Engineer Memoirs
A:
We think she probably stole some plutonium. There is some evidence that she
contaminated her urine samples. She may, because she didn't know what she was doing,
have hurt herself--perhaps contaminated herself.
The typical person who has worked in this industry views this as a conspiracy by Karen
Silkwood and whomever to discredit KerrMcGee. I have gone into this a little bit to
illustrate that we were very familiar with it so it didn't awe us. It was our view that, as
we became more knowledgeable, that these weapons would be integrated into our
military capability and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy would be integrated into our
economy. And there was great opportunity. In those days there was tremendous
optimism about the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Q:
In the 1940s even?
A:
Yes. The minute the Smyth report was published, the popular wave was that we were
going to benefit tremendously from this. It is a very interesting evolution--sort of
beyond our interview--how we came from that optimism to the present negative view
of this all around the world.
In a nutshell, two things happened. The most important was that the people who were
opposed to nuclear weapons and were concerned with them did everything they could
to link in the public's mind the dangers of nuclear weapons with the dangers of civilian
use.
The other was that it was mysterious, and the job of educating people and having
people become familiar with this wasn't done. The whole question of radiation and all
that--people didn't learn about it. One of the ideas was that the children in elementary
school would learn about nuclear energy, and by the time they became adults, they
would be familiar with it, and it wouldn't be a mystery to them.
Q:
It would be like computers. Everybody is literate.
A:
Right. Everybody thinks they are great.
Well, there was a synergism between these two factors, since people that were opposed
to nuclear weapons wanted the public to make this linkage. The whole process of
educating people was not, "Look, learn about this because it is going to be a great
benefit." It was, "Learn about this because it is the biggest danger in your life." If you
look at that process over a period of 40 years, we have been educated away from this
rather than toward it.
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