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Public Distrust and Hazard Management Success at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant
Author(s) -
Hohenemser Christoph
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1987.tb00985.x
Subject(s) - distrust , governor , hazard , nuclear weapon , commission , engineering , forensic engineering , environmental planning , public administration , political science , law , environmental science , aerospace engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry
Based on experience gained while serving a public oversight commission appointed by the governor of Colorado, hazard management at the Department of Energy's Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant is reviewed. Specific reference is made to the plant's history of controversy, its defense‐in‐depth strategy of hazard control, occupational health issues, public exposure to plutonium, and the assessment of low‐probability, high‐consequence risks. This leads to the conclusion that Rocky Flats is, by any objective standard, a hazard management success. It follows that public distrust of Rocky Flats arises as much from fear and loathing of nuclear weapons themselves as from the manufacturing process by which they are made.