Karen Silkwood
Karen Silkwood | |
---|---|
Born | Karen Gay Silkwood February 19, 1946 Longview, Texas, U.S. |
Died | November 13, 1974 near Crescent, Oklahoma, U.S. | (aged 28)
Cause of death | Car crash, unclear circumstances |
Occupation |
|
Spouse |
William Meadows
(m. 1965; div. 1972) |
Children | 3 |
Karen Gay Silkwood (February 19, 1946 – November 13, 1974) was an American
She worked at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site in Oklahoma, making plutonium pellets, and became the first woman on the union's negotiating team. After testifying to the Atomic Energy Commission about her concerns, she was found to have plutonium contamination on her body and in her home. While driving to meet with a New York Times journalist and an official of her union's national office, she died in a car crash, the circumstances of which were never explained entirely.
Her family sued Kerr-McGee for the plutonium contamination. The company settled out of court for US$1.38 million, while not admitting liability. Her story was chronicled in Mike Nichols's 1983 Academy Award nominated movie Silkwood in which she was portrayed by Meryl Streep.
Family
Karen Gay Silkwood was born in
Union activities
After being hired at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site plant near
The Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union said that "the Kerr-McGee plant had manufactured faulty
On November 5, 1974, Silkwood performed a routine self-check and found that her body contained almost 400 times the legal limit for plutonium contamination. She was decontaminated at the plant and sent home with a testing kit to collect urine and feces for further analysis. Although there was plutonium on the inner portions of the gloves which she had been using, the gloves did not have any holes. This suggests the contamination had come not from inside the glovebox, but from some other source.[5]: 252
The next morning, as she left for a union negotiation meeting, Silkwood again tested positive for plutonium, although she had performed only paperwork duties that morning. She was given a more intensive decontamination. On November 7, as she entered the plant, she was found to be dangerously contaminated, even expelling contaminated air from her lungs. A health physics team accompanied her back to her home and found plutonium traces on several surfaces, especially in the bathroom and the refrigerator. When the house was later stripped and decontaminated, some of her property had to be destroyed. Silkwood, her boyfriend Drew Stephens, and her roommate Dusty Ellis were sent to Los Alamos National Laboratory for in-depth testing to determine the extent of the contamination in their bodies.[5]: 253
There were questions about how Silkwood became contaminated during this three-day period. She said the contamination in the bathroom may have occurred when she spilled her urine sample on the morning of November 7. This was consistent with the evidence that samples she took at home had extremely high levels of contamination, while samples taken in "fresh" jars at the plant and at Los Alamos showed much lower contamination.[5]: 253
She said she had been contaminated at the plant. Kerr-McGee's management said that Silkwood had contaminated herself in order to harm the company's reputation. According to Richard L. Rashke's book The Killing of Karen Silkwood (1981/2000), security at the plant was so lax that workers could easily smuggle out finished plutonium pellets.[4]: 56–62 Rashke wrote that the soluble type of plutonium found in Silkwood's body came from a production area which she had not accessed for four months. The pellets had since been stored in the vault of the facility.[4]: [page needed]
Death
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2023) |
Silkwood said she had assembled documentation for her claims, including company papers. She decided to go public with this evidence, and contacted
Some journalists have theorized that Silkwood's car was rammed from behind by another vehicle, with the intent to cause a crash that would result in her death.[7] Skid marks from Silkwood's car were present on the road, suggesting that she was trying to get back onto the road after being pushed from behind.[4]: 99–101, 114–115
Investigators also noted damage on the rear of Silkwood's vehicle that, according to Silkwood's friends and family, had not been present before the crash. As the crash was entirely a front-end collision, it did not explain the damage to the rear of her vehicle. A microscopic examination of the rear of Silkwood's car showed paint chips that could have come only from a rear impact by another vehicle. Silkwood's family claimed to know of no collisions of any kind that Silkwood had had with the car, and that the 1974 Honda Civic she was driving was new when purchased and no insurance claims were filed on that vehicle.[4]: 114–115
Silkwood's relatives, too, confirmed that she had taken the missing documents to the union meeting and placed them on the seat beside her. According to her family, she had received several threatening telephone calls very shortly before her death. Speculation about foul play has never been substantiated.[4]: 99
Because of concerns about contamination, the Atomic Energy Commission and the State Medical Examiner requested analysis of Silkwood's organs by the Los Alamos Tissue Analysis Program.[5]: 254–255
Public suspicion resulted in a federal investigation of plant security and safety.
Kerr-McGee closed its nuclear fuel plants in 1975. The Department of Energy (DOE) reported the Cimarron plant as decontaminated and decommissioned in 1994.[8]
PBS
Silkwood vs. Kerr-McGee
Silkwood's father Bill and her children filed a lawsuit against Kerr-McGee for negligence on behalf of her estate. The trial occurred during 1979 and lasted ten months, the longest to that time in Oklahoma history. Gerry Spence was the chief attorney for the estate, other major attorneys were Daniel Sheehan, Arthur Angel, and James Ikard. William Paul was the chief attorney for Kerr-McGee. The estate presented evidence that the autopsy proved Silkwood was contaminated with plutonium at her death. To prove that the contamination was sustained at the plant, evidence was given by a series of witnesses who were former employees of the facility.
The defense relied on the expert witness Dr. George Voelz, a high-ranking scientist at Los Alamos. Voelz said that he believed the contamination in Silkwood's body was within legal standards. The defense later proposed that Silkwood was a troublemaker, who might have poisoned herself. After the summation arguments, Judge Frank Theis told the jury, "[I]f you find that the damage to the person or property of Karen Silkwood resulted from the operation of this plant ... defendant Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation is liable...."[11]: Instruction 7
The jury rendered its verdict of US$505,000 in damages and US$10,000,000 in punitive damages. On appeal in federal court, the judgment was reduced to US$5,000, the estimated value of Silkwood's losses in property at her rental house, and reversing the award of punitive damages. In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court restored the original verdict, in Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp. 464 US 238 (1984), ruling that "the NRC's exclusive authority to set safety standards did not foreclose the use of state tort remedies."[12] Although suggesting it would appeal for other reasons, Kerr-McGee settled out of court for US$1.38 million ($3.75 million in 2021 dollars), while admitting no liability.
In media
According to
Karen Silkwood was portrayed on stage by actress Jehane Dyllan in the one-person play Silkwood, which Dyllan scripted along with Susan Holleran and Bobbi Ausubel. Ausubel also directed the piece, which ran April 7-12, 1981 at Theater Works, UMass-Park Square in Boston.[13]
The 1983 movie Silkwood is an account of Silkwood's life and the events resulting from her activism, based on an original screenplay written by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen. Meryl Streep played the title role and was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA. Cher played Karen's best friend, Dusty Ellis, and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. Mike Nichols was nominated for Best Director. Ephron and Arlen were nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.[14]
See also
- The Christic Institute
- Hilda Murrell
- Juanita Nielsen
- Clarence Lushbaugh
- List of nuclear whistleblowers
- List of unsolved deaths
- Nuclear accidents
- Nuclear safety
- Nuclear power
- Nuclear fuel
- Whistleblowers
References
- ^ a b c Kleiner, Diane L. "Silkwood, Karen Gay". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Society. Archived from the original on November 24, 2010. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
- ^
Garraty, John Arthur; Jackson, Kenneth T.; Markoe, Arnold; Markoe, Karen E. (1994). Dictionary of American Biography. Scribner's. p. 726. ISBN 978-0-684-19398-4.
- ^
Booth, Bibi; Mongillo, John (2001). Environmental Activists. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-313-30884-0.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k
ISBN 978-0-8014-8667-8.
- ^ a b c d "The Karen Silkwood Story" (PDF). Los Alamos Science. 23. November 23, 1995. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 13, 2016. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- ^ Mazzocchi, Tony (November 1999). "Karen Silkwood Remembered". Labor Party Press Online. Labor Party Press. Archived from the original on November 30, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2012.
- ^ Phillips, B. J. (April 1975). "The Case of Karen Silkwood: Mysterious Death of a Nuclear Plant Worker". Ms. Ms. Magazine. pp. 59–66.
- ^
Summary: USDOE Richland Operations Office (May 1, 1994). Decontamination and decommissioning of the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Plutonium Fuel Plant (Report). OSTI 10151437.
- Full text: USDOE Richland Operations Office (May 1, 1994). "Decontamination and decommissioning of the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Plutonium Fuel Plant" (PDF). DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). doi:10.2172/10151437. Archivedfrom the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
- Full text: USDOE Richland Operations Office (May 1, 1994). "Decontamination and decommissioning of the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Plutonium Fuel Plant" (PDF). DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI).
- ^ "Nuclear Reaction | FRONTLINE | PBS". PBS.
- ^ "PBS Frontline supplementary text". PBS. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
- ^ "Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp., 485 F. Supp. 566 (W.D. Okla. 1979)". Justia US Law. Justia. August 18, 1979. Archived from the original on July 16, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017. (Oklahoma case)
- ^ "SILKWOOD v. KERR-McGEE CORP., (1984) No. 81-2159". FindLaw. Thomson Reuters. January 11, 1984. Archived from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017. (Supreme Court case)
- ^ Clay, Carolyn (April 14, 1981). "Anatomy of a Martyr". The Boston Phoenix. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
- ^ "'Silkwood': THR's 1983 Review". Hollywood Reporter. November 22, 2014. Silkwood's death is mentioned in the Netflix documentary series Meltdown: Three Mile Island, which concerns a "whistleblower" who reports safety concerns during the Three Mile Island accident cleanup. Karen Silkwood is mentioned in the song, "We Almost Lost Detroit", on the 1977 music album, Bridges, by Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson.
Further reading
- Annas JD MPH, George J. (May 1984). "The Case of Karen Silkwood". PMID 6369995.
- Brown, Bruce. "The Karen Silkwood Story: An Unexpected Twist At The End..." astonisher.com. BF Communications Inc. Archived from the original on May 4, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
- Hamill, Pete (December 13, 1981). "THE LIFE AND DEATH OF AN IDEALIST". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017. (Hamill notes the lack of footnotes in the non-fiction book and suggests that lack weakens Kohn's case.)
- Kohn, Howard (1981). Who Killed Karen Silkwood?. New York: ISBN 978-0-671-43721-3.
- Pederson, Jay P. (1988). International Directory of Company Histories. Vol. 77. Chicago: ISBN 978-1-55862-581-5.
External links
- "Annotated Bibliography for Karen Silkwood". Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues. Archived from the original on August 4, 2010. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
- "Karen Silkwood". Biography.com. A&E Networks. April 2, 2014. Archived from the originalon December 20, 2016. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
- Karen Silkwood at Find a Grave