| Transcript |
Vol. 1, No. 5
MAY 1976
Silkwood's death probed
KAREN SILKWOOD
Last week an historic investigation was launched by
theU. S. House of Representatives. It is a probe into the
mysterious death of union
leader Karen Silkwood and a
query into the alleged inability
of the government to protect
the public from contamination
by one of the most dangerous
substances known to humans-
plutonium.
At 7:30 on the evening of Nov.
13,1974, a white Honda car
crashed into a concrete culvert
wall on an Oklahoma highway
and killed Karen Silkwood, a
laboratory assistant at the
Kerr-McGee plutonium plant
near Oklahoma City. She had
been gathering evidence to
prove Kerr-McGee
knowingly manufactured
defective plutonium fuel
rods.
At the time of her death Silkwood was on her way to deliver
documented evidence on health
and safety violations to a New
York Times reporter. The
documents were never found.
Silkwood was one of three
elected officials of the 5,283-
member Oil, Chemical and
Atomic Workers Union
(OCAW.)
Her death brought to light a
bizarre mystery that touched
off a series of investigations led
by unions, Supporters of Silkwood and the National
Organization for Women.
Six months ago OCAW, SOS
and NOW led a coalition which
petitioned the Senate for a
complete and public in
vestigation into the coverup
following Silkwood's death.
Joint congressional hearings
were scheduled for April 26
and 27; however two weeks
before the hearings were to
start, the Senate withdrew its
commitment to participate-a
move which left only the House
of Representatives to probe
whether Silkwood may have
been murdered to keep her
from delivering her evidence of
safety violations and whether
the government is equipped to
handle the impact of the increase in the use of plutonium.
Plutonium is the most deadly
substance known. If ingested,
tiny amounts are fatal and if
plutonium is released in the air,
it can cause massive cases of
cancer. It is combustible and
deadly for 250,000 years.
A major nuclear accident could
result in 45,000 fatalities and
contamination of an area the
size of the state of Pennsylvania-
According to the "Supporters
of Silkwood" Sen. Lee Metcalf
(D. Mont.) decided his
Government Operations
Sub-committee would halt its
investigation and not hold
hearings after he had been paid
a visit by Dean McGee, the
president of Kerr-McGee.
Metcalf said on National Public
Radio (April 6) that he made
that decision basedon his belief
that the OCAW was satisfied
that the Silkwood death was
accidental.
The following day, A.F.
Grospiron, president of the
OCAW, refuted Metcalfs
statement. "OCAW instituted
under my direction the only
definitive investigation into
the death of Karen Silkwood
and we have consistently
followed through in pursuing
every conceivable route in the
pursuit in this matter,'
he said.. "The cause of Karen
Silkwood's death remains
unsolved as far as the OCAW is
concerned."
Despite Metcalfs backing
out, Congressman John Dingell
(D. Mich.) went ahead with his
hearings into the events
surrounding Silkwood's
mysterious death.
The FBI and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission failed
to send key witnesses to the
April 27 meeting of Dingell's
committee. That hearing date
was reset for April 30 and then
called off again at the last
minute.
The FBI has been accused of
quietly closing a three-pronged
investigation stemming from
the Silkwood death and
Dingell's subcommittee investigators indicated they had
tried without success to obtain
many FBI records on the case.
Those records dealt with the
actual investigation into Silkwood's car crash, the disappearance of 400 pounds of
plutonium from the Kerr-
McGee plant and charges of
illegal company interference in
union activities.
Karl Morgan a nuclear
physics professor at Georgia
Tech and one of the most
respected scientists in his field,
testified at the hearings that he
totally backed Silkwood and the
union. He said Silkwood was
justified to be concerned with
conditions at the Kerr-McGee
plant. Morgan classified them
as "one of the worst violations
he had ever seen."
Silkwood had been openly
critical of the plant's health and
safety procedures. In
testimony before the Atomic
Energy Commission in September, 1974, Silkwood complained about unsafe working
conditions.
In early November, she
became living proof of those
dangers. On two consecutive
days, as Silkwood was leaving
work, she was found to be
contaminated by radioactivity.
After Silkwood's death the
AEC said its investigation
indicated that of 39 OCAW
union allegations,only three
violated the commission's
standards.
Perhaps the most startling
finding by the AEC was that
Silkwood's contamination
"probably did not result from
an accident or incident within
Teacher is fired
OUIDA DEAN
In a move reminiscent of the
Scopes case in 1925, a
Nacogdoches high school teacher
was fired recently for allowing
some of her students to take a
Psychology Today questionnaire.
Ouida Dean, a teacher at
Timpson High School, offered the
questionnaire titled
"Masculinity: What Does it Mean
to be a Man?"to students in her
psychology class. The students
took the questionnaire during a
free-period.
Dean was fired two weeks
later.
The school principal James L.
Bogue told a school board
meeting at one point that "she
should have known from the very
title of the article that it contained objectionable material."
"I can't believe it," she said
about her firing. "I felt the
questionnaire was informative
and educational. I thought the
students would enjoy it. I was
aware there would be some
controversy about it, but it
shouldn't have gone this far. "
Dean's psychology class had
been studying dating, mate
selecting,marriage and divorce.
Dean said she felt the
questionnaire was relevent to her
unit study on sex role identity.
"I explained to the class that
participation in the questionnaire
was completely voluntary,"
Dean said. "There was no grade.
I explained that they could use
n.a. (not applicable) for
questions which they felt didn't
apply or were confidential. I
explained they might use this
Continued on page 14
the plant." The AEC said there
were traces of plutonium on her
skin though "no accidental
release had allegedly occurred
in the plant." In addition, the
AEC report said tests showed
that Silkwood had "ingested"
plutonium. Furthermore, two
urine samples were "proved to
have been contaminated after
they had been excreted .
The AEC said this showed
that the samples had been
doctored by someone. It also
said that the "evidence"
suggested that Silkwood had
purposely contaminated
herself and had probably
smuggled a small amount of
plutonium home from the plant.
Continued on page 3
U. S. Rep.
Wins Honor
BARBARA JORDAN
Houston's Democratic Rep.
Barbara Jordan rates as the
strongest female leader in the
nation, according to a survey of
1,400 opinion makers published
recently by U.S. News and World
Report.
Jordan, a second-term representative, finished ahead of
Betty Ford in the survey, with
25.2 percent of the vote to Ford's
24.5 percent.
Washington Post Publisher
Katherine Graham received 15.8
percent of the vote, followed by
Housing and Urban Development
Secretary Carla A. Hills,
Congresswoman Bella Abzug of
New York, Connecticut Gov. Ella
Grasso, and Ambassador to
Great Britain Anne L. Armstrong.
Jordan was selected by her
colleagues in the House of
Representatives as one of the five
most influential members in the
House.
She was also the recipient of
the National Council of Women of
the United States' 1976 "woman
of conscience" award. |
