"boom, bust, boom: a story about copper the metal that runs the world." this is about an hour. >> so hello and thank you. welcome everybody. thank you for joining us today for the panel discussion, poisoned, hometown talks andan tragedies. my name is terry nordbrock. i wastr a librarian with the tucson pima public library unti it became an activist in 2001 i after my two year old son was a diagnosed with leukemia. we met other families in the

shot of the kenya cluster and we were active and not investigation and the controversy around that issue. i left the field of librarianship and nonexecutive director of the national disease clusters lands and we are a nonprofit working to prevent environmental tragedies like the ones you hear about today. discovery links between environmental exposure and disease is challenging. however, it can be done and it must be done and if we have the proper tools, communication, respect for communities and sites about we can do it. it is an honor to serve today as the panel for this discussion. so thank you all for coming. so first up, it is my pleasure to introduce kristin iversen, author of "full body burdon:

growing up in the nuclear shadow of rocky flats". kristin's memoir reveals family secret and government secrets in the fact we are not safe from industrial pollution. her book is a finalist for the andrew carnegie medal of excellence. it's the best group of 2012 from the american library association it's the best book about just as chosen by the atlantic magazine. it's my pleasure to welcome kristen. my favorite thing about your book is that it is such a page turner. thank you are telling the story in such an accessible way. would you take 10 minutes to tell us that you're both. >> thank you. i'm going to go to the podium on the other side.

did everyone hear me? thank you all for coming. the rocky flats nuclear weapons facility is the biggest secret of my childhood. i grew up in colorado just outside of denver, between boulder and denver and when i was a kid, we swam in l.a., rubber horses run the field and were outside all the time that we never knew what was going on at rocky flats. when i was a kid, it is separated by dow chemical and the river and our neighbor had his favor making household cleaning supplies. in fact, my mother was convinced they are making scrubbing bubbles. over the course of 38 years, rocky flats produced more than 70,000 plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons. each button or trigger contains enough readable articles of plutonium to kill every person on earth. there is extensive

decontamination in our neighborhood and we never know. later, like a lot of kids in my neighborhood, i went to work at rocky flats myself. today i quit this today with some day write a book about it. 10 years of research and writing women into this boat and i read it to discover what happened to learn everything i could about plutonium and nuclear weapons and the crucial role to play a play during and after the cold war. but it's also a family story and ultimately i wanted to put a human face on what i felt was a very inhumane story. so what i'm going to do today to show you things he wants in the book. i'll play the story rocky flats through photographs and contamination maps and nicer day. try to keep it to 10 minutes and hopefully will have questioned that dn.

one thing i might point out on the cover here that's kind of neat as i did know about this until they selected this photo for the book, my mother is sitting right behind me and my father shadowless rate here. he's the one taken the photo. my family has been incredibly supportive of this book in so many ways, so it was neat to see their pictures there. i want to just touch briefly on the title, "full body burden." i wanted to work and of the drill a as close metaphorical way. the radioactive material and it body which acts as an ongoing internal and ongoing source of radiation. i was born in des moines, iowa. i come from a scandinavian family and this is a photo of me with my dad before we moved to colorado and i might mention briefly my father is a danish descent.

my mother is norwegian. when they married, the families considered a mixed marriage. this is a photo taken on our first house, which was about seven house from the rocky flats nuclear weapons facility. of course at that time we did know anything about rocky flats. we didn't even know was there. that's me right in the middle between my two sisters. and here's a photo from my backyard. then when my brother was born, we move to a house in a subdivision called rachel dale, which is about three miles from the rocky flats plant. one difference between los alamos, which was to bring their nuclear weapons program at rocky flats, which we were the ones who were really producing all the paid, the people who worked at los alamos led to los alamos.

people who worked at rocky flats lived in the surrounding area in the plant was dependent on local population for workers. it was also located in the wrong place, earliest engineering report noted the plant should not be located near large metropolitan area because of the potential danger to the surrounding population. however, the wind patterns are based on wind patterns at stapleton airport on the other side of denver and where they eventually located the plant here. when that was discovered by a worker named gemstone, he was eventually fired as a whistleblower. you can see from the photo one of the problems with this plan being so close to a metropolitan area is that the winds come up the mountains and foothills very, very quickly in kerry contamination into the local neighborhood and on and to the metric denver area.

the atomic energy act of 1946 created a complete wall of secrecy between the public and these nuclear facilities. secret operations at rocky flats began in 1952. it was somebody atomic energy commission, now the department of energy and operated by chemical. from 1952 to 1989, rocky flats produced more than 70,000 plutonium pits. the space providing atomic bombs chain reaction essentially produced in the heart of every nuclear weapon in america. supplies of plutonium at oak ridge supplied the uranium. here's an aerial view of rocky flats. it grew to have more than 800 buildings. many of those buildings were partially underground and you couldn't see anything from the road.

companies that operated rocky flats like rockwell and e.g. cheaper indemnified for many catastrophe reliability. workers at rocky flats worked on what were called lines of boxes. it would put their hands into the outside class to manipulate the plutonium buttons to become trigger. and here's a photo of a quote rockslide looks like. plutonium is highly flammable and catches fire easily and it's difficult to put out a hotel empire. if you use water, you risk causing a criticality, which is a nuclear chain reaction. rocky flats produced plutonium triggers, but its biggest output was toxic and waste. like many i went to work at rocky flats myself when i was

working at rocky flats, there is far than 14 times the plutonium stored at the facility, much of it unsafely stored. some was stored inside and here's a photo of workers checking barrels and i've another photo photo in a moment that will show you. the department of energy and companies that operated rocky flats repeatedly denied they were involved in activities were posed any danger at all to the public. however, the public was in danger. over the course of 38 years, there were more than 200 fires at rocky flats. the biggest in 1957 and 1969. there was no warning, no evacuation and no information available to the public. this is from the 1957 fire, which was so intense they bring a 640 filters and also burned

out all of the measuring equipment so we'll never know exactly how much material -- radioactive material escaped into the environment. the second-biggest buyer was in 1969 right after we moved out to our new house. on mothers day, may 11, 1969, we are out having mother's day brunch is a family and we had no idea a radioactive cloud was traveling over our heads. this is the plume from the 1957 fire in the 1969 fire followed a similar path. this is my family and about the 1969 fire. this is a photo every family house. what i wanted to do is tell the tory of rocky flats and also tell it through the eyes of the people who live the story. my family, fellow workers, residents had to put a human face on a very inhumane story. this is the first love of my

life, talk. if you read my book company he's featured in the first chat here. there's a lot of animals in my story and it's in the animals we first began to see some of the effects of the radioactive contamination. unknown to the public more than 5000-barrel stood out in the open for more than 11 years. if you're looking at the screen from where you are, my house is about two and a half else to the left. what happened to the sparrows? they rusted out and radioactive and toxic material leaked into the soil and was carried off site. public was not informed. there is contamination in the water. this is a photo -- vicious contaminated residential areas surround rocky flats. my house is right near stanley lake. you can see it with the pointer they are.

we began to see health effects and some of the local farms and ranches. this is local farmer lloyd nixon and scooter who doesn't have any back legs. at his farm, he saucers to things and pigs and chickens. should i plutonium level. in the 1970s, we began to see some protests at rocky flats. in the neighborhood where he lived, my father used to say, all those activists don't know what they're talking about. hippies and housewives and then who knows what they're really talking about. was the general attitude at the time and it turns out the activists were right. you might recognize this person here. that's allen ginsberg. so there were a number of

protests, which eventually led to 1989 sba rate, the only time in the history of the country to government agencies, the fbi and epa have raided another agency, department of energy. it's a very dramatic chapter in my book. i'll have to tell you the short version for now. i'm almost out of time, but i want to finish up here. i went to work at the plant in 1994 when i was a single parent of two little boys the mass of the planet look like at the time. i prepared a report sent to washington and there a lot of acronyms in this reports that i didn't understand at the time. one of them was not. missing unaccounted for plutonium and over the course of 40 years, rocky flats lost or misplaced within 3050 pounds of plutonium, which is remarkable when you think 1 millionth of a program can cause they help

effect. workers have been good. i'll show a couple photos of people on the boat. this is charlie wilkes, a manager when i worked out there. marshall stewart on the production line. tamra smith who lived right down the street from me and she comes from a mourning family and they have an organic garden and they grew their own vegetables in raised rock article and look entirely off the land mx 70 other people people, my neighborhood has a number of brain tumors. so rocky flats eventually close, but the story is not over. the legacy of rocky flats is the 6000 acres that remain, 1300 acres or so without my contaminated they can never be open to the public. the rest decided to open as a national wildlife refuge open for public hiking, biking and

recreation come even though levels of plutonium and other contaminates a very high and there is no limit below six feet, which is remarkable when you think how many buildings were underground. we are busy building new homes on contaminated land, but i'm happy to say that citizen activism has played a big part of the story in the past and is once again as people learn, were working hard in colorado and around the country to forget rocky flats ever happened in the race as much as possible. yes people become aware, they are protests and talking about it with again. i think i'll stop there. [applause] that's wonderful and will have a chance to hear from kristin again was an interview question and there will be an opportunity

to ask questions at the microphone in the aisle at the end of the hour. so now it is my pleasure to introduce bill carter, the second author on our panel and he wrote the book, "boom, bust, boom: a story about cooper the metal that runs the world." so bill's astonishing tale of began when he posted himself by eating vegetables grown in his own yard in arizona. before that, he is more well known during the war in bosnia. he actually entered syria vote during the 15 month ossetian was an american aid worker and escaped the city, traveled to italy, snuck backstage to a u2 concert and commenced by much of the citizens of sarajevo. together they brought cast live interviews during the two were

in this remarkable tale is told in his first book, fools rush in in his documentary film, and this theory though produced by bono, who wrote the theme song for the film. after surviving all this, bill moved to arizona where things are supposed to be safer and more calm only to face danger in his own peaceful home. so this option expiration of copper that is this tremendously interesting understanding of copper and how essential it is for the world and how harmful as well. synergy takes some time to tell us about your book? >> yacht, the festival is fantastic. just a little correction. first of all this for years. the 15 month is when i started to reach out.

this book began like all my books, which is me finding myself in the middle of something i don't understand. in this case, by the way i love bisbee and have a lot of friends there and it's a wonderful town. i met my wife there, but third 2000 from tucson. went down to write my first book, fools rush in an ever did. i met my wife and eventually bought a house of matter first came in around 2007, is a bit of a shift in arizona. it is still shreveport back around. at that point it a better job of reclaiming land. but the process of reclaiming is this soil.

i submitted my yard to be tested, but they were taken a very long time. in the meantime we started having our second child when my wife was pregnant and i started to break occurred in and put the systems in a very excited and into my garden. very proud. my first daughter was helping me. when i started to have my first fruit of the card in my wife would refuse to eat it because she was paid at a time not touching anything from the dirt, even though i love our time, i'm not going to touch the dirt. turns out she was very smart. i started eating it and initially got very sick. we were very worried. at that time the soil samples came back with high levels of arsenic and lead. they moved us into another house, quickly spent two weeks -- quickly dug all the

soil out. a lot of people have extended their homes. half their home tested and change the soil. and that is the class. you have to give them the credit they done that. if you ever ask for whether taking dirt, i've no idea where they took the dirt or with a new came from. i just assumed it's okay, but i don't know why i'm assuming not. mining companies are not inherently evil. they are corporations. they make money. but they do things than on a day-to-day basis at 240 years of contamination. and make no mistake, every single contaminates. there's no example example of a compromise that doesn't heavily

produce a toxin. it doesn't exist. i said this before in these panels. it isn't because they're bad people. it's because no one understands how to stop contamination that comes from such a large-scale open pit. so this led me, this contamination, poison, worried about my kids and wife led me to investigate copper and understand where i live. i wanted to know what is going on around the world. but would it mean if they open the mind? there was a lot of talk and i wanted to know what that meant, so i started traveling to understand order. the result of that is the book. it was an absolutely fascinating journey. fascinating to learn how credible coffee is.

how we are very complicated equation. so we can protest -- we have to have very solid ground to try to stop them because they won't stop because u.s. that's never going to happen. when you start dealing with the epa in science can be certainly much bigger issues. you can't somehow affect, so anyways, this book is an exploration of love that. it's very personal because i'm trying to figure this out for my kid. i also loved the speed.

it's a dear place to be. i've been all over the world. it's been a crazy life. this view is the place i found absolutely called for mps because you could walk, interestingly people. you don't your neighbor is. it's a fascinating place. but it is a very hard decision to leave, very difficult. i didn't want to be in a tom that might be of my monday and i didn't want to sit in protest because it was mining town. there'd be no town america was that my name. so i chose says an activist where philosophy way to say i'm going to leave. i have a choice. so i left. that doesn't mean i won't go back one day. that's human nature, right? but that is what the book is about an ego. i'm sure we'll get them tomorrow. >> thank you. one question for both of you is

in regards to the response to your books when this happens to books came out, do you meet people who disagree with your conclusions and have you learned about their community facing similar issues? kristen, do you want to go to first? >> a lot of typing since i book has come out. my life is turned upside down. for one thing i've received hundreds of e-mails from people who live around rocky flats and other facilities like that. can you hear me all right on this? because there is never bad and a public-health monitoring available for people who live around rocky flats or other areas, and difficult for me to know. there's nowhere for me to send these people for help. that part has been overwhelming.

i was nervous of the department of energy might respond, even though the book was heavily fact chad by lawyers and a different scientific and technical experts. i received some very interesting e-mails from people who work for the department of energy actually thanking me for telling the story because no one else has told this story and it's a really important story. the biggest change such as happened last week is that i got an e-mail from a jefferson county commissioner and jefferson county is the county in denver and the whole western part of the state they are. i can't talk about it without tearing up. since last thursday night. everyone at the county commissioners meeting had read the book, partly because they were aware of it and people had sent it to them and as a result

they passed a new water quality requirements for all of those housing development in the neighborhood going in. you ask why are we building houses next to a contaminated site is a show you a photo? that's the next question will tackle. have a heartfelt message. the word is out in the most important way to tell the stories is through storytelling is to reset the people who are living in these areas and that so people understand the story, but in all the technical aspects and how they respond to it. >> thank you, kristin. before you move on, i want to mention what you said about the hundreds of people who report problems system aimed that have been to her nonprofit as well. there is a good answer to tell people facing dramatic exposure

or disease and we were at the senate supporting a new piece of legislation proposed and erin popovich was there. she did thousands of people contacting her with their own problems, trying to report it so someone somewhere will take action. right now are societies not doing a good job with that. so what is that the response your book? >> i was very nervous about this be because my friends still live there and have homes there. it's been very positive. i was scared, but at the same time people want to know. they want to know what they're dealing with. i found that refreshing but i wasn't quite sure. they were glad to know more about where they live and that's a good thing. it had a lot of minors, people from the mining this is.

not on the top level, the people thankful and how much they love their mining town. because of baghdad or other mining towns in arizona, there's people they raise their families and put their kids through college and that is very respected in this book. there's no part of this book that outlines that. that is a choice to have them as totally honorable. my issue is some kind of a bigger scale of what were doing to ourselves as we keep consuming these medals and how that's going to become a problem when you put it up against food and water adventure that will be more and more of a problem in our world. so the response has been part of it. i bet a few people angry with me, but that's okay i'm used to

that. >> so both of your books look up forces that a lot of these problems to develop and exist. some of them is the silencing effect of a company town. it might be greed or monetary issues. it might be a bit of buzz. will you talk about some major reason we have the environmental problems you face in your home click >> in terms of arizona -- about two weeks ago with an epa report for the most polluted counties and towns. can you guess what that is? hayden. hayden is the home of large-scale copyright arizona. we'd taken on the small taste

across the country for a very good reason. they kill people. they're very toxic. they are now in china and china is dying for obvious reasons. so most of the pollution honestly came 100 years ago. the tom and the small service 500 feet. that pushes kate could not top of this heavy toxins. the thing about heavy metal as they don't go away come at least in your lifetime or three lifetimes. another came from this very interesting. as these on a hill. it's very uneven, very hard to build a home, sunni 32 which accommodations. so they brought that and,

leveled some nations all over the town. at that time no one thought anything was said that that would poison you in knots with our yard, isn't something that happened. it's old activity. but if i was living in the red sea at february. i was living in baghdad endured i was in tucson i'd be concerned about rosemont because it is going to affect that water. there's no way not to affect that water. 20% of the book on this way. so terry talked about laws. the biggest issue facing us today with copper, gold. it does not allow us to thought. it is not in the law. you can't stop of mine. the epa was created the clean water act.

it's really the only thing she's up to mine. a county has no power unless it's on a link. if it's on federal land you can't stop it. there's only been 13 cases in the history of the epa were they use the 404 c. it's very hard can make them stop. so we have to change the 1872 law act to change how things are done in our yard or this country and we should change it. if i asked how much you think they're charged to run a mine on the united states federal land, do you know the answer? five dollars an acre. so they're using our federal land for $5 an acre in 1872. gas and oil pay 12% and we have no real superbomb that really

holds them. they can go bankrupt, walk away with after the $200 billion fund will pay for. so it needs to be addressed in a big way. so that's the law that needs to be addressed. >> i would say with respect to rocky flats coming up to look at the law in the beginning as well. if they mention in my presentation, companies that produce nuclear weapons are identified from any damage to the surrounding area. for the secrecy surrounding rocky flats in the beginning was the cold war and cold war secrecy, but then it became a complicated as time went on. it's a beautiful part of the country between denver and boulder. it's always been a desirable area in terms of business and home developments in colorado has always had a big push in terms of development. so when environmental regulations came in at the clean

water act said earlier environmental regulations, companies that operated nuclear facilities were successful in not having to conform to environmental regulation. they fought it tooth and nail because it turns out we cannot make nuclear weapons. no one would go into the nuclear business, including nuclear power plant if they didn't have the indemnification because it's a very risky and dangerous thing to do. up to the present time, the amount of secrecy that continues to exist around rocky flats, we are all complicit to a certain degree because it has to do with business and development. though a very briefly say something someone said to me last week that came up after present patient and said what am i supposed to do? i moved here from california, colorado, but a brand-new house of butter savings on this house. they were not required to tell

me anything about contamination in the land. this house is on contaminated land. what should i do? we don't want to live here, but out we saw this house? should we tell the next number that comes along to look at the house, that this area is contaminated and it's next to a highly contaminated by a? will sell our house. we've painted ourselves into a corner in the situation and it's very scary stuff. >> it is, i agree. it is frightening. this one is looking towards the future. if you unlimited power, what changes would you make to avoid the kind of problems we are facing? what can we do? what should we do next? >> go ahead.

[laughter] we need to tell her stories. we need to pay attention. we cannot trust the private corporations who operate these nuclear facilities. i'm sure to speak to that. we have to demand the truth in what is our air and water and soil and we have to demand the government and companies be transparent with us. i particular interest is nuclear issues and was happy with our power plants, for example from people around those facilities as well. so i think we have to pay attention, demand truth and transparency in and do something about it. with social media, facebook and twitter, we can make a difference. it's much easier to treat. i can't believe i missed and not as a verb, get in touch with representatives who can make a difference with these issues. i think we need to wake up and pay attention and do something

about it. >> i want to congratulate you for the success you've had in your hometown. that's really an amazing tour you shared with us. it is speaking to the power of citizen voice and citizen action. what could you do if you could run the world? what changes would you make that >> addressing the solemnly, i'm going to take a moment to talk about an issue very near and dear to me and argue on the basis of this question should be near and dear to you. in this room. you're concerned about rose. they be near your home or wherever it is. wyoming or nevada or wherever you are. sometimes the backyard issue, not in my backyard is in a good

enough argument to change policy because it only affects you. so you have to think in a broader way about something that affects another community, that maybe makes a difference to you. i will argue right now. there's some particular spot on this earth that i'm trying desperately to save. a lot of people are. it's an alaska, bristol bay called pebble mine. it's a plan to build one of the most enormous minds on earth. no one is arguing how rich the deposit is. 14 miles which is the home of the biggest natural hatchery sockeye salmon on the planet. 40 million fish come in every year. if you eat wild salmon, that's where you get it. it is the biggest fishery. 14 miles of the hatchery fish will not survive a large-scale

coppermine. they're going to train the entire basin because they have to get the water going into the mind. this would be a catastrophe. you're going to lose one of the world's greatest food resources. the reason i'm arguing as i ask where they go in my response to you is if you can't stop pebble, which is actually really good argument is next to one of the world's greatest food resources, you can't type anything. so i'm going to do my little page. at the end of april, it's about to release this to us, all of us. you have one month to make

public, and on that site about why you want to save your soul day. but you have to say some thing because what kristin was just saying, all this stuff is new. this stuff has been going on and now they can't. the example i can give you, sandy hook. before sandy hook, if the conversation. i'm not trying to get into that. but the numbers have changed. it allows politicians to have cover to actually do something possibly. it's a national issue that when it comes out, forget the numbers of public comment session, i will make a huge difference. it also will set precedents for rosemont because there are no examples of stock in something for that. we need to help them how courage. that's my point.

>> thank you. let's go ahead and give a big round of applause. i would like to second not to please, and during the time. >> save bristol bay.com. go there and find everything at the organization that helps. >> just one quick thing. there is now a petition to stop development on and around the flat a petition that charted a couple weeks ago. we've got a ton of signatures that would be great if you could find that as well. you can find them if they spoke author page. >> in the next portion were going of questions for the audience to come inet to have the microphones. let me also mention a few minutes at the top of the hour we will go to a book signing opportunity.

you can purchase books out by adobe to book signing on the mall. our pitching for a proposed bus, one called trevor spot takes concerned communities that requires the epa to address the concerns and not someone were to rocker mitch was sharing the different there and she gets around the country. that's another one. go to trevor struck.org and sign a petition. let's start on this side. what's your first question? >> my question is for kristin. i want to thank you for writing your book and telling a family story from growing up in the metro denver area as well because my nieces and great-nieces are also suffering health effects. after reading the book again, didn't inhabit either have

deformed animals collected in her freezer tested? i was left hanging in the narrative and i know there is this value in citizens collecting evidence. >> that's a great question. vinnie abbott is a woman who lived down the road from us and resources in childress verses in my sisters and i often competed against her. she began to see over the years a number of performing these are animals and horses in the book, or comes from outside the body and that sort of thing. she started to see these things and keep them in her freezer. she had been tested it couple times. i don't have the latest final information. i haven't been noticeably quicker, but i will say i want to emphasize plutonium has been found in the bodies of animals.

a number of different tests. what does that mean for us, for people? there is a study at the university of colorado and epa and he did a study -- autopsies on 450 bodies of people who live around rocky flats and from the tone in the long liver tissues. so it is in our bodies. at the risk of sounding glib, rocky flats is where we all have such glowing personalities. >> on this site. >> this question is for bill. i grew up in a southern arizona mining town and that was all too small and i can recall my mother hanging out laundry with her mask on because she had asthma.

my father coming nearing his retirement said i would be dead within two years or i will be really sick because all of my friends that retired, something happens to them in the first two years. my question is, are there any studies on minors or people who worked in a small tear or even residents looking longitudinally in the health issues over generations that you're aware of. >> is not very many studies on this. the story you told me as almost every time a small tear. people don't live very old or if they do they have complications. the best seven and, also today

is the candidate, south of the border about 45 minutes, 40 minutes and it's a very contaminated spot. it has people that die all the time from what we think of black lung disease for coal miners. a basilica in the lungs, which is really what comes from the extraction from copper and kills a lot of people. the long-term studies i don't know why they're not doing it. probably because it is an important industry and not a lot of support -- a lot of communities as you may know support that town. they love that town until the mind leaves has a quite often do. that's why the book is "boom, bust, boom." they spent the money in everybody's doing well and when

the bus they when they find copper 15 years later they come back and they're all next generation. they don't go away and the copper deposit doesn't go away. there's not a lot of studies even though there is evidence everywhere. >> thank you, panel for these very important issues. the issues you are speaking about arafat and a half of all humanity within the larger issue of global warming that is going to impact the health of our planet to a state where not familiar with. as the speech, in washington on the nuclear issue, about a thousand gallons has been

leaking and the state administration has no idea how to address it, which brings me to the question i want to address the nuclear question. with global warming being such an enormously important issue, there have peep peep hole, including a sky or who is favoring nuclear energy for the simple reason that it is at least until you get rid of the waste of not polluting the earth in terms of co2. so many environmentalists have

windup and what is your opinion? should we look at nuclear energy in order to prevent the incredible pollution by call and petroleum? or should we get the imagery that is off the books? >> that's a great question. take that for that it aired the situation is critical so i'm glad you brought that up as well. contact your colorado, rocky flats, what happened in my backyard. but i'm really talking about everyone's backyard. the accident fukushima reminded us all in a terrible way to affect all of us. this is not just a regional or local or national issues. what i want to say about nuclear power plants and the emphasis and push has a great deal of push in this country that i

nuclear power are your power plants. licensing has been suspended because we haven't figured out how to build a plan to keep it safe and prevent problems. in the last year since i've been on tour, i visited almost every nuclear power plant in the country and i have learned a lot. i could go on and on, but will answer briefly on sales at the university of chicago where he did a lecture and there were a number of scientists and engineers in germany there. germany has turned away from nuclear weapons in germany has turned away from nuclear power. these people put on an hour-long presentation at the end that we are relying entirely on alternative energy so much so we are producing enough to exploit other countries. it used to live in germany, so i can relate to what he said next. then he said this on doesn't shine etch in germany.

here we are sunny day in chicago. he says we can do it in germany, why can't we do it here? i think that's a question and that's where we need to go. [applause] another question. >> question for bill. have you had any feedback from anyone that's read your book? >> shreveport is a company that owns a lot of mines in arizona. you may have heard for minors, but i'm always shocked. but i think the lawyers had to bet looks like this, trust me. the lawyers were concerned, but when i asked has to be said i just did a book on oil. i just read a book on big oil, which was incredibly hard on oil, maize.

for the most part if you do a book that raises the attention or gives attention to the history, the first thing they're going to do is not get in touch with you. they're not going to put an editorial in the paper. they're going to act like they said creates more attention from you, so they generally try to ignore you until you become fishermen this problem. they tend not to get in touch with me. >> first i want to acknowledge both of you for taking a stand for humanity. kristin, a richer book. [applause] for taking the miscue both due to the truth about these issues is important and dangerous at times. the indemnity question chris and to clarify comes from our

government. our government protects these private companies and says to them, we will let you do this will protect you 100%. one thing we could do is change the indemnification provisions so private companies who engage in dangerous activities are no longer protected. would you agree with? i have a follow-up question. >> i would agree with that i want to emphasize briefly what the act does this leave citizen to depend upon the chords. one thing i didn't have a chance to talk about in the presentation to get into the book is a class-action lawsuit filed in 1990 on behalf of 15,000 in colorado who live around rocky flats. it took 20 years to wind its way through the court. a jury eventually decided in our favor in 2006. i'll never forget that the. two years later was overturned

by the 10th circuit court of appeals by three federal judges and a few months ago the supreme court refused to hear it. so the kind of change you are talking about is essential for one of the things we have to do. >> is a perfect segue to my next question. identical scenario happened with the vatican northern arizona as a result of the nuclear testing. there is a class-action. he wanted on the merits and lost is the federal government was protect it. congress to it and provided a benefit for uranium miners announced i participated to have been in 1890. in 2000, they added a new program that includes the workers have rocky flats. it's not a big stretch to say if you are going to compensate downwinders in utah and northern

arizona and nevada, you should come see the downwinders and folks other than close proximity to rocky flats to him for it to oak ridge to all these other nuclear facilities. so that can be done. it's not a big stretch. i'm curious about your comments to that. the >> you mention the workers. one thing a lot to say is in some ways its first appearance is easier to purvey protection approved if your worker. however, more than two thirds of the people who've applied for some sort of compensation from the government, less than a third have been compensated and it's very, very difficult. there's a lot of red tape. you have to be able to prove you are exposed to a particular thing in a particular in time of the government has denied a lot of things we find in the environment picture of young, strong hands, they say they never with them.

now with respect to tritium, which i mentioned earlier a couple to go they admitted it turns out we did have tritium. we did have workers out there, saw those workers who'd been claiming exposure now can finally apply for compensation. but many of those people are dead. so it's a very big problem in terms of how we deal with this. it seems the logical thing to make that connection, but what the government about these corporations are saying is the level of contamination by the level we cannot deny the contamination. it thayer. but they squabble about is how much is fake and how much is okay? of course there's no safe level it's hard to prove a direct link. that's always been the problem. >> we're almost at the top of the hour. neither of you have a question for bill?

will take the question for bill, our last question today in other questions you cannot skip the book signing. >> i am born and raised third-generation. my grandma died of pancreatic cancer. my mom died six years ago but pancreatic cancer and my dad died in january of colon cancer. i covered that good. i live in tucson, but we always said there is arsenic. .. a lot of

smelters left in the united states for that exact reason you just brought up. >> so, again with the logistics, the books that you can purchase our outside and over in this direction. and then will you will go for your book signing is on the mall at the maddening media signing any. and that's in section b. and so i guess let's have a big show of applause for our wonderful authors. [applause] ..