On the Home Front: The Cold War Legacy of the Hanford Nuclear Site - Softcover

Michele Stenehjem Gerber

4.22

27 ratings by Goodreads

9780803270688: On the Home Front: The Cold War Legacy of the Hanford Nuclear Site

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803270682 ISBN 13: 9780803270688

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 1997

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The Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state was built by the Army Corps of Engineers and the DuPont Corporation during World War II to produce plutonium for America's first atomic weapons. The gigantic facility was immediately successful, producing and delivering in less than two years the plutonium for the world's initial atomic explosion and for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki that effectively ended World War II.

The first complete history of Hanford was made possible by the declassification of tens of thousands of formerly secret government documents relating to the construction, operation, and maintenance of the site. It describes the releases (planned and accidental) of radioactive and chemical contaminants; their pathways through the environment; attempts to correct problems under conditions of rapid, nearly chaotic change; and the secrecy of government operations that made scientific review of Hanford processes virtually impossible.

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About the Author:

Michele Stenehjem Gerber holds a Ph.D. degree in history from the State University of New York at Albany and is now a staff historian for Westinghouse Hanford Company. Her articles have appeared in Environmental Review and Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History.

Review:

"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 (Peter Gould)

"The revelations of the environmental damage done to air, land, and water are daunting. . . . Gerber has access to all the Hanford data and is an acknowledged expert, so continued access and assessment will lie with her."—Choice (Choice)

"Gerber expertly described the construction of the Hanford Engineer Works and its role in the creation of the plutonium used in the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The book’s focus, however, was the nuclear buildup of the Cold War and the environmental legacy of those years of waste and secrecy. The second edition is essentially the same book, but with an extensive new epilogue that covers the 10 tumultuous years since the publication of the first edition. Structured in that way, the book now provides an instructive counterpoint to the Cold War years of secrecy and waste... Gerber skillfully demonstrates that the environmental cleanup and governmental openness of the last decade have not reduced the controversy and complexities surrounding Hanford."—Robert Bauman, Society and Natural Resources (Robert Bauman Society and Natural Resources)

"[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 Pacific Northwest for more than half a century."—Oregon Historical Quarterly (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 (Pacific Historical Review)

"A work of history dispassionately told, thoroughly footnoted, the literary equivalent of a nuclear explosion."—Michael E. Long, National Geographic (Michael E. Long National Geographic)

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