Word: plutonium
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...fuel rods for nuclear reactors, had been driving to meet a New York Times reporter. She hoped to document her charges that officials at the installation, owned by the Kerr-McGee Corp., had continually and carelessly exposed their employees to one of the world's most dangerous metals: plutonium. But after the car was towed from the ditch, the papers could not be found...
...ugly symbol of an industry seeking profits while endangering its employees and nearby communities. Last week, for the first time, the case moved into a public courtroom. Silkwood's family is seeking $11.5 million in damages from Kerr-McGee for exposing her to dangerous levels of plutonium. Its other aim, as its lawyer put it, is "to stop this conduct by that industry forever...
Instead, the trial will center on a fact not in dispute: that Silkwood had been exposed to enough plutonium to make her fear that she might be dying. The courtroom clash will come over just how that contamination occurred and whether it meant that the plant was negligent in handling the potent metal, which is used in atomic weapons. Plutonium is considered some 20,000 times more deadly than the venom from a cobra if ingested, and even minute quantities can cause cancer years later. As testimony opened in a federal court in Oklahoma City last week, Dr. John Gofman...
...supporters allege she was carrying documents detailing violations of worker safety standards and the production of faulty plutonium rods at the time of her death...
Also in the works is a major expansion of the breeder reactor program, which has been stalled in the U.S. because of questions about reactor safety and concern over the breeder's role in the production-and proliferation-of plutonium, a highly toxic substance that can be used in weapons. The Soviets have a breeder reactor, which is used both to generate electricity and to desalinate water, on line at the Caspian Sea port of Shevchenko. They have a 600,000-kw breeder under construction near Beloyarsk in the Urals. They plan to build even more of these reactors...