drum storage site known as the Mound.
- Automated access to the Protected Area through PACS 1, 2 and 3 is implemented, requiring personnel to enroll in the automated system before entry is permitted into the Protected Area.
- The final shipment of saltcrete, a cemented processed waste salt containing small amounts of radioactive and hazardous contamination, is shipped to Envirocare of Utah.
- A unique 62-ton steel vault of state-of-the-art radiation counting equipment in Building 123 is donated and moved to a biophysics facility in the Russian Ural Mountains. The vault is unique because of its 6-inch steel walls, ceiling and floor that are manufactured from pre-World War II steel, which is free of contamination from fallout and modern steel smelting processes and with liners of lead, tin and zinc that filter out natural radioactive sources and cosmic radiation.
- (January). The site is formally added to the National Register of Historic Places.
- At a meeting between Energy Secretary Federico Pena, Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Jim Owendoff, and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Site Operations Gene Schmitt, the new name “Accelerating Cleanup: Paths to Closure” is announced. Names previously used were 2006 Plan and the Ten-Year Plan.
- A wrecking crew begins bulldozing the 19,000-square-foot Building 123. The building was one of the original buildings constructed at Rocky Flats and was a former medical research facility.
- The site receives its much-awaited certification from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Area Office, granting Rocky Flats authority to prepare radioactive transuranic waste for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and to use the TRUPACT-II container for shipments. Rocky Flats had been preparing for the WIPP certification process since October 1995.
- Workers safely process the last high-level plutonium solutions, assaying the resulting oxide and placing it in storage. A total of 4,200 liters of plutonium solutions, including 780 liters of high-level solutions, are processed using a caustic waste treatment system which precipitates the plutonium from the liquid using potassium hydroxide.
- An estimated 2,800 site employees and their guests attend Family Day activities. It is the first time a Family Day has been held since 1978.
- Workers complete excavation of Trench 1, a former depleted uranium waste burial site and the largest and most complex environmental cleanup project to date at Rocky Flats.
- Rocky Flats becomes the first major DOE site to complete Y2K renovation and implementation of mission- essential systems, two months ahead of schedule.
- Workers complete removal of a 90-foot high exhaust stack from the Building 779 cluster, the first plutonium building complex to undergo decontamination and demolition at the site.
- As workers excavate a trench to keep contaminated water from flowing into Rock Creek, a backhoe dredges up fossils identified by the Denver Museum of Natural History to be a 1.2 million-year-old horse.
- Workers meet another major milestone in their plan for accelerated closure of the site by making the last shipment of “pondcrete.” In all, 9,225 cubic meters of pondcrete (the equivalent of 43,000 55-gallon drums) are safely shipped to Envirocare, a licensed disposal facility in Utah, for treatment and disposal.
- Seven municipalities that surround Rocky Flats form the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments (RFCLoG) to give local governments greater leverage over the federal cleanup of Rocky Flats.
- Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson visits Rocky Flats to announce creation of the Rock Creek Reserve, an 800- acre parcel of land in the northwest part of the site’s Buffer Zone, that will be turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
- Kaiser-Hill delivers the 2006 Closure Project Baseline to DOE. The Baseline maps out the site’s next six years – the scope, cost and schedule of activities that will result in the safe closure of Rocky Flats four years ahead of the 2010 closure date.
- The site Safety Analysis Report (SAR) Authorization Agreement governing the many complex activities that must take place to safely close the site is signed.
- Rocky Flats becomes the third U.S. DOE site to ship transuranic radioactive waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The first shipment contained 26 drums of non- mixed transuranic waste (clothing, rags, residues and debris) in three TRUPACT-II shipping containers.
- Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson announces that all plutonium pits, the primary component for the nation’s nuclear weapons historically provided by Rocky Flats, have been removed from the site and safely shipped.
- Secretary Richardson reaffirms a deadline of 2006 for closing the site and signs an agreement formalizing the date when he meets in Denver with Governor Bill Owens and governors of Washington, South Carolina and Tennessee.
- (November 1). Energy Secretary Richardson is on hand to mark the demolition of Building 779, the first-ever demolition of a major plutonium facility anywhere in the United States.
- Employment for the Kaiser-Hill Team at the end of 1999 is 3,114.
- The Rocky Flats United Steelworkers of America, Local 8031, and Kaiser-Hill sign an unprecedented agreement making the Steelworkers the “workforce of choice” through site closure in 2006.
- A new process called cerium rinse is piloted in the 371/374 Project. The process uses Cerium IV, a powerful oxidizer, and nitric acid to remove radioactive contamination from stainless steel surfaces.
- The first can of unclassified plutonium metals is processed successfully, capping several years of design, installation and operational obstacles. The Plutonium Stabilization and Packaging System (PuSPS) will be used to package an estimated 1,500 cans of plutonium metals and oxides for interim storage at the Savannah River Site.
- A state-of-the-art crate counter is delivered to its new home on a pad outside Building 664. The 72-ton, mobile, passive-active crate counter will be used to characterize both low-level and TRU waste and is part of an ongoing effort to increase characterization capability to maximize waste shipments.
- The Rocky Flats Foundation conducts a fund drive to help the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. More than $52,000 is raised through employee contributions and corporation donations.
- Demolition of PACS 1 takes place. That demolition, along with the demolition of PACS 3 and the removal of thousands of feet of razor wire-topped fencing, radically changes the way employees and material are moved around the 700 Complex. All plutonium is consolidated into Building 371 to allow for the Protected Area to shrink around the 371 Complex, opening 150 acres for uncleared access.
- Three 45-foot-tall guard towers that once marked the boundary corners of the Perimeter Security Zone are demolished with explosives.
- (December 17). Senator Wayne Allard and Representative Mark Udall hold a press conference announcing the passage of legislation to turn Rocky Flats into a wildlife refuge following the completion of the Rocky Flats Closure Project.
- The site’s Central Computer Facility and Network Operations Center is relocated from Rocky Flats to the Denver Federal Center to make way for D&D work at the site.
- Vehicle search stations are in operation on the east and west sides of the site. Searching vehicles becomes a common occurrence since the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
- To help streamline building D&D on the south side of the site and reduce landlord costs, Kaiser-Hill moves about 400 employees off site to an office building near Interlocken Business Park, a 95,000-square-foot building in Mountain View Corporate Center.
- In a unique media opportunity, a worker with a small camera mounted inside his protective clothing makes an entry into a highly contaminated “infinity” room to begin performing decontamination work in Building 771.
- Building 850 is successfully demolished. The nearly 40,000-square-foot, two-story structure formerly used as a finance and administration building, is leveled in a matter of days.
- The 776/777 Project begins removal of the Supercompactor and Repackaging Facility (SARF). The 15-ft. tall SARF is the first glovebox designed to compact TRU waste drums and weighing 90,000 pounds is the heaviest and one of the largest pieces of equipment in Building 776.
- Workers set a new record for radioactive waste shipments, safely shipping off site more than 158,000 55-gallon drum equivalents during Fiscal Year 2002. For the third year in a row, Rocky Flats is the top shipper of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., and for the fourth consecutive year ships more low-level waste to the Nevada Test Site than any other DOE site.
- The Building 452 seven-trailer complex is demolished and removed, clearing another wide section of Area 1 along Central Avenue.
- The site celebrates 50 years in operation when DOE and Kaiser-Hill hosts Family Day 2002, a special event to recognize the contributions of Rocky Flats workers during the past 50 years. Approximately 3,300 people attend the event.
- Tents are erected on the 903 Pad to prevent outside contamination during removal of radioactive contaminants from under the pad. The tents will be moved more than 20 times to remove the asphalt pad and any contamination underneath.
- The last of 240 gloveboxes in Building 771, once called the “most dangerous building in America,” are safely removed and packaged by workers for off-site shipment and disposal.
- (March). For three days, all but essential personnel are told not to report to work, when blizzard-like conditions dump anywhere from 2-to- 6 feet of snow along the Front Range. The site is blanketed with nearly 48 inches of snow during the course of the storm – the largest snow storm in Rocky Flats’ history.
- Modifications to the Rocky Flats Cleanup Agreement – under which the Department of Energy will clean up the site to significantly higher levels in exchange for leaving most subsurface contamination in place – are agreed to by the EPA and the CDPHE on June 5. The agencies had been working on the changes for more than two years, finally agreeing on a proposal that would lower the residual soil action level for plutonium to 50 picocuries per gram – more than 13 times lower than the current action level of 651 picocuries – down to 3 feet. However, contamination below 3 feet would be left in place unless it posed a reasonable chance of migrating to the surface or into the groundwater.
- The Building 371 “ring crew” finishes removing the last of more than 600,000 pounds of contaminated raschig rings from 75 tanks in 371. The crew completes the two-year, high-hazard assignment with no injuries or personnel contaminations. Raschig rings are small, glass rings that contain borosilicate, a material that absorbs neutrons. Rings are placed in tanks and other vessels to prevent a nuclear criticality when actinide liquids are introduced. Building 371 contained the largest raschig ring tanks on site, some measuring 7-feet in diameter by 19-feet high.
- (July 1). The 1,000th shipment of transuranic waste safely arrives at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. It is the 1,821st shipment to arrive at WIPP. The shipment contained 11.4 cubic meters of waste in three TRUPACT-II shipping containers, bringing the total number of cubic meters disposed of at WIPP to 13,097.
- (July). The last bits of weapons-grade plutonium are packaged in DOE 3013 cans for shipment to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
- Building 371’s Material Access Area is closed enabling the official closure of the Protected Area around the 371 complex.
- Ambassador Linton Brooks, DOE undersecretary of the National Nuclear Security Agency, announces to an audience of 200 employees and special guests, that all weapon-usable material is officially off site.
- Rocky Flats transitions to a demolition zone as D&D becomes the site’s primary mission.
- The museum receives a Colorado Historical Society grant of about $37,000 to do 75 oral histories of workers, retirees, activists, government officials and political leaders about the "built environment" and activities at Rocky Flats. Ninety interviews are completed A collaboration with the Maria Rogers Oral History Program of the Boulder Public Library, all of which are transcribed for the Maria Rogers website for broad public access. Maria Rogers staff adds these oral history transcripts with sound to their website which is “word searchable.”
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announces that the proposed Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge will be eventually opened for public recreation.
- With the demolition of Building 371, Kaiser-Hill announces it has completed the cleanup of Rocky Flats (the “Closure Project”) more than 14 months ahead of schedule.
- The Rocky Flats Stewardship Council (RFSC) is formed to provide ongoing local government and community oversight of the post-closure management of the Rocky Flats site.
- EPA certifies the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant site clean-up is complete and the Rocky Flats buffer zone—the Peripheral Operating Unit (POU)--and off-site lands are officially deleted from the Superfund list.
- The first transfer of Rocky Flats land takes place with over 4,933 acres (7.7 square miles) handed to the Department of the Interior for management by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge (RFNWR).
- The first National Day of Remembrance hosted by the Cold War Patriots takes place at the Rocky Flats Cold War Museum.
- After decades of collecting air samples both on‐site and off‐site, air monitoring has been discontinued by all the Department of Energy (DOE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE). The amounts measured at the sampling stations are well below national and state standards.
- The U.S. Senate passes a resolution designating October 30 as the annual National Day of Remembrance, a day that honors nuclear weapons workers and uranium miners who have served their country since the Manhattan Project in 1942.
- The master development plan for the Candelas housing development immediately south of the original plant site is approved by the Arvada City Council providing for approximately 6.9 million square feet of retail, commercial and medical facilities, 350,000 square feet of industrial employment facilities, 1,456 single family residential homes and 3,185 attached and multi-family residential homes.
- U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the State of Colorado and local municipalities close on a land exchange that will allow approximately 640 acres in Section 16 of important wildlife habitat to be added to the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, increasing the refuge’s size by nearly one-third and connecting it with the region’s open space and trail system.
- The flood of 2013 takes place with Boulder County receiving over 9 inches recorded September 12 and up to 17 inches recorded by September 15. Governor John Hickenlooper declares a disaster emergency as DOE automatic water samplers on the eastern edge of the Rocky Flats site are unable to handle the volume of runoff through Walnut and Woman Creeks. Flow monitors are overwhelmed resulting in no data being available to determine the amount of water that left the site.
- CTL Thompson, a Denver-based soil-engineering firm, is hired to test for radiation exposures from the storm on the Candelas development site and concludes that “based on the information presented in the DOE Corrective Action Decision/ Record Decision for OU3, we concluded that residential development of the [Candelas] site is an appropriate land use. Our readings of radioactive decay at Candelas Filing 3 also indicate that radioactive activity appears to be at background levels. We do not believe further action is needed with regard to this issue.”
- The Rocky Flats Museum Board of Directors votes on an agreement with the U.S. (DOE-LM) Department of Energy, Legacy Management at Rocky Flats, to give DOE key artifacts that will be placed in a proposed visitor contact center to be built by the end of 2017 at the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.
- The Manhattan Project National Historical Park is established as a joint effort by the park service and the U.S. Department of Energy. Besides the Hanford Site it includes Oak Ridge, Tenn. (where the enriched uranium that fueled the Hiroshima bomb was produced), and Los Alamos, N.M. (where bombs and components were designed and assembled).
- In Cook v. Rockwell International Corporation, thousands of homeowners reach a $375 million settlement over their claims that plutonium releases from Rocky Flats damaged their health and devalued their property. The companies said Rockwell's share was $244 million and Dow's was $131 million.
Perhaps today was the most exciting and thrilling day I have experienced. Our microchemists isolated pure element 94 (plutonium) for the first time...It is the first time that element 94 has been beheld by the eye of man.
Glenn Seaborg, Metallurgical Laboratory, University of Chicago (August, 20, 1942)