$20-Million Fine, Plea Deal Reported on Nuclear Weapons Plant Wastes

Rockwell International Corp. has agreed to plead guilty to criminal violations of hazardous-waste laws arising from its operation of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, government sources said Wednesday.

The company, which also has agreed to pay a fine of nearly $20 million, was expected to enter guilty pleas to 10 charges today in federal court in Denver, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The plea bargain with Rockwell International caps a three-year investigation of the alleged mishandling of hazardous wastes and illegal discharging of pollutants into two streams that flow into the water supplies of four Colorado cities.

Will Blanning, a company spokesman in Seal Beach, Calif., would not comment Wednesday. He said it was “company policy not to discuss pending legal matters.”

The fine would be the second largest paid by a corporation for environmental crimes, said Dan Riker, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. Last year, Exxon Corp. paid a $100-million criminal fine to settle charges arising from the disastrous wreck of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker off Alaska in 1989.

Rockwell International operated the Rocky Flats plant under contract to the Energy Department, which oversees the manufacture of the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Rocky Flats, 16 miles from Denver, makes plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads.