I Have Beheld The Horror Of Infinity

And it is in Colorado, near Denver.

I happy to state for the record that Rocky Flats (AKA The Rocky Mountain Arsenal), now known as the Rock Flats National Wildlife Refuge, no longer exists.  Thinking about Rocky Flats causes an involuntary bit of shuddering in most environmental health & safety folks.  I indirectly credit my present safety career to a pamphlet the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition sent me back in the 10th grade when I wrote to them requesting information about toxic waste.  The pamphlet was a somewhat inflammatory piece about the infamous Basin F, once described without exaggeration as "The Most Toxic Square Mile On Earth".

The Rocky Flats started as an Army chemical weapons plant in 1942.  Parts of its land were then leased to private industry, primarily Shell Chemical, who used to for pesticide and herbicide research and production until 1982.  Basin F is their, and DOD and DOE's, fault...

This is not an auspicious beginning in a story of pollution. 

Especially because that's not what I want to talk about.  I promise you people stories of radioactive horror and I have one.  I want to tell you about Room 171 in Building 771.

( The Saga Of The Infinity Room )