DENVER—Critics of the cleanup at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons site say an independent lab has found soil samples taken near the plant contaminated with breathable plutonium.
State Rep. Wes McKinley says the amount is potentially lethal and called for state and federal officials to delay opening the site as a wildlife preserve pending further tests.
Officials at the state health department were still reviewing the report and didn’t have an immediate response.
The samples were taken last spring and analyzed at the Boston Chemical Data Corp., which also tested for plutonium at nuclear weapons plants in Washington State, New Mexico and Russia.
In 2005, the Energy Department declared the 10-year, $7 billion cleanup of Rocky Flats complete.
