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Author Topic: Rockwell International  (Read 1103 times)

Offline Shasta56

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Rockwell International
« on: August 23, 2014, 08:03:59 pm »
For some reason, Rockwell International has been on my mind today and tonight.  Especially as it regards Rocky Flats and the FBI/EPA raid that spelled the death knell for the plant.

When Rockwell was the plant operator, the company had a guaranteed profit.  It didn't matter if the operation as a whole, was losing money, Rockwell got its profit.  I have no doubt, personally, that the raid was a setup not so much to address safety issues, as to get Rockwell and its red ink out of the picture.  For whatever reason, that's all just bugging me tonight.  Any thoughts?

Shasta
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Re: Rockwell International
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2014, 08:57:27 pm »


Shasta had to go look it up cause I had no knowledge of it

maybe this will help.. maybe you have a people connection to it.check the date



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/03/rocky-flats-dow-chemical_n_104974.html

Rocky Flats: Dow Chemical And Rockwell International Billed $925M For Contamination At Nuclear Site
 

AP   
 

 Posted:  06/11/2008 5:12 am EDT    Updated:  05/25/2011 12:35 pm EDT   


DENVER — Two companies that were contractors at the now-defunct Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant have been ordered to pay $925 million to residents who claimed contamination blown from the facility endangered people's health and devalued their property.

Dow Chemical Co. on Tuesday denied wrongdoing and said it will appeal. The other contractor, Rockwell International Corp., has in part been purchased by Boeing Co., which said it had no liability for the site.

A federal judge on Monday ordered Dow to pay $653 million and Rockwell $508 million in compensatory damages, but capped the amount to be collected at $725 million. Dow and Rockwell also were ordered to pay exemplary damages of $111 million and $89 million, respectively.







The lawsuit, filed by a group of homeowners, affects up to 13,000 people who owned land near the former plant when it shut down in 1989 because of safety violations. The lawsuit claimed the companies intentionally mishandled radioactive waste and then tried to cover it up.

Judge John L. Kane stayed his judgment pending the appeals. Boeing is responsible for Rockwell's portion of the judgment, according to Kane's order.

Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said Rockwell retained responsibility for any Rocky Flats claims when Boeing obtained its defense and space businesses in 1996.

Dow spokesman Chris Huntley said the company operated the site "in a manner that was safe and consistent with the standards applicable at that time.

"We didn't do anything that was wrong," Huntley said.

Both companies' spokesmen said the Department of Energy had agreed to be responsible for any settlements or judgment costs.

DOE spokesman Andy Beck said the agency's legal department has not had a chance to review Kane's order.

The trial in the case ended in Feburary 2006. The federal jury decided the two contractors damaged land around the plant through negligence that exposed thousands of property owners to plutonium and increased their risk of health problems.

Dow Chemical operated Rocky Flats for the Department of Energy from the 1950s until 1975. Rockwell ran it from 1975 until 1989, when the plant closed. The plant made plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads.

Violations documented by state and federal officials included the outdoor storing of barrels of waste oil and solvents contaminated with plutonium. State health officials have said some of those barrels leaked and contaminated the surrounding soil, which later blew downwind.

The federal government has since spent $7 billion to clean up the site and turn it into a wildlife refuge.
 
   

More:
Nuclear Contamination,   Nuclear Cleanup,   Rocky Flats,   Dow Chemical Co.,   Rockwell International Corp.   
Suggest a correction
 
...................................................

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25174934/rocky-flats-workers-no-longer-must-prove-cancers

Health

Rocky Flats workers no longer must prove cancers are work-related

By Electa Draper
The Denver Post
Posted:   02/18/2014 07:03:45 PM MST5 Comments | Updated:   6 months ago (what?)

Former workers at Golden's Rocky Flats Plant, which manufactured plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons, no longer have to reconstruct their own personal histories of radiation exposure in order to receive medical compensation.

It is now presumed that, if they worked at the Cold War machine shop or other designated nuclear weapons sites for at least 250 days between April 1, 1952, and Dec. 31, 1983, their cancers — if one of 22 specified by the government — are work-related.

Covered diseases include multiple myeloma and cancers of the brain, breast, colon, thyroid and liver, among others, if onset was at least five years after first exposure.

"This is very good news, but I'm also very frustrated it's taken this many years for the government to do what was always blatantly obvious," said former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez of Arvada, who advocated for workers. "I fear some people aren't around to finally receive their benefits."

After years of petitioning, Rocky Flats workers were made part of a Special Exposure Cohort on Jan. 11 by designation of the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

They are now eligible for a less-cumbersome claims process under federal law. The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 provides medical benefits to Department of Energy nuclear weapons workers or their survivors. They could also receive $150,000 in compensation in addition to coverage of medical expenses.

The U.S. Department of Labor will host two town hall meetings Wednesday and two Thursday to introduce workers and their families to their new status.

Terrie Barrie, spokeswoman for the Alliance of Nuclear Workers Advocacy Groups, said the new cohort status should help at least 300 people who have cancer, but that the final number is difficult to estimate.

Former Rocky Flats workers have filed about 6,000 claims, but two-thirds have been denied, Barrie said. To date, 2,347 Rocky Flats claimants have received a total of $304 million, the U.S. Department of Labor reports.


Rocky Flats museum
Gene McCracken exhibits a box that was used for training employees who handled plutonium at the former Rocky Flats site on July 10, 2013, in Arvada, Colorado. The box is now a part of the Rocky Flats Cold War Museum at the Jehn Center in Olde Town Arvada. McCracken worked at the nuclear production facility for 30 years. (Anya Semenoff, The Denver Post)

Federal authorities have rejected earlier attempts to include the majority of Rocky Flats workers in the cohort. Barrie, co-petitioner in the most recent attempt, said the decision does nothing to help her husband, former Rocky Flats worker George Barrie, because he doesn't have cancer.

"We're glad of that. We're thankful for every day," she said.

George Barrie was 27 when he started at the plant in 1982. He worked there until he quit in 1989, the same year a joint raid by the FBI and Environmental Protection Agency shut down operations at Rocky Flats so they could collect evidence of violation of federal laws.

"It was a mess out there," Barrie said. "None of the workers could talk about it. They were lied to. They were told it was safe."

She said her husband ingested plutonium and americium at the plant. An alarm failed to alert him to a leaking gasket in his glove box, a sealed container designed to allow one to manipulate hazardous material without contact. He was in the break room, she said, when they tracked him down because radiation monitors had detected contamination.

When he attempted to claim workers' compensation in 1995, she said, "we were blown away" by lawyers representing the plant.

George, now 58, has suffered many chronic illnesses since the mid-1980s, including chronic atrophic gastritis, fibromyalgia, arthritis, degenerative bone diseases and joint pain.

"These guys, in a very real sense, are among the bravest of our Cold War warriors," Beauprez said. "They are heroes. They deserve heroes' accolades. The deterrent (of U.S. nuclear capabilities) helped break the back of the Soviet Union."

Electa Draper: 303-954-1276, edraper@denverpost.com or twitter.com/electadraper

Town hall meetings

The U.S. Department of Labor is hosting four town hall meetings, 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Wednesday and at the same times Thursday to provide information on the claims process, to answer questions and receive comments. The meetings will be held at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 68, 5660 Logan St. in Denver.

For additional information about the meetings, or to schedule an appointment for help filing a claim, contact the department's Denver Resource Center toll-free at 866-540-4977. These events are open to the public. Registration is not required.




Key dates in the history of Rocky Flats


It is presumed that employees who worked at Rocky Flats or other designated nuclear sites for at least 250 days between April 1, 1952, and Dec. 31, 1983, and have one of 22 specified cancers, have work-related illnesses.

it continues at the link

Offline rdunk

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Re: Rockwell International
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2014, 09:08:44 pm »
Here is a New York Times piece fron 1989 -Rockwell Is Giving Up Management of Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant

Sounds like Rockwell was getting out while the getting out was good!. But, articles you have posted indicate that somehow, the government must have retained Rockwell to continue some sort of oversight/work, if not management. Usually, if Rockwell was not responsible for management after this time, then they likely are not liable for the potential suits - this was government specified work anyway, wasn't it?

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/23/us/rockwell-is-giving-up-rocky-flats-plant.html

Offline rdunk

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Re: Rockwell International
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2014, 09:17:37 pm »
AND..........................................

Colorado Rocky Flats Workers Get Benefit Details
February 20, 2014 11:23 AM

CBS DENVER (AP) – Federal officials met with hundreds of former employees of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility to outline the medical help they could receive under new rules.

The federal government has removed a number of bureaucratic hurdles for medical compensation for former workers exposed to radiation.

The meetings were held Wednesday and Thursday.

‘A lot of people have had their lives ruined,” Jerry Harden, 71, said during a meeting Wednesday, the Denver Post reported. “They deserve compensation.”

Harden, a former radiation safety expert at Rocky Flats, held a sign with red letters that read: “Justice for Rocky Flats.”

Under new rules announced last month, workers no longer have to reconstruct their personal histories of radiation exposure to qualify for medical expenses and a one-time benefit of $150,000.

More: http://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/02/20/colorado-rocky-flats-workers-get-benefit-details/

Offline Shasta56

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Re: Rockwell International
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2014, 07:52:59 pm »
Jerry Hardin was very active in the union, and understood what was happening.   

The DOL has had to pay out a lot of money to former nuclear workers and uranium miners under the EEOICP.  Unfortunately, these workers are not dying off quickly enough to suit the DOL.

Shasta
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