Searching for a Voice, Nuclear Weapons and Waste in the Western U.S.
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The purpose of this blog is to provide a series of Document Based Questions (DBQs)in order to further my readers' understanding of how the Cold War and the arms race impacted America through the irradiation of large portions of the American west, and via the weather, most of the lower 48 states.
The irradiation of much of the lower 48 states is one of the greatest unpunished crimes in American history. According to KUED a public station in Utah, people in the West were exposed to three times as much radiation as victims of the Chernobyl Disaster, and while there was a compensation bill eventually passed by congress this only covered people who were affected by 13 specific cancers and restricted the geographical location of the people compensated to a far smaller area than the actual fallout's spread.
Not only were people affected by the radiation, but soon after the open air tests began in full swing in the early 1950s but cows began producing irradiated milk that made their milk dangerous to drink. Also, sheep in the area began to fall ill much the same as humans would also do.
In a series of New York Times articles that you will read you will learn the full impact of this radiation. In summary: women miscarried, children got Leukemia, adults began to see many, many forms of cancer manifest themselves that were previously rare, even Kodak experienced a "fogging" effect on its film so that customers began complaining.
Why did this all happen? Again, according to KUED's exhaustive research the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)choose the American West because it was deemed "unpopulated" or sparsely populated. However, as evidenced by lawsuits brought by the survivors and farmers economically impacted by the fallout there were many people who lived in the area. What this is called now is environmental injustice, or in some cases environmental racism or classism. While the population of the rural American west is mostly white it is not a rich area. As with most rural areas the population earns its income from seasonal farm labor, travels very long distances to work, or lives off the land as best they can. In short, these are not the kind of people who can mount a successful opposition to a large government agency like the AEC, which at the time was one of the most influential bodies of the American government due to the primacy (important position) of nuclear weapons as a military and political tool during the Cold War.
However, the impact on rural inhabitants of the West is not over. There has been a long running legal and political battle over where nuclear waste should go. When nuclear bombs are made, and when nuclear power plants run there is waste generated. This waste is radioactive and still in many cases capable of causing serious injury, and eventual cancer if people are exposed to it. Its half-life, the time it takes to become safe, can be up to hundreds of years. Where do we put all of this dangerous waste? A group of Indians in the West Desert in Utah volunteered to house some of this waste in order for payment for use of their land.
This move by the Goshute Indians in Utah sparked a legal and political battle that has stretched from the 1980s, to the 1990s, and even into the 2000s. While the battle appears dead now we still need facilities to store this waste. Sadly, the same reasons for exploding nuclear bombs in the West are the same reasons for housing nuclear waste in the West - much of the west is relatively unpopulated and people in more populated areas are likely to mount successful defenses if politic ans attempt to place the waste in their areas.
There has been a long and storied history, much of it being very sad and unfortunate, of atomic weapons and energy sources in the American west. It represents an often untold story of the government victimizing vulnerable areas of the country because they do not have the power to fight back. However, in the 21st century there is a new chapter in the history of nuclear material in the west. Now, powerful outside forces are preventing the storage of nuclear waste in poor rural areas in the American West despite improvements in safety and the economic benefits that would result in allowing storage of the material.
The people of the rural west, during the Cold War, and in our present times have not had their voice recognized - this page is a tribute to them and the struggles they went through, and are currently experiencing.
Source: www.kued.org
For further reading: if you feel like you need a little bit more background on this subject please navigate your browser to these URLs:
Background on Fallout in Utah and the Western United States
Specific Information about Utah, Nuclear Fallout, and Chemical Weapons
