The Hanford Plaintiffs: Voices from the Fight for Atomic Justice

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Author(s): Trisha T Pritkin & Foreword by Richard C. Eymann (2020)

For more than four decades beginning in 1944, the Hanford nuclear weapons facility in southeastern Washington State secretly blanketed much of the Pacific Northwest with low-dose ionizing radiation, the byproduct of plutonium production. For those who lived in the vicinity, many of them families of Hanford workers, the consequences soon became apparent as rates of illness and death steadily climbed—despite repeated assurances from the Atomic Energy Commission that the facility posed no threat. Trisha T. Pritikin, who has battled a lifetime of debilitating illness to become a lawyer and advocate for her fellow “downwinders,” tells the devastating story of those who were harmed in Hanford’s wake and, seeking answers and justice, were subjected to yet more suffering.

At the center of The Hanford Plaintiffs are the oral histories of twenty-four people who joined In re Hanford Nuclear Reservation Litigation, the class-action suit that sought recognition of, and recompense for, the grievous injury knowingly caused by Hanford. Radioactive contamination of American communities was not uncommon during the wartime Manhattan Project, nor during the Cold War nuclear buildup that followed. Pritikin interweaves the stories of people poisoned by Hanford with a parallel account of civilians downwind of the Nevada atomic test site, who suffer from identical radiogenic diseases. Against the heartrending details of personal illness and loss and, ultimately, persistence in the face of a legal system that protects the government on all fronts and at all costs, The Hanford Plaintiffs draws a damning picture of the failure of the US Congress and the Judiciary to defend the American public and to adequately redress a catastrophic wrong. Documenting the legal, medical, and human cost of one community’s struggle for justice, this book conveys in clear and urgent terms the damage done to ordinary Americans in the name of business, progress, and patriotism.

The New Climate War

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Author(s): Michael E. Mann (2021)

A renowned climate scientist shows how fossil fuel companies have waged a thirty-year campaign to deflect blame and responsibility and delay action on climate change, and offers a battle plan for how we can save the planet.

Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat. These are some of the ways that we've been told can slow climate change. But the inordinate emphasis on individual behavior is the result of a marketing campaign that has succeeded in placing the responsibility for fixing climate change squarely on the shoulders of individuals.

Fossil fuel companies have followed the example of other industries deflecting blame (think "guns don't kill people, people kill people") or greenwashing (think of the beverage industry's "Crying Indian" commercials of the 1970s). Meanwhile, they've blocked efforts to regulate or price carbon emissions, run PR campaigns aimed at discrediting viable alternatives, and have abdicated their responsibility in fixing the problem they've created. The result has been disastrous for our planet.

In The New Climate War, Mann argues that all is not lost. He draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters-fossil fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and petrostates. And he outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change, including:

  • A common-sense, attainable approach to carbon pricing- and a revision of the well-intentioned but flawed currently proposed version of the Green New Deal;

  • Allowing renewable energy to compete fairly against fossil fuels

  • Debunking the false narratives and arguments that have worked their way into the climate debate and driven a wedge between even those who support climate change solutions

  • Combatting climate doomism and despair-mongering

With immensely powerful vested interests aligned in defense of the fossil fuel status quo, the societal tipping point won't happen without the active participation of citizens everywhere aiding in the collective push forward. This book will reach, inform, and enable citizens everywhere to join this battle for our planet.

More information about the book can be found here.

The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump

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Author(s): William J. Perry & Tom Z. Collina (2020)

The President has the power to end the world in minutes. Right now, no one can stop him.

Since the Truman administration, America has been one "push of a button" away from nuclear war—a decision that rests solely in the hands of the President. Without waiting for approval from Congress or even the Secretary of Defense, the President can unleash America's entire nuclear arsenal.

Almost every governmental process is subject to institutional checks and balances. Why is potential nuclear annihilation the exception to the rule? For decades, glitches and slip-ups have threatened to trigger nuclear winter: misinformation, false alarms, hacked warning systems, or even an unstable President. And a new nuclear arms race has begun, threatening us all. At the height of the Cold War, Russia and the United States each built up arsenals exceeding 30,000 nuclear weapons, armed and ready to destroy each other—despite the fact that just a few hundred are necessary to end life on earth.

From authors William J. Perry, Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration and Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in the Carter administration, and Tom Z. Collina, the Director of Policy at Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation in Washington, DC, The Button recounts the terrifying history of nuclear launch authority, from the faulty 46-cent microchip that nearly caused World War III to President Trump's tweet about his "much bigger & more powerful" button. Perry and Collina share their firsthand experience on the front lines of the nation's nuclear history and provide illuminating interviews with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Congressman Adam Smith, Nobel Peace Prize winner Beatrice Fihn, senior Obama administration officials, and many others.

Written in an accessible and authoritative voice, The Button reveals the shocking tales and sobering facts of nuclear executive authority throughout the atomic age, delivering a powerful condemnation against ever leaving explosive power this devastating under any one person's thumb.

In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age

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Author(s): Stephanie Cooke (2009)

From the Manhattan Project to the present energy crisis and what it means for our future, a sweeping chronicle of our recurring failure to manage the power of the atom.

This provocative history of nuclear power is perfectly timed for today, when Americans are gravely concerned with nuclear terrorism, and a nuclear renaissance is seen as a possible solution to global warming. Few have truly come to terms with the complexities of an issue which may determine the future of the planet. Nuclear weapons, it was once hoped, would bring wars to an end; instead, they spurred a massive arms race that has recently expanded to include North Korea and I ran. Once seen as a source of unlimited electricity, nuclear reactors breed contamination and have been used as covers for secret weapons programs, from I ndia and Pakistan to Iraq and Iran.

The evolving story of nuclear power, as told by industry insider Stephanie Cooke, reveals the gradual deepening of our understanding of the pros and cons of this controversial energy source. Drawing on her unprecedented access, Cooke shows us how, time and again, the stewards of the nuclear age―the more-is-better military commanders and civilian nuclear boosters―have fallen into the traps of their own hubris and wishful thinking as they tried to manage the unmanageable. T heir mistakes are on the verge of being repeated again, which is why this book deserves especially close attention now.

Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World

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Author(s): Lesley M.M. Blume (2020)

New York Times bestselling author Lesley M.M. Blume reveals how one courageous American reporter uncovered one of the deadliest cover-ups of the 20th century—the true effects of the atom bomb—potentially saving millions of lives.

Just days after the United States decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear bombs, the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. But even before the surrender, the US government and military had begun a secret propaganda and information suppression campaign to hide the devastating nature of these experimental weapons. The cover-up intensified as Occupation forces closed the atomic cities to Allied reporters, preventing leaks about the horrific long-term effects of radiation which would kill thousands during the months after the blast. For nearly a year the cover-up worked—until New Yorker journalist John Hersey got into Hiroshima and managed to report the truth to the world.

As Hersey and his editors prepared his article for publication, they kept the story secret—even from most of their New Yorker colleagues. When the magazine published “Hiroshima” in August 1946, it became an instant global sensation, and inspired pervasive horror about the hellish new threat that America had unleashed. Since 1945, no nuclear weapons have ever been deployed in war partly because Hersey alerted the world to their true, devastating impact. This knowledge has remained among the greatest deterrents to using them since the end of World War II.

Released on the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, Fallout is an engrossing detective story, as well as an important piece of hidden history that shows how one heroic scoop saved—and can still save—the world.

The Doomsday Book: Can the World Survive?

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Author(s): Gordon Rattray Taylor (1970)

A terrifying roll call of man's sins against the earth as she plunges toward a future of sterility and filth. Doomsday...the fateful time when the trees and grass will burn up, the creatures of the sea will die, the air will fill with smoke, the daylight will vanish, and a third of mankind will perish. How close are we to that day of disaster Saint John foretold?

Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

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Author(s): Alex Wellerstein (2021)

The first full history of US nuclear secrecy, from its origins in the late 1930s to our post–Cold War present.

The American atomic bomb was born in secrecy. From the moment scientists first conceived of its possibility to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and beyond, there were efforts to control the spread of nuclear information and the newly discovered scientific facts that made such powerful weapons possible. The totalizing scientific secrecy that the atomic bomb appeared to demand was new, unusual, and very nearly unprecedented. It was foreign to American science and American democracy—and potentially incompatible with both. From the beginning, this secrecy was controversial, and it was always contested. The atomic bomb was not merely the application of science to war, but the result of decades of investment in scientific education, infrastructure, and global collaboration. If secrecy became the norm, how would science survive?

Drawing on troves of declassified files, including records released by the government for the first time through the author’s efforts, Restricted Data traces the complex evolution of the US nuclear secrecy regime from the first whisper of the atomic bomb through the mounting tensions of the Cold War and into the early twenty-first century. A compelling history of powerful ideas at war, it tells a story that feels distinctly American: rich, sprawling, and built on the conflict between high-minded idealism and ugly, fearful power.

If You Poison Us: Uranium and Native Americans

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Author(s): Peter H. Eichstaedt (1994)

The supply of uranium that fueled the Cold War came largely from the Four Corners area of the Colorado Plateau. Some of the richest deposits were found on the Navajo Reservation, where about one-fourth of the miners and millers were Native Americans. For nearly three decades in the face of growing evidence that uranium mining was dangerous, state and federal agencies neglected to warn the miners or to impose safety measures in the mines.

Nukewatch Quarterly

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Nukewatch is a Wisconsin-based environmental and peace action group, dedicated to the abolition of nuclear power, weapons and continued radioactive waste production. Nukewatch brings critical attention to the locations, movements, dangers, and the politics of nuclear weapons and dangerous wastes. Staff and volunteers advocate Gandhian nonviolence in education and action, and report on nuclear issues in the Nukewatch Quarterly newsletter.

Three Mile Island (Images of America)

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Author(s): Erik V. Fasick (2018)

Construction of the Unit 1 reactor began on Three Mile Island in May 1968, with the production of commercial electricity beginning in 1974. Approval for the construction of the Unit 2 reactor was granted in November 1969, and it was only producing commercial electricity for less than 90 days when on March 28, 1979, a loud roar erupted from the nuclear power plant that shook windows and awakened residents in the communities on both sides of the Susquehanna River. This loud warning was the result of a series of mechanical and human errors that contributed towards a partial meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor and the most severe nuclear power accident in the history of the United States. In the days that followed, many residents of the surrounding communities left their homes and possessions out of fear of radioactive plumes, meltdowns, and exploding hydrogen bubbles. Those who remained behind faced anxiety and uncertainty, as information flowing from the power plant circumvented the truth and lacked credibility. As the Unit 2 reactor cooled, protests and court battles ensued as attempts were made to restart the power plant's dormant Unit 1 reactor. The Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station symbolized the fight over nuclear power as a safe and viable energy source in the late 20th century.


Dying from Dioxin: A Citizen's Guide to Reclaiming our Health and Rebuilding Democracy

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Author(s): Lois Marie Gibbs (1999)

According to recently released studies from the EPA, widespread exposure to dioxin is destroying the health of the American people. In Dying From Dioxin, Lois Marie Gibbs and other scientists and activists describe the alarming details of this public health crisis, and explain how citizens can organize against this toxic threat.

From Library Journal

Dioxins are highly toxic chemical byproducts of pesticide manufacturing, incineration, and chlorine-based paper milling. Manufacturers, such as the paper industry, recently requested the Environmental Protection Agency to reexamine dioxin data from 1986 in which federal regulations limited dioxin exposure and emissions. As a result, the EPA's Dioxin Reassessment, released in early 1995, verified 1986 data that dioxins are not only carcinogenic but may also cause serious adverse effects on the immune and reproductive systems of humans and wildlife. Within this framework, grass-roots activist Gibbs and the group she cofounded after Love Canal, Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes (CCHW), have compiled this seminal citizen's how-to manual on dioxins and their chemical cousins. The history, politics, exposure pathways, toxicology, and chemistry of dioxin are covered in an easy-to-understand and powerful style. True to CCHW's commitment to environmental justice principles and community empowerment, organizing strategies like a "Dioxin Resolution" are among the aids citizen-activists may use in communicating concern to regulators and industry on dioxin-related issues. Highly recommended for special, public, and academic libraries and to those involved in public policy, citizen activism, and environmental health.
Susan Maret, Univ. of Colorado, Denver
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Yes, I Glow in the Dark!

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Author: Libbe HaLevy, 2018

HaLevy's YES, I GLOW IN THE DARK! tells how one nuclear victim learned to fight back with the facts, sarcasm, and a podcast. She also nails the nuclear industry on how they have continued to get away with slow motion murder, from manipulating language to their ongoing, well-funded media propaganda campaigns, to flat-out lying. Fierce, uncompromising, yet surprisingly funny, HaLevy has written a book that Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate Dr. Helen Caldicott calls, “Absolutely fascinating. This book must be read by all people who care about the future of the planet and their children.”

Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats

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Author(s): Kristen Iversen (2013)

A shocking account of the government’s attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic waste released by a secret nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and a community’s vain search for justice—soon to be a feature documentary

Kristen Iversen grew up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated "the most contaminated site in America." Full Body Burden is the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and--unknown to those who lived there--tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium. It's also a book about the destructive power of secrets--both family and government. Her father's hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what was made at Rocky Flats--best not to inquire too deeply into any of it. But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions and discovered some disturbing realities.

Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPA documents, and class-action testimony, this taut, beautifully written book is both captivating and unnerving.

Silent Witnesses: Three Decades After Chernobyl's Nuclear Disaster

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Author(s): Daan Kloeg and Hans Wolkers, 2014

About three decades ago, the world was faced with the greatest nuclear disaster in history when a nuclear reactor exploded in Chernobyl. The enormous consequences for people and the environment still persist. But almost everyone has now forgotten the disaster. This unique book gives the reader a picture of the consequences of this enormous disaster. The English book consists of two parts. Part I deals with the background of the disaster and its long-term effects. Part II contains an exceptional collection of dramatic photographs taken in the so-called "dead zone". An almost depopulated area where only a handful of people still live. The silent witnesses ("Silent-Witnesses") of the disaster play a prominent role in the book. The authors Hans Wolkers and Daan Kloeg, both scientists, authors and photographers have a solid scientific background and have published numerous scientific and popular scientific articles. Part of the proceeds will go to the victims of the disaster.

A unique book with 250 poignant photos of a devastated area in Ukraine. With dramatic photos of the last inhabitants of the 'death zone' around Chernobyl. The book is scientifically based, but also artistic and artistic.

100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything

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Author: Mark Z. Jacobson (2021)

Numerous laws – including the Green New Deal – have been proposed or passed in cities, states, and countries to transition from fossil fuels to 100% clean, renewable energy in order to address climate change, air pollution, and energy insecurity. This textbook lays out the science, technology, economics, policy, and social aspects of such transitions. It discusses the renewable electricity and heat generating technologies needed; the electricity, heat, cold, and hydrogen storage technologies required; how to keep the electric power grid stable; and how to address non-energy sources of emissions. It discusses the history of the 100% Movement, which evolved from a collaboration among scientists, cultural leaders, business people, and community leaders. Finally, it discusses current progress in transitioning to 100% renewables, and the new policies needed to complete the transition. Online course supplements include lecture slides, answers to the end-of-chapter student exercises, and a list of extra resources.

Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future

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Author: Kate Brown (2019)

Dear Comrades! Since the accident at the Chernobyl power plant, there has been a detailed analysis of the radioactivity of the food and territory of your population point. The results show that living and working in your village will cause no harm to adults or children.

So began a pamphlet issued by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health―which, despite its optimistic beginnings, went on to warn its readers against consuming local milk, berries, or mushrooms, or going into the surrounding forest. This was only one of many misleading bureaucratic manuals that, with apparent good intentions, seriously underestimated the far-reaching consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.

After 1991, international organizations from the Red Cross to Greenpeace sought to help the victims, yet found themselves stymied by post-Soviet political circumstances they did not understand. International diplomats and scientists allied to the nuclear industry evaded or denied the fact of a wide-scale public health disaster caused by radiation exposure. Efforts to spin the story about Chernobyl were largely successful; the official death toll ranges between thirty-one and fifty-four people. In reality, radiation exposure from the disaster caused between 35,000 and 150,000 deaths in Ukraine alone.

No major international study tallied the damage, leaving Japanese leaders to repeat many of the same mistakes after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Drawing on a decade of archival research and on-the-ground interviews in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, Kate Brown unveils the full breadth of the devastation and the whitewash that followed. Her findings make clear the irreversible impact of man-made radioactivity on every living thing; and hauntingly, they force us to confront the untold legacy of decades of weapons-testing and other nuclear incidents, and the fact that we are emerging into a future for which the survival manual has yet to be written.

Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology in America

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Author(s): Stephen Hilgartner, Richard C. Bell, and Rory O’Connor (1983)

Examines the public relations efforts of the nuclear power industry and analyzes its use of euphemisms and confusing language in order to encourage the development of nuclear energy

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands

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Author: Chris Bohjalian (2014)

"Bohjalian (whose many novels include the Oprah favorites “Midwives” and “The Sandcastle Girls”) writes about the nuclear aftermath in a scrupulously realistic way. He doesn’t blow the slightest apocalyptic or dystopian wind on those fuel rods. It’s nonetheless a scary scenario, the frightening flip side of every Homer Simpson mishap that millions of us have laughed at.”

You can read our review here.

About a Mountain

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Author: John D’Agata (2010)

“When John D’Agata helps his mother move to Las Vegas one summer, he begins to follow a story about the federal government’s plan to store nuclear waste in a place called Yucca Mountain... Here is the work of a penetrating thinker whose startling portrait of a mountain in the desert compels a reexamination of the future of human life.”