Silkwood

After Karen Silkwood’s tragic and fatal car wreck, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol began an investigation fast. In a matter of a couple days, Trooper Rick Fagan determined Karen’s car to have left the road as the result of falling asleep at the wheel, possibly aided by the use of drugs. But the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union, based on inconsistencies and perhaps errors within the official rep...

Karen Silkwood was exposed to dangerous levels of plutonium in November 1974. After discovering contamination on her body, she found that it had spread throughout her skin and lungs, with dangerously high levels in both. But the situation worsened. The contamination had spread to her personal life as well. Levels of plutonium were found in her apartment that were so high, all of her belongings had...

As Karen Silkwood continued to risk her own safety and livelihood by covertly taking documents from Kerr-McGee that, it is believed, suggested both neglegence and cover-up, she began noticing that not only was she seeking to make a change, she was also going through changes. She attributed her health issues to circumstances and events outside of the Cimarron plutonium plant, but when she registere...

As accidents and safety issues continued to occur at Kerr-McGee’s Cimarron facility in Crescent, Oklahoma, Karen Silkwood grew increasingly intolerant. When a position opened in the local Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union in the summer of ‘74, Karen, at the urging of others, threw her hat in the ring. She won the position, and in now time found herself in Washington D.C. discussing the plant...

Though she and her boyfriend Drew were originally excited to help usher in the age of atomic energy, the seeds of Karen Silkwood's disillusionment grew after she participated in her first strike and began witnessing an increasing number of safety issues and accidents. Before Karen worked at Kerr-McGee's Cimarron plant, an environmentalist named Irene Younghein got found out about its existence and...

When Karen Silkwood became involved with the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union Local 5283, it wasn’t long before she was participating in her first strike. Kerr-McGee was holding strong against the picketers. They hired line-breakers and went about business as usual, which also unfortunately meant operating at the risk of their employees, as safety precautions and conditions were far less th...

Under the leadership of Robert Samuel Kerr and Dean Anderson McGee, Kerr-McGee transformed from a small oil-drilling business into a conglomerate. Despite Kerr's personal tragedies, he achieved wealth and political success in the oil industry with Anderson's partnership. Kerr's political journey, from governor to senator, showcased his ambition and influence in national policies, benefiting both h...

Since the beginning, Karen Silkwood marched to the beat of her own drum. She chose chemistry over home economics. Love over university. The list goes on. Far from her humble beginnings, Karen ends up in Oklahoma City, where she answers a want ad for something that fascinates her: nuclear energy. The company was as enamored by Karen as she was about the work, but work isn't the only thing she finds...

At an Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union meeting in Crescent, Oklahoma, Karen Silkwood clinched documents tight. From the gathering at the Hub Café, she phoned her boyfriend to make sure he’d arrive on time to pick up a union official and a newspaper reporter from the Will Rogers airport in Oklahoma City. When the meeting was over, Karen hopped into her ’73 Honda Civic and sped south down High...

Karen Silkwood had a purpose. She was headed to a crucial meeting that would blow the whistle on the billion-dollar nuclear corporation she worked for. Instead, she died in a concrete culvert on a dark desolate stretch of highway just outside of Cresent, Oklahoma. To discredit her, authorities and the institution Karen sought to expose called her nothing more than an “emotionally disturbed and a s...