Whistleblower Karen Silkwood

As so often happens in America, a country that frequently prefers movie reality to the actual thing, public memory of the name Karen Silkwood likely comes mainly from the film "Silkwood," starring the incomparable Meryl Streep in the title role.

The real Karen was a bargaining committee member for the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union who was working as a technician at the Crescent, OK, plant of the company Kerr-McGee.

Silkwood did not like the company's handling of employee safety and health problems and in 1974, testified before the Atomic Energy Commission. Her charges included falsified inspection reports and improper handling of radioactive plutonium.

In November 1974, she was seen leaving Crescent in her car with a stack of docmuents to drive to Oklahoma City for a meeting with New York Times reporter David Burnham.

On her way there, she was in a one-vehicle wreck and was found dead at the scene. No documents were recovered from the car, and although the accident was a head-on collision, there was evidence of her car having been pushed or run into from behind.

Silkwood's estate sued Kerr-McGee in 1979. The suit was successful. The trial court awarded her estate $10,500,000. The amount of the award was reduced on appeal to a mere $5,000, but the U.S. Supreme Court sided with her estate. In the end, a $1.38 million out-of-court settlement was reached. Kerr-McGee folded its nuclear fuel plant in 1975.