Most of us go about the business of living our lives from day to day and they revolve almost entirely around our own personal relationships with others. In other words, these relationships are hardly ever connected to anything that might be seen as “bigger than both of us”.
Karen Silkwood for example. Only Karen worked in a nuclear facility. The Kerr-Magee plant in Oklahoma. And the plant was engaging in “dangerous practices”. And she got wind of them. More to the point she decided to “get involved” and do something about it.
And they – “they” – killed her for it.
Or, rather, so many believe.
Capitalism at its rawest. After all, when the bottom line is the bottom line anyone who threatens it is fair game. It’s only a matter of how far they will go. And whether they get caught. And not every narrative of this sort has a happy ending. Like, for example, Erin Brockovich’s.
This was back when films of this sort [think China Syndrome] were coming out exposing one or another scandal and/or calamity in the nuclear energy field. And look where we are now. Still gassing up. And coming closer and closer to dealing with the consequences of “the greenhouse effect”.
Of course the tricky thing about “doing the right thing” in situations like this is that those who are doing the wrong thing are the ones providing all the jobs. So, if you go after them, you risk making all those jobs disappear. And that can end up pissing off a lot more people than the folks wearing the white hats. Or, as Gilda puts it, “Karen, I LIKE MY JOB!”
IMDb
[b]The scene where Karen sets off the radiation alarms actually happened. Her level of contamination was forty times the safe limit.
The one scene that was particularly difficult for Meryl Streep, was the one in which Karen flashes her breast to her co-workers while on the job. It was a scene that was “very awkward,” she said, “because I’m always so sensitive about women doing nude scenes. It’s a personal gripe. I did it because, in context, I thought she probably would do something like that. It made sense. But it’s still a completely bizarre and horrible thing to do in front of a crew.”
Movie posters for the film featured a preamble that read: “On November 13, 1974, Karen Silkwood, an employee of a nuclear facility, left to meet with a reporter from the New York Times. She never got there”.
When Karen Silkwood’s real-life boyfriend at the time, Drew Stephens, saw the film, he was very moved. “It was magic,” he told People magazine. “It makes a human being out of Karen instead of a myth.” [/b]
trvia at IMDb imdb.com/title/tt0086312/tri … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkwood
trailer: youtu.be/iNyrSR5JGh8
SILKWOOD [1983]
Directed by Mike Nichols
[b]White hat: Come on in, trainees. This brown powder you see here is mixed plutonium and uranium oxide. And these trained technicians are fabricating it into fuel pellets. Karen, could you explain the procedures in this glove box?
Karen: Yeah. what we’re doing is we’re blending and mixing the plutonium and uranium oxide into correct ratios. And then we sift it for impurities. And then it’s fed into the slugging press which makes the pellets.
…
Trainee: What about radiation effects from all this material?
White hat: We’ve all seen a poor guy suffering the effects of sunburn. Radiation is like that. It’s the kind of thing that can’t hurt you…unless you’re careless with it.
…
Man: There’s nothing they can do. Where they going to park a contaminated truck? It’ll stay that way twenty-five thousand years.
Drew: They can put it in space. Hell, put it in orbit. Put it on the moon.
Karen: What’s going on?
Drew: They cooked a truck. There was a leak in one of the barrels.
…
New man [after hearing a siren wail]: What the hell was that?!
Morgan: It’s a test.
New man: How do you know?
[the PA announces “This is a test. This is only a test.” ]
Man: They always say that. You know some poor son of a bitch got his ass fried.
Karen: What I don’t get is how we have all these tests but never go through the drill. If this was a real airborne contamination we’re supposed to get out of here.
Man: We can’t do the drill. It might stop production for ten minutes.
Karen: If it had been the real thing, they’d shut down the plant…and I could have had the whole weekend.
…
Karen: You were supposed to work my shift yesterday!
Gilda: Karen, they shut down.
Karen: Say what?
Gilda: There was a contamination in our section.
Karen: When?
Gilda: Right after you left. Karen, I’m not saying this to upset you…but you ought to know they’re saying that you did it.
Karen: I did it?
Gilda: They knew you wanted the weekend off.
…
Quincy [head of the union to Karen]: The company has got to blame somebody for the contamination…otherwise, it’s their fault.
…
Dolly: Thelma’s cooked.
Karen: Huh?
Dolly: I said Thelma is cooked.
…
Drew: Thelma only got 24 DPMs.
Karen: Is that bad?
Drew: It’s not super bad. Are you just waking up to this? You think we’re working with puffed wheat over there?
Karen: I’m just asking a question.
Drew: If you’re really worried about cancer, stop smoking.
…
Karen: Thelma, did they give you a nasal smear?
[Thelma shakes her head]
Karen: You make them give you a nasal smear. They’re supposed to. Make Hurley give you one. And make him tell you the count! And make sure he’s telling you the truth because there’s a lot of liars around here.
…
Drew: I wish I could take care of you better.
Karen: I remember in high school my mama saying to me…“Now, what’d you want to go and sign up for that science class for? There’s no girls in that science class. Why don’t you take Home Ec? That’s the way to meet the nice boys.” I said, “Mama, there ain’t no boys in Home Ec. Boys are in the science class.” She hated when I said, ‘Ain’t.’
…
Karen: This says all that stuff about acceptable levels it’s all bullshit.
Dolly: What is?
Karen: Well, it says here… “Plutonium gives you cancer.” Says it flat out.
Dolly: Where’d you get that?
Karen: It came in all that union stuff from Washington. You got one. Everybody got one. Dolly: Hurley works there. Think he’d work there if he was going to get cancer?
Karen: Listen to this…“genetic damage.”
Dolly: Meaning what?
Karen: Meaning it goes on down into your kids. It says here…“Gross physical and mental defects.”
Dolly: I already got them.
…
Karen: What are you doing to the negative?
Winston: Sometimes when you take a picture you get these white spots in there so we make them go away.
Karen: Doesn’t somebody have to look at them to make sure they’re OK?
Winston: Me.
Karen: Yeah, but I mean…
Winston: You mean what?
Karen: How do you…How do you know if they’re just spots? They could be defects in the weld.
Winston: No, no, no. I’ve already checked the weld. I’m just putting beauty marks on them.
…
Quincy: What this means is, if we lose this certification election there ain’t going to be any union at this plant. Nobody standing up for us against Kerr McGee which I read in the newspapers is gonna take in $1.5 billion this year. And which, as you all know takes about as much time thinking about our problems as grease takes to go through a goose.[/b]
He needs volunteers.
[b]Karen: You could be on the committee.
Drew: What committee?
Karen: Negotiating committee.
Drew: You?
Karen: Yeah. On the union negotiating committee.
Drew: Karen, let me give you a hint. Don’t flash 'em.
Karen: It turns you on.
Drew: Yeah, but I’m not management.
Karen: I’m as smart as Hurley is.
Drew: Just as tactful. You don’t just stand toe to toe with someone call him a motherfucker, and get anywhere.
Karen: I’ll keep it in mind.
…
Karen: Drew, do you… Do you feel different about me since I got cooked?
Drew: What do you mean?
Karen: You know.
Drew: Well…I still want to fuck you. But I sure as hell don’t want to fuck Thelma anymore.
…
Angela: Karen, you ever been downtown? There are two big streets. One’s called Kerr, and one’s called McGee. And that’s how I see it. They own the state, they own everybody in this state and they own practically everybody I work on.
…
Angela: Drew, I can always tell when a dead person I beautify worked for Kerr McGee because they all look like they died before they died.
…
Karen: There’s one more thing. I work in metallography. In X-rays. And sometimes we… Quite frankly, we have negatives altered. The negatives of the welds in the fuel rods. They take a weld and cross section it. Then they photograph it, and there’s a defect. Then they just touch it up.
Max: Touch it up?
Karen: With a Pentel pen. Right on the negatives. They fill in the white spots.
Max: You’re talking about X-rays of fuel rods?
Karen: The fuel rods they’re sending up to that…We’re sending up to that breeder reactor… they’re testing in Hanford.
Max: Do you know what that means?
Karen: I know they shouldn’t do it.
Max: In an ordinary nuclear plant you can have meltdowns, poisonous gas, and dead people. That’s nothing compared to what can go wrong with a breeder. You put defective fuel rods in a breeder reactor for all we know, the whole state could be wiped out. Can you get documentation of that.
Karen: I guess so.
Max: If you could get documentation, that would be very important. We’ll set you up with a reporter from the “New York Times”…get the company up against the wall on negotiations. But you’d have to have documentation.
Karen: I don’t know about putting names in the newspaper.
Max: Names aren’t the point. The point is that if you’re right they could kill off two million people. There’s a moral imperative involved here.[/b]
The clock starts ticking.
[b]Drew: People are going to lose jobs, Karen.
Karen: Well, some of them ought to. There’s a moral imperative here.
…
Drew: I quit.
Karen: You what?
Drew: This afternoon. Gave my notice.
Karen: Why didn’t you tell me?
Drew: I don’t know. I just didn’t tell you.
Karen: Why’d you quit?
Drew: I just don’t give a shit.
Karen: You don’t give a shit if everybody in the plant is being poisoned?
Drew [to himself after Karen as gone back into the house]: Don’t give me a problem I can’t solve.
…
Doctor [at union meeting]: In the coal mines years ago they used to put canaries in the tunnels. If the canaries dropped dead they knew there was a gas leak. But it’s a brand-new industry…so you’re the canaries. The trouble is, you’re not going to drop dead right away. It might take ten years. Twenty. We don’t know. Here’s what we know…Plutonium causes cancer. Anybody tells you we don’t know how much plutonium causes cancer, they’re lying. What we don’t know is how little plutonium causes cancer. The government says that the maximum permissible body burden for your lifetime is 40 nanocuries. Let me tell you how much that is. That is a tiny dot on a piece of paper. We say that’s too much. We say that it takes less than that to kill you. We don’t say it’s twice too much or three times too much. We think that that is 115,000 times too much. A pollen-sized grain of plutonium injected in mice causes cancer. When you inhale it, and it lodges in your lungs you’re married to cancer.
…
Winston: How come why didn’t we hear any of this before? And we didn’t see any of you guys until they decided to vote the union out or not? If you’re so worried about us where the hell were you in the beginning?
Paul: What we’re saying is you need someone looking out for your health and safety. The company says they’re taking care of you. Do you believe that?
Winston: Yeah. I believe that.
Paul: You do?
Winston: Then you’re the only guy in that room that still does.
Winston: Well, let me tell you something else then. It doesn’t matter whether you work in plutonium or dog food because they ain’t gonna give you a thing, there’s nowhere left to go! You close this plant down and then what? You’re gonna be up in Washington, but we’re gonna be down here outta work! Your cancer’s a maybe, that’s all it is, a maybe…
…
Karen: What if somebody rapes me because you lost your key?
Dolly: Who’s going to rape you that you ain’t already fucked?
…
Karen: Mr. Hurley, did you tell an employee in wet processing that it was against union rules to give blood?
Hurley: I don’t recall saying that, no.
Karen: Good. Because I just called the bloodmobile and they can come over on Tuesday.
…
Karen: You think Angela left on account of me? Let me tell you something, girl. Drew left on account of you and Angela.
Dolly: If you believe that, you’re crazier than people say. You took about as good care of Drew as you took of your kids.
…
Karen [snooping through the files]: Morgan! You scared me.
Morgan: Meant to.
Karen: I’m doing something good.
Morgan: I know what you’re doing…and you’re the wrong person to be doing it. It’s dangerous. That’s all I’m saying.
…
Hurley: Come on, Karen. Concentrate.
Karen: How did that plutonium get in my house?
Hirley: Did you put it there?
Karen: Did I what? Are you crazy? You think I put…You think I’d contaminate myself?
Hurley: I think you’d do anything to hurt this company.
…
Karen: Somebody spiked my urine sample container.
Hurley: Who?
Karen: How do I know who? Anybody could have done it. You leave it sitting there by the punch-in at the plant! Anybody could’ve dropped a little plutonium in there. There’s a lot of people at the plant hate me.
Hurely: The whole house is hot. How did it get hot?
Karen: I spilled it! I told you, man!
Doctor: That doesn’t explain the readings we’re getting on your nasal smear. 45,000 DPM. Karen: What?!
Doctor: 45,000 DPM.
Karen: Oh, my Jesus. I’m internally contaminated. That’s what you mean.
Hurley: We don’t know what it means.
…
Hurley: We can help you with a place to stay. We can help you with money.
Karen: But first I have to sign something, right? You want me to sign a statement saying I did all this.
Hurley: Just in your own words what happened.
Karen: OK. In my own words? I’m contaminated. I’m dying.
…
Drew: What the hell happened?
Karen: They’re killing me. They’re trying to kill me. They want me to stop what I’m doing. They contaminated me, you know that? I’m internally contaminated now.
Drew: Now, listen to me. We’re going to go to Los Alamos on Thursday and we’ll get a full body count from some doctors who know what they’re doing.
…
Doctor: All right, Mr. Stephens and Miss Pelliker you both check out well below permissible body limits. You were exposed to Miss Silkwood and the house but you show minimum detectable activity now. Miss Silkwood. We have detected americium in both lungs and both sides of your chest. Americium is produced when plutonium disintegrates. And extrapolating from your americium level we estimate you have an internal contamination of six nanocuries of plutonium. The maximum permissible body burden for occupational exposure is 40 nanocuries. As you can see, you are well under that level. Karen: I’m under it.
…
Drew: You don’t owe the union anything.
Karen: Let’s not fight.
Drew: You don’t owe the New York Times anything.
Karen: Let’s not have a fight now. OK?
Drew: OK. We can always have a fight later.
…
Title card: The precise circumstances of Karen’s death are unknown. It is also not known whether she had any documented with her. None were found. An autopsy revealed a high level of the tranquilizer Methaqualone and some alcohol in her bloodstream. Oklahoma police ruled her death a single car accident. A year later the plant shut down.[/b]