Word: silkwood
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Dates: during 1975-1975
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Though Kerr-McGee installed safeguards to protect its employees from the hazards of plutonium, Silkwood was critical of the plant's health and safety procedures. Last September, in testimony before the AEC, she complained about unsafe working conditions. In early November, she became living proof of those dangers. On two consecutive days, as Silkwood was leaving work, sensitive plant monitors detected that she was slightly contaminated by radioactivity. She was promptly scrubbed clean. Later, she brought in urine and fecal samples; they proved to be radioactive. On a third day, the monitors clicked when she entered the plant...
...while, Silkwood continued to report to the union on safety problems in the plant, claiming definite instances of company sloppiness. At the time of her death, in fact, she was on her way to a meeting with a union official and a New York Times reporter to document her charges...
...Accident. Union officials were suspicious about her fatal car crash; they called in an independent accident investigator, A.O. Pipkin of Dallas. After inspecting the skid marks and finding a telltale dent in one of the Honda's rear fenders, he concluded that a second car had forced Silkwood's auto off the road-thus implying that Silkwood might have been murdered. But the Oklahoma state highway patrol cited an autopsy showing that her blood contained traces of alcohol and methaqualone, which a doctor had prescribed as a sedative. To the police, it seemed evident that she had dozed...
...most startling finding by the AEC was that Silkwood's contamination "probably did not result from an accident or incident within the plant." There were plutonium traces on her skin though no accidental release had occurred in the plant. In addition, tests showed that Silkwood had "ingested" plutonium. Furthermore, two urine samples were proved to have been contaminated after they had been excreted; this showed that the samples had been doctored by someone. The evidence thus suggests that Silkwood had purposely contaminated herself and had probably smuggled a minute amount of plutonium home from the plant. Why? Perhaps...
...workers from plutonium. The union has nonetheless been overzealous in its allegations of carelessness by the company. And both the AEC and its private contractors need to exercise increased vigilance in guarding the plutonium against theft or misuse by unstable or conspiratorial employees. As for the cause of Silkwood's death, that remains as mysterious as ever...