One of the most significant contamination events in Rocky Flats history did not begin with a fire or explosion. It began with drums of plutonium-contaminated waste oil stored outdoors. A 1996 study published in Health Physics reconstructed the release of plutonium from an area of the Rocky Flats Plant known as the 903 Pad. The research was conducted as part of a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment effort to reconstruct historical contaminant releases and esti

A 9NEWS report highlighted an important finding from the final years of the Rocky Flats cleanup: independent verification identified areas of plutonium contamination that remained above the cleanup action level even after remediation work had been completed. The issue centered on the 903 Pad and 903 Lip area, one of the most contaminated parts of the former Rocky Flats Plant. According to a 2006 Government Accountability Office review, ground-based scanning found five areas a