Nightmare in Churchrock
Commeration of Churchrock uranium tailings spill Thursday

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

CHURCHROCK — For Larry King, an underground mine surveyor at United Nuclear Corp.’s Churchrock mill, July 16, 1979, started out as just another work day. It was the day the second-largest radiation release in history occurred. The release is surpassed only by the 1986 Chernobyl reactor meltdown.

Every other Friday he and members of the engineering department came in at 6 a.m., before the day shift workers, to take measurements of all the production done within the last two weeks.

“Based on those measurements, that’s how the miners got paid,” he said.

As he was driving to work that Friday morning, “It was kind of dark and I didn’t see anything. I was still sleepy and I didn’t look around; I just drove in, put my underground equipment on — slickers, boots and everything,” he said.

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