L.McCormack+Nuclear+Powerpoint+2

KAREN SILKWOOD

===Karen Silkwood (February 19, 1946 - November 13, 1974) worked as a chemical technicia at the Kerr-McGee plat in Oklahoma. Silkwood's job caused her to soon be exposed to Plutonium. She soon became concerned with health risks at the plant, and started to investigate. Silkwood discovered many violations of health regulations such as exposure of workers to contamination, bad equipment, plutonium samples stored in desk drawers and missing plutonium samples taken from the plant.=== ===After being employed at Kerr McGee, Silkwood was elected as the first female committee member of the Oil, Chemical and AtomicWorkers Union at the plant. When she noticed the health risks, she gathered evidance to report the poor conditions.After obtaining the evidence, Silkwood decided to expose the evidence she had collected by means of the //New York Times//. Karen Silkwood planned to meet up with a reporter to print the acts.=== ===However, while she was gathering information, Silkwood's phone was bugged and she was monitored. Silkwood was also deliberately exposed to plutonium. Such measures were taken to silence Silkwood and her claims. The people at Kerr-McGee said that she had contaminated herself in order to give a bad outlook on the company, but many think otherwise.=== ===When Karen Silkwood left the plant one night to meet with the New York Times reporter, she never arrived at the meeting. She was found dead in her car, which had swirved off the road and crashed. It was said to be a one-car sleeping driver accident, but many think that she was forced off the road from another vehicle, due to bends in the back of her car. Also, the steering wheel was bent in a way indicating she was awake and aware of the accident, not asleep. When her body was analysed, radiation was found internally, including radiation in her lungs.===



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