DENVER (AP) — Activists are asking a judge to unseal documents from a 27-year-old criminal investigation into the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant outside Denver.
The activists said Thursday the documents could show whether the federal government did enough to clean up the site before turning part of it into a wildlife refuge and opening it to the public.
Rocky Flats made plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs until 1989, when it was shut down after a series of fires and accidental releases. After a grand jury investigation, the plant operator pleaded guilty to environmental violations and was fined $18.5 million.
The grand jury records are still sealed.
The plant site was cleaned up but remains off-limits. A buffer zone around the plant became a wildlife refuge and was opened to the public last fall.