On Mother’s Day 1969, plutonium caught fire inside Rocky Flats Buildings 776/777. Firefighters battled the blaze for hours as portions of the filtration system were damaged and plutonium escaped. The accident became a turning point—bringing questions about contamination from the secretive nuclear weapons plant into public view.

On September 11, 1957, a plutonium fire at Rocky Flats spread into the building's filtration system, allowing radioactive material to escape into the atmosphere. Decades later, Colorado researchers reconstructed the accident and mapped how airborne plutonium may have traveled across surrounding communities.

Mental health professionals practicing in Arvada, Broomfield, Westminster, Superior, Boulder and other communities near Rocky Flats may encounter clients whose emotional well-being has been affected by the history of the former nuclear weapons plant. Some clients may have lived, worked or attended school near Rocky Flats. Others may be former workers, family members of workers, current residents or people who learned about the site only after receiving a serious medical diagn

Thousands of property owners near Rocky Flats spent more than 26 years pursuing claims over plutonium contamination, nuisance, and diminished property values. Cook v. Rockwell ultimately produced a $375 million settlement—but it did not address residents’ personal health claims.

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

A 1995 study published in the Journal of Environmental Quality examined how uranium was distributed in soils east of the Rocky Flats Plant and what those patterns could reveal about contamination from plant operations. The study, conducted by researcher M. Iggy Litaor, began with a clear finding: soils east of Rocky Flats had been contaminated with uranium through past waste-storage practices, accidental releases of uranium-laden oils, and low-level airborne emissions from th