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The Naval Scientist Who Wanted To Know How Football Players Would Survive Nuclear War

It wouldn’t take much, the fan explained, just some radioactive material inside the players, who would then undergo a physical examination.
by Chris Roberts via Defector on January 24, 2025
Boats carry Hanford Journey attendees down the Columbia River in Washington toward Hanford reactors.

Indigenous Celebration of Hanford Remembers the Site Before Nuclear Contamination

At the fourth annual Hanford Journey, Yakama Nation youth, elders and scientists share stories about a land that is a part of them.
by B. 'Toastie' Oaster via High Country News on August 1, 2024
John Wayne plays Genghis Khan in "The Conqueror" (1956)

The John Wayne Flop Linked to High Cancer Rates

"The Conqueror" was filmed downwind of a nuclear test site. A new documentary tells the story of the fatal film set, and the community affected.
by Zach Budryk via The Hill on June 30, 2024
Tourists at the Trinity site in New Mexico.

Trinity Fallout

The U.S. government’s failure to recognize nuclear Downwinders in New Mexico is part of a broader failure to reckon with the legacies of the Manhattan Project.
by Nora Wendl via Places Journal on June 18, 2024
Major General Groves and J. R. Oppenheimer view the base of the steel tower used for the first atomic bomb test near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on Sept. 11, 1945.

A New, Chilling Secret About the Manhattan Project Has Just Been Made Public

Turns out Oppenheimer’s boss lied, repeatedly, about radiation poisoning.
by Fred Kaplan via Slate on August 8, 2023
Survivors walk among the smoldering ruins of Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.

Hiroshima's Anniversary Marks an Injustice Done to Blast Survivors

On this date 78 years ago, the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. Survivors involuntarily provided key medical data for years, without receiving any help.
by Arthur Caplan via Scientific American on August 6, 2023
Black and white photo of Pruitt-Igoe buildings being destroyed.

Pruitt-Igoe: A Black Community Under the "Atomic Cloud"

In the 1950s, the U.S. military conducted unethical radiological experiments on Black communities, including the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex.
by Devin Thomas O’Shea via Protean on November 28, 2022
Radioactive plume from atomic bomb over Nagasaki

Hiding the Radiation of the Atomic Bombs

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. came with censorship and obfuscation about the effects of the radiation on those who were exposed.
by Matthew Wills, Janet Farrell Brodie via JSTOR Daily on February 24, 2022
Geneticist Hermann Muller and his electronic equipment.

The Big ‘What If’ of Cancer

How a feisty, suicidal Nobel laureate infuriated both Hitler and Stalin, and stalled cancer research for fifty years along the way.
by Sam Kean via The Disappearing Spoon on November 23, 2021
Miners with pick axes sit on rocks.

How Yellowcake Shaped The West

The ghosts of the uranium boom continue to haunt the land, water and people.
by Jonathan P. Thompson via High Country News on July 30, 2021
Woman's glowing face

“A Revolutionary Beauty Secret!”

On the rise and fall of radium in the beauty industry.
by Lucy Jane Santos via Literary Hub on July 8, 2021
A protestor of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant.

The Grieving Landscape

Upon discovering that her mother had been a member of the group Women Strike For Peace (WSP), Heidi Hutner becomes obsessed with feminist nuclear history.
by Heidi Hutner via Longreads on June 30, 2020

How the U.S. Betrayed the Marshall Islands, Kindling the Next Nuclear Disaster

A close look at the consequences of nuclear testing.
by Susanne Rust via Los Angeles Times on November 10, 2019

When Televisions Were Radioactive

Anxieties about the effects of screens on human health are hardly new, but the way the public addresses the problems has changed.
by Susan Murray via The Atlantic on September 23, 2018

Hiroshima

A hundred thousand people were killed by the atomic bomb, and these six were among the survivors.
by John Hersey via The New Yorker on August 31, 1946
partner

What Japan’s Atom Bomb Survivors Have Taught Us About the Dangers of Nuclear War

Japanese survivors recall the day the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and warn of future risks.
via Retro Report on April 10, 2025
Lagoon in Majuro Atoll with tropical trees in the background and a rainbow in the sky

On the Map

The flag of Bikini Atoll looks a lot like the American flag. It has the same red and white stripes. The resemblance is intentional.
by Carleigh Beriont via Process: A Blog for American History on December 12, 2023
A few people are gathered at the Atoms For Peace bus, a mobile exhibit about nuclear power operated for a time by the Atomic Energy Commission. c. 1947.
partner

‘Atoms for Peace’ Was Never All That Peaceful—And the World Is Still Living With the Consequences

The U.S. sought to rebrand nuclear power as a source of peace, but this message helped mask a violent history.
by Tommy Song via Made By History on December 8, 2023
A worker in the Shinkolobwe mine.

The Dark History ‘Oppenheimer’ Didn't Show

Coming from the Congo, I knew where an essential ingredient for atomic bombs was mined, even if everyone else seemed to ignore it.
by Ngofeen Mputubwele via Wired on August 21, 2023
Grafitti reading "no mines."

The Navajo Suffered From Nuclear Testing. 'Oppenheimer' Doesn't Tell Our Story

We must recognize the continued suffering and sacrifice of the Navajo that built the atomic era.
by Buu V. Nygren via TIME on July 21, 2023

‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ Tell the Same Terrifying Story

The “Barbenheimer” double feature captures the dawn of our imperiled era.
by Tyler Austin Harper, Amanda Shendruk via Washington Post on July 19, 2023
A sign that reads "U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Test Site, Yucca Mountain Project."

The Fallout

The fight over nuclear waste on Yucca Mountain.
by Andrew Alam-Nist via The Politic on March 30, 2023
Nuclear power plant cooling towers billowing steam.
partner

Nuclear Meltdowns Raised Fears, but Growing Energy Needs May Outweigh Them

Catastrophic accidents at power plants have heightened fears about the safety of nuclear energy, but it's getting renewed attention as a way to fight global warming.
via Retro Report on January 5, 2023
People watching uranium mill waste blow in the wind.

The Cold War Legacy Lurking in U.S. Groundwater

A catalog of cleanup efforts at the 50-plus sites where uranium was processed for nuclear weapons, where polluted water and sickness were often left behind.
by Mark Olalde, Mollie Simon, Alex Mierjeski via ProPublica on December 3, 2022
The mushroom cloud created by the Castle Bravo nuclear test

The US Devastated the Marshall Islands — And Is Now Refusing to Aid the Marshallese People

The 1954 US nuclear tests absolutely devastated the small island nation, but the US has steadfastly refused to make real amends for it.
by Chuck McKeever via Jacobin on February 16, 2022
High Schoolers in Arkansas painting a nuclear test

The Long Road to Nuclear Justice for the Marshallese People

U.S. nuclear weapons testing displaced residents of the Marshall Islands. They're still fighting for justice for the devastation of their homeland and health.
by Olivia Paschal via Facing South on April 2, 2021
Operation Crossroads, Test Baker as seen from Bikini Atoll, July 25, 1946.

Bombs and the Bikini Atoll

The haute beachwear known as the bikini was named after a string of islands turned into a nuclear wasteland by atomic bomb testing.
by Lina Zeldovich, Steve Brown via JSTOR Daily on October 13, 2020
The start of the comic, a bus driving through the desert with the text "I am on a BUS FULL OF HISTORIANS speeding through the desert"

The Desert Keeps Receipts

A dispatch from a tour of a Cold War-era nuclear test site in the Mojave Desert.
by B. Erin Cole via Contingent on October 8, 2020
Survivors of Hiroshima

Daughters of the Bomb: A Story of Hiroshima, Racism and Human Rights

On the 75th anniversary of the A-bomb, a Japanese-American writer speaks to one of the last living survivors.
by Erika Hayasaki via Narratively on August 5, 2020

Counting the Dead at Hiroshima and Nagasaki

How many people really died because of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings? It’s complicated. There are at least two credible answers.
by Alex Wellerstein via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on August 4, 2020
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