Kerr-McGee ignored safety violations — a whistleblower died and the plant closed

Kerr-McGee's Cimarron plutonium fuel plant in Oklahoma was plagued by safety violations. Workers were pushed to work seven-day, 12-hour shifts to meet production targets. The company provided faulty respirators, failed to inform workers that plutonium was carcinogenic, and falsified quality-control records for fuel rods. Employees were instructed to cover up cracks in fuel-rod welds and tweak computer data to pass inspection.

Karen Silkwood, a lab technician and union activist, documented the violations and missing plutonium. After testifying to the Atomic Energy Commission, she was contaminated with plutonium in November 1974. On 13 November 1974, while driving to meet a journalist and union official to hand over evidence, she died in a car crash. The documents were never found. The crash remains controversial, with suspicions that she was forced off the road.

Silkwood's family sued Kerr-McGee for gross negligence. A jury awarded $505,000 in damages and $10 million in punitive damages — the first time punitive damages were awarded under nuclear industry law. The case reached the US Supreme Court, which upheld the punitive damages. Kerr-McGee eventually settled for $1.38 million. The Cimarron plant closed in 1975 and was fully decommissioned by 1994.