Jacob Brown Full Body Burden chapter 1

              One of the things that struck me about the first chapter was the government's cover up of both fires. The crazy guy ranting about government conspiracies seems a little less insane after reading this. Both fires spilled toxic chemicals into the environment and both times the public was not made a aware of the full extent of the contamination. After the first fire it was said that there was little contamination, but later studies indicated that there may have been a full nuclear reaction. Also, the paper claimed the contamination from the second fire was contained on site, but the first hand description of the smoke escaping from the building and wind conditions suggest that many urban areas did indeed become contaminated. The government is preventing the public from knowing the full extent of both fires to prevent any backlash that they would receive for their poor safety procedures. They are able to rationalize these cover ups by claiming they are for the good of national security and any extra information given to the public could be helpful to America's enemies. The government officials are likely to continue to cover up any incident regarding nuclear contamination until they are caught.