Candelas Glows

Candelas Glows, a local community group with a robust following of people concerned about the ongoing management of the nuclear waste superfund site at the center of the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge, is dedicated to educating the public about the ongoing dangers associated with living in and around the areas close to Rocky Flats, the former Nuclear Weapons Manufacturing Plant.

For more information on our founders and mission, please visit our About Us page.

SuperfundWRmap.9.25.2019


Why we are concerned

In the 1989, the FBI partnered with the EPA to raid Rocky Flats and effectively shut it down for environmental concerns which included spraying and dumping nuclear waste on the areas surrounding the industrial buildings.

No remediation has ever taken place outside of the Superfund site, which still exists at the center of the wildlife refuge, see above.

The recent Hot Spot 264 pi/cu/g found in August 2019 along Indiana street, highlighted in yellow above, by the Jefferson Parkway Highway Authority’s scientific team that they hired to do soil analysis was over 5 times the allowable limit for the superfund site (50 pi/cu/g),  not the wildlife refuge, and 13,500 times the lower of standard background levels.

See the map below of the known waste disposal areas.RF Waste Disposal
The area is an industrial nuclear waste site, not a nature preserve. If you want to learn about prairies and wildlife, there are plenty of other non-contaminated areas in Colorado to visit and learn.

Studies on Rocky Flats consists of 11 surveys, some government-sponsored and some independent, that ALL indicate elevated levels of plutonium contamination in and around the Rocky Flats ‘Nuclear’ Wildlife Refuge. Click here for a video summary of those studies, or download the the summary here.

For more information, visit www.rockyflatsglows.com and www.rockyflatsrighttoknow.org.

No one, not even the government agencies, deny the elevated levels of contamination that exist in the area, but they insist that it’s a safe* dose of weapons-grade plutonium(Pu).

The radiation safety standards and health risk assessments the Colorado Dept. of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)** cites are based on gamma radiation exposures that pass through the body, not alpha radiation exposures (like those emitted by Pu) that can lodge within the body.

*There is no such thing as a ‘safe’ or ‘reasonable’ or ‘lower standard’ exposure to weapons-grade plutonium. Exposure to even the smallest particles(consisting of 1000’s of atoms of Pu) can be deadly if inhaled or ingested.

**CDPHE Rocky Flats oversight is funded by the Department of Energy, the agency responsible for the contamination at Rocky Flats, and the clean-up and monitoring of the nuclear waste superfund site.

4 people in hazmat suites. Full protection at Rocky Flats!
Visitors enjoy opening day at Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, September 2018