In 1974, laboratory analyst Dusty Ellis and coworker Karen Silkwood worked at Kerr-McGee’s plutonium plant in Crescent, Oklahoma. After both women tested positive for plutonium contamination, they became activists campaigning for safer working conditions. Silkwood underwent intensive testing at Los Alamos, New Mexico, on November 10–11, 1974; the source says her contamination was substantially worse than Ellis’s. Silkwood died in a car crash on November 13, 1974, while investigating conditions at the plant, turning the workplace-safety dispute into a major criminal and civil controversy.
Ellis refused a company payment offered in exchange for dropping complaints and continued protesting after Silkwood’s death. In 1975, she was arrested after climbing the plant’s exterior wall with a shotgun and received one year of probation after pleading guilty to forcible entry. Her account and Silkwood’s case later became the basis of the 1983 film Silkwood, while Ellis received $67,500 for use of her likeness. The episode remains a prominent example of the dangers faced by nuclear-industry whistleblowers and the difficulty of securing accountability after alleged radioactive contamination.
