Jeffrey

Olson
March 8, 2015
English 2010

Profile on ATK
I chose to interview someone who works for a company by
the name of ATK (Alliant Techsystems). They use natural gas at their
company and it was easy to get an interview with someone there
because my family knows people who work for ATK. The Person I

(Fig. 1 Company name)

interviewed has asked me not to disclose their name or identity as I write this profile. I have agreed to
not go against their will and will be using John Doe as the persons name. I chose to go out and interview
the person at the site where they work. It gave me a better idea of what kind of atmosphere the work
place was and gave me the opportunity to see what the person does on a daily basis.
The person who I interviewed is a man and is the programs manager for the company. He has
been working for this company for 33 years. We went to his office so I could talk to him about my
questions. The first question that I asked him after I got information about him working for the company
was, What were some reasons for coming and working for this company? he told me, Well Jeff that is
a very good question, I havent thought about that type of question for quite some time. He went on to
say, But I would say that it had to do with their Aerospace and Defense industry. I have always been
really good with math and sciences and this was perfect due to their focuses in math and science. They
provided me with travel opportunities and building motors
for missiles and launching satellites.

So for those of you who arent too familiar with

who ATK is and what they do I will briefly explain it. They
are based back east in Arlington Virginia, but they have
(Fig. 2 Motor test up for ATK in Box Elder County)

multiple factories around the country. The location of the

ATK that I interviewed at is in Magna, Utah. ATK is a company that specializes in Aerospace and defense.

Jeffrey Olson
March 8, 2015
English 2010
They build products that support the defense industry for our nation. They use natural gas at their
facility to provide heat for varies operations and building offices there. If you have any other questions
or concerns about the company you can also visit the website www.orbitalatk.com.
When I asked about the use of natural gas at his company he told me, We use natural gas for
heating buildings and for heating the water to provide radiant heating to operate buildings. That then
lead me to ask my next question I asked What are your thoughts about using natural gas in your
company? He then replied, It is a necessary cost to our company for operating the business. We then
started talking about costs and how expensive they are to run a company. I then asked him, What do
you think the contributing factor of using natural gas for your company? He told me, natural gas is
very efficient, it is more economical than electricity for heating it burns cleaner than other gases and
fossil fuels, and it burns with fewer emissions.

We then moved over to the environment as a whole and how the company plays a role in the

environment. I asked him, What do you think are some environmental factors caused by using natural
gas at your company? He told me, I dont think that my company has many factors contributing to the
environment. Sure we use natural gas to get heating, but it is a lot more efficient than other
companies.
That made me curious as to what would be said in response to my next question which was, Is
there a more environmentally friendly product that your company has considered using? If so what is
it? he kindly told me, There isnt a better alternative right now that is more efficient than natural gas.
The only alternative would be electricity which is much more expensive and is most likely generated by
burning coal or other fossil fuels. That answer was one that I am not opposed to. I wouldnt want to be
wasting more money burning more harmful chemicals and fossil fuels to get heat for my company
either.

Jeffrey Olson
March 8, 2015
English 2010

From researching earlier about Fossil Fuels in Utah I realized that the majority of business have

switched over to Natural Gas. I think it is a very plausible alternative to finding a cleaner source to get
heat. Going back to fossil fuels and how pollutant to our environment they are, the Utah Office of
Education has some pretty interesting information about them. We got on the topic of fossil fuels and
so I felt like I should go into that approach by asking him, Do you feel like other companies such as
yours uses fossil fuels and or natural gas for the same reasons as your company does? he replied with
saying, Most likely, I think that many companies use natural gas because of what I explained earlier in
that it is cheap and more efficient to get heat with.
That led me to my next question in asking him, Do you think that the use of natural gas in your
company is contributing to the air pollution in Utah? If so what could your company do to help prevent
it? It took him a few seconds to think about the question before he responded. He eventually came to
this remark; which was, No, I dont believe that the use of natural gas contributes to the air pollution in
Utah. Natural gas is a clean burning fuel which is very efficient and also cheap. I thanked the man for
letting me interview him and after a couple more minutes of talking I left with what I needed to write
my paper.

When I returned home and started to put what I got in response to my questions in proper form

to write about I remembered what he had mentioned to me at the end with my last question. That got
me to thinking about natural gas and if it was the best solution for our environment and if it really was
hurting us more than helping us to survive. After doing a little bit more research on natural gas I came to
the conclusion that it is a better gas to use instead of coal or oils. That if more companies switched to
natural gas it would help our air pollution problem and we wouldnt see so many inversions in the
winter season.

Jeffrey Olson
March 8, 2015
English 2010
MLA Citing
"Company Overview." Orbital ATK. Orbital ATK Inc., 2015. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.orbitalatk.com/about/company-overview/>.

Figure 1. "Google Images Orbital ATK Company Logo." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
<https://images.google.com/>.
"Interview about Natural Gas at ATK." Personal interview. 4 Mar. 2015.
"Oil & Gas Facts." State of Utah. N.p., 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.oilgas.ogm.utah.gov/Facts/Facts.htm>.

Westbroek, Glen. "Fossil Fuels." Fossil Fuels. Utah Office of Education, 6 Oct. 1998. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.
<http://utahscience.oremjr.alpine.k12.ut.us/sciber99/8th/energy/sciber/fuel.htm>.