On the home front: the Cold War legacy of the Hanford Nuclear Site

Abstract

Really the first history of the bureaucratic and institutional development of atomic weaponry and power [and] how these are embedded in the larger public and national sphere ...not only an important scientific story but an important political, national, and human story. - Peter Gould, author of Fire in the Rain: The Democratic Consequences of Chernobyl. [Gerber's] skill in reconstructing the story of Hanford's environmental ravages has given us a book that can both alarm and instruct. - Journal of History. [Declassified documents] reveal a five-decade pattern of environmental insult that is breathtaking in its scope and pervasiveness...The story [Gerber] tells grips us: the sticky web of strategic choices involving Hanford and its purposes has ensnared every inhabitant ...of the Northwest for more than half a century. - Oregon Historical Quarterly. Although [Gerber] eschews sweeping conclusions for the most part, the evidence she assembles establishes a damning indictment of AEC [Atomic Energy Commission] management. This is a notable achievement. - Pacific Historical Review. A welcome contribution to the growing historiography of the Cold War. - American Historical Review. Offers insights that were previously unavailable to the public. - Environmental History Review. The Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state produced plutonium for the atomic bombs that effectively ended World War II. Here is the story of Hanford, made possible by the declassification in the 1980s of tens of thousands of government documents relating to the construction, operation, and maintenance of the site. In a new epilogue for this Bison Books edition, the author takes the Hanford story into the 1990s.