The Baneberry disaster in review: An interview with case lawyer and author Larry Johns

Abstract

Larry Johns, Esquire’s impressive career as a lawyer propelled his involvement in numerous legal battles that centered on exposure to environmental harms. Here, Dr. Stephanie Malin interviews Larry Johns to discuss the accidental Baneberry venting disaster during that underground nuclear test, the subsequent Baneberry legal case and outcomes that ensued, and legacies of nuclear contamination and environmental injustice. The interview focuses on Larry’s twenty-five year battle for justice for two workers impacted by the botched detonation of the Baneberry nuclear test, and what this signifies for other people and communities with their own nuclear legacies. Larry reflects on institutional barriers that limit people’s abilities to access useful and accurate information regarding safety and health risks and the ways that federal denial of negligence – as well as a refusal to acknowledge links between workers’ cancers and exposure to fallout – ultimately shaped the outcomes of this case. This interview reminds us of the important ways that institutions shape environmental risks and (in)equality and how these institutions can be even more accountable for and effective in protecting public health and the environment.