Full Body Burden

In the final chapter of Full Body Burden, Iversen writes: “The cost of silence and the secrets it contains is high, but you don’t learn the price until later. Secrets depend upon the smooth façade of silence, on the calm flat water that hides the darker depths” (300). Her book concerns the overwhelming cost of secrecy, which pertains both to the story of Rocky Flats and to that of her family. By exposing hidden truths, she warns future generations about the risks of nuclear production and makes its import personal with her own story. 

Rocky Flats’ longstanding secrecy allows the plant to manufacture enormous storehouses of nuclear weapons, as well as contaminate the environment, without public knowledge. The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 legally ensures this secrecy (5). Area residents develop cancers, animals are deformed, and few suspect that the large, government-affiliated plant that employs so many people could be the source of harm. As Iversen tells her boyfriend Mark, “No one talks about it” (147). 

The smoke from the Mother’s Day Fire of 1969 signals the dangers of Rocky Flats to the local population. Over the following two decades, Rocky Flats officials maintain that the plant is safe for both its workers and the public, despite a growing body of evidence to the contrary.