Risk, media, and stigma at Rocky Flats

Public responses to nuclear technologies are often strongly negative. Event s, such as accidents or evidence of unsafe conditions at nuclear facilities , receive extensive and dramatic coverage by the news media. These news sto ries affect public perceptions of nuclear risks and the geographic areas ne ar nuclear facilities. One result of these perceptions, avoidance behavior, is a form of "technological stigma" that leads to losses in property value s near nuclear facilities. The social amplification of risk is a conceptual framework that attempts to explain how stigma is created through media tra nsmission of information about hazardous places and public perceptions and decisions. This paper examines stigma associated with the U.S. Department o f Energy's Rocky Flats facility, a major production plant in the nation's n uclear weapons complex, located near Denver, Colorado. This study, based up on newspaper analyses and a survey of Denver area residents, finds that the social amplification theory provides a reasonable framework for understand ing the events and public responses that took place in regard to Rocky Flat s during a 6-year period, beginning with an FBI raid of the facility in 198 9.