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Book Summary
"Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats" is a 2012 non-fiction book by American writer Kristen Iversen. A work of memoir and literary journalism, this hybrid genre fuses Iversen's personal story of growing up in Cold War America with the profoundly shocking history of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons site near Denver, Colorado, called by the Department of Energy “the most contaminated site in America.” From numerous fires, radioactive contamination, misplaced or “lost” plutonium, an FBI raid, a sealed grand jury report, and a controversial cleanup, the book covers the story of Rocky Flats from its earliest beginnings in 1951 to the present day, where the site is slated to open as a wildlife refuge and public recreation area. The book tells the story of Rocky Flats workers, local residents, and activists. Iversen also details her own story of growing up in the 1970s in Arvada, Colorado, and examines the high cost of secrecy and silencing at the level of family, community, and nation. The story of Rocky Flats exposes problems also evident at other former nuclear weapons sites around the U.S. such as Hanford and Fernald, and echoes the threat posed by nuclear disasters in recent years including Chernobyl and Fukushima.

A book trailer video of Full Body Burden can be viewed on YouTube.

“Rocky Flats was the great shadow and mystery of my childhood. I wrote the book to try to understand." - Kristen Iversen

Critical Reception
Critical response was favorable. "Publisher’s Weekly" wrote "In this powerful work of research and personal testimony, Iversen chronicles the story of America’s willfully blinkered relationship to the nuclear weapons industry through the haunting experience of her own family in Colorado . . . conveying tremendous suspense and impressive control of her material." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Full Body Burden in the Media

 * Kristen Iversen's interview with NPR's FRESH AIR, June 12, 2012
 * In 2012, an excerpt from Full Body Burden was published in the June 11th edition of The Nation and Reader's Digest (July/August issue).
 * Kristen Iversen's interview about Full Body Burden with Leonard Gill from the MEMPHIS FLYER, June 14, 2012
 * Kristen Iversen's interview about Full Body Burden with the BOULDER BOOK STORE, June 15, 2012
 * Kristen Iversen's interview about Full Body Burden with Stephen Usery at BOOK TALK, WYPL 89.3, June 9, 2012
 * Kristen Iversen's interview with Dr. Helen Caldicott, June 8, 2012
 * Rocky Flats Legacy: Q & A with 5280: The Denver Magazine
 * Nuclear Fallout article in New York Times by Kristen Iversen, posted on March 10, 2012
 * Article in The Guardian by Naomi Wolf about Kristen Iversen's book, Full Body Burden: Growing up in the Nuclear Shadow of the Rocky Flats, From Rocky Flats to Fukushima: this nuclear folly

Editions
On the same date, an audiobook edition was published by Random House audio, narrated by Kirsten Potter, with the epilogue read by the author.
 * First edition, Hardcover - ISBN 978-0-307-95563-0, published in June, 2012 by Crown Publishing Group