The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) conducted more than 100 atmospheric atomic detonations at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) between 1951 and 1962 depositing radioactivity throughout the United States but particularly the rural communities just “downwind.” The monitoring of radioactivity and efforts to warn downwind residents, however, failed to ensure their safety. I engage in archival analysis of AEC documents to examine decision making in reference to radioactive fallout. In recounting the socionatural history of atmospheric testing at the NTS, the present study argues operational conduct was lethargic due to the adoption of specious organizational heuristics. They included the assumption that fallout is subject to predictable atmospheric dispersion; fallout has noncumulative, undifferentiated effects on people; and downwind residents were prone to unreasoning panic. Thus AEC officials were continually chasing problems after they arose and in the absence of containment of fallout focused on containment of public perception and dialogue. The study concludes by highlighting the lessons relevant to contemporary sociotechnical activities.
...More
Thesis
Celso, Jr. Baldivieso;
(2016)
Irradiating Eden: The El Verde Experiment and the Atomic Energy Commission's nuclear prospecting in Latin America, 1954-1970
(/isis/citation/CBB898540521/)
Book
Alexander von Schwerin;
(2015)
Strahlenforschung. Bio- und Risikopolitik der DFG, 1920–1970
(/isis/citation/CBB851567278/)
Book
Larry C. Johns;
Alan R. Johns;
(2017)
The Baneberry Disaster: A Generation of Atomic Fallout
(/isis/citation/CBB760417809/)
Thesis
William Marino;
(2018)
Outer Space in a Western Place: How Environmental Perceptions of the American West Shaped the Space Race
(/isis/citation/CBB499322594/)
Article
Aylen, Jonathan;
(2015)
First Waltz: Development and Deployment of Blue Danube, Britain's Post-War Atomic Bomb
(/isis/citation/CBB001550620/)
Book
Robert A. Jacobs;
(2022)
Nuclear Bodies: The Global Hibakusha
(/isis/citation/CBB596228330/)
Article
Maika Nakao;
Takeshi Kurihara;
Masakatsu Yamazaki;
(2015)
Yasushi Nishiwaki, Radiation Biophysics, and Peril and Hope in the Nuclear Age
(/isis/citation/CBB811784097/)
Book
Lente, Dick van;
(2012)
The Nuclear Age in Popular Media: A Transnational History, 1945--1965
(/isis/citation/CBB001253035/)
Article
Underwood, Martin C.;
(2011)
Joseph Rotblat's Archive: Some Anomalies and Difficulties
(/isis/citation/CBB001320777/)
Chapter
Hanson, Todd A.;
(2009)
Exploding the Strangelove Myth: Cold War Nuclear Weapons Work and the Testing Times of William Ogle
(/isis/citation/CBB000952571/)
Article
Creager, Angela N. H.;
(2006)
Nuclear Energy in the Service of Biomedicine: The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's Radioisotope Program, 1946-1950
(/isis/citation/CBB000671451/)
Article
Boudia, Soraya;
(2009)
Radioisotopes “Economy of Promises”: On the Limits of Biomedicine in Public Legitimization of Nuclear Activities
(/isis/citation/CBB000931751/)
Article
Martín Peano;
Juan Manuel Pedrosa;
(2018)
Uso de radioisótopos en medicina. El rol de la Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica en su impulso (1950-1982)
(/isis/citation/CBB682065988/)
Article
Creager, Angela N. H.;
(2002)
Tracing the Politics of Changing Postwar Research Practices: The Export of `American' Radioisotopes to European Biologists
(/isis/citation/CBB000770636/)
Book
Michelle Follette Turk;
(2018)
A History of Occupational Health and Safety: From 1905 to the Present
(/isis/citation/CBB386875990/)
Chapter
Angelo Baracca;
(2009)
Scienza e guerra: fisica fondamentale, ricerca e realizzazione di nuove armi nucleari
(/isis/citation/CBB450782713/)
Chapter
Simone Turchetti;
(2009)
Il brevetto, la bomba atomica e l'FBI : storia del brevetto Fermi sul metodo per la produzione di sostanze radioattive artificiali, 1934-1953
(/isis/citation/CBB699442517/)
Thesis
Jessee, Emory Jerry;
(2013)
Radiation Ecologies: Bombs, Bodies, and Environment during the Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Testing Period, 1942--1965
(/isis/citation/CBB001560759/)
Book
Cantelon, Philip L.;
Hewlett, Richard G.;
Wiliams, Robert C.;
(1991)
The American atom: A documentary history of nuclear policies from the discovery of fission to the present. Second edition
(/isis/citation/CBB000042582/)
Article
Kirsch, Scott;
Mitchell, Don;
(1998)
Earth-moving as the “measure of man”: Edward Teller, geographical engineering, and the matter of progress
(/isis/citation/CBB000079559/)
Be the first to comment!