People are the key to decontamination and decommissioning capture the knowledge of the site/facility

The written history of a site or facility is usually captured, in some form or manner, in the written records, for example, Building 881 at Rocky Flats. Building 881 was the original Rocky Flats process building. If it has been processed at Rocky Flats that process was first performed in Building 881. It was built during the height of the cold war when secrecy and the possibility of an atomic war were at its height. This is the reason behind the way it is constructed. A description of the processes are made available with this presentation. What I would like to focus on during this discussion are the times and the people. The people who built and ran the people. Some of the environmental influences, because it is from the people that you learn the truth about operations, incidents and accidents. If you don't understand the people and where they coming from then you will not know how to approach them, what to say and how to phrase the questions that your want answered totally and truthfully. For this presentation I will limit my scope to one Building at Rocky Flats Building 881. The building was built just after World War II (W.W.II) and developed the processes used at Rocky Flats during the Korean War. The processes developed in Building 881 (casting, fabrication, inspection & testing, enriched uranium recovery-which included salvage and recovery, briquetting, "special projects", and stainless steel operations and fabrication) were perfected and used in other process buildings during the Vietnam War and until 1989 when the FBI raided Rocky Flats. The building was constructed to withstand a near miss from a nuclear weapon. The surrounding communities initially didn't mind the facility. But the secrecy with which individuals had to work, soon became a point of conflict. Like veterans returning from Vietnam, Rocky Flats personnel were verbally and physically abused in the general population, their neighborhoods, markets, etc. Since Building 881 was built and the processes developed during the late '50s and early '60s, the rules were different. Our current regulations did not apply, for example, machinists turned depleted uranium while eating a sandwich or drinking coffee. To find out the true history of the processes, spills, leaks, incidents and what happened, that is not captured in the written record it is imperative that someone sit down and talk to the "old timers", and be interested in their stories and what happened. Therefore, the key to understanding the people, is understanding their mental and emotional makeup. This discussion will be focused on the people of Building 881.