Customer Reviews

Bombs in the Backyard: Atomic Testing and American Politics (Nevada Studies in History & Political Science)

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Thoughtful, well-researched, scholoarly perspective without the emotional hysterics common in most histories of nuclear testing. Excellent legislative history of laws leading to compensation for victims of radioactivity due to atmospheric testing. Highly recommended for the serious student of nuclear policy.

Bombs in the Backyard focuses primarily on atomic bomb testing with most of its focus on the [[Wikipedia:Nevada Test Site]]. Its strengths lie in detailing how said testing, specifically radiation, affected not only the health of military personnel, but those downwind of the atomic blasts (including livestock). The second half of the book focuses on how the government, specifically Pentagon and the [[Wikipedia:Atomic Energy Commission]] failed to provide various forms of protection and information to those affected by the testing, and how the courts and federal government mostly fail to compensate the victims of atomic testing. The book was originally penned in the late 1980's.

Most Nevadans represent a fairly independent spirit, as well as harboring personal views far abstract from those of another planet (eeer, state). Of all the places that a Nuke laboratory could be built within the confines of the USA, this was probably the most likely and indicated place. Unlike a certain Harry we know who has done all possible to kill mining and nuclear testing, or nuclear rehabilitation, a large faction of true Nevadans don't hold his views.

The NTS could be used for any sort of scientific research plausible to the advancement of the human race, and should be used as such. If it means gathering up all the waste from elsewhere in the world to create a mass of potential recycling material, what the beef here? Better here that somewhere where it could not viably be controlled or managed. Technology is such that the transport system could be completely isolated and secure; above or below ground.

Dina Titus knows more than any casual reader could ever know about possible and potential parameters as regards nuclear testing and innovation...

1] Nuclear Test Site in Nevada was at first a propaganda ploy aimed at converting denisons of the cold war into thinking that a nuclear warhead was the savior of the American world. What it did teach was that the USA military regime was as, and could be as, ruthless as the russians, koreans, or any other world power with nuke capability. Of course, the first ones to be in line for convincing: US Army and Navy troops who were lined up in foxholes merely 2 miles away from ground zero (and marching to GZ soon after the blast), and those on ships in the Pacific Ocean made to inspect radiated ships within hours after nuke device detonation. Though it took years of litigation, downwinders eventually were given the ability to apply for radiation compensation. For the most part, Big Gov holds the cards, and all of the data, and it is up to the lowly farmer or rancher to research the secret databases and substantially prove their case. Same holds true for NTS former workers who built and assembled all the structures and bomb encasements on the site. Meaning that few living or dead, will ever reap any sort of monetary award.

2] It wasn't enough to prove major effects of the nuclear device detonation, and component ability, life, function, half life, structural effects, and variants; but the bomb started going off in the air at 3000 feet, high enough to be seen by the cocktail crowd in Las Vegas going out into the desert near the modern corner of Rancho and Smoke Ranch Road, or up in the highlands near the current MLK and Cheyenne Avenue. Gradually being shot lower and lower, to ground level or just a few tens of feet above, then underground to thousands of feet, and in tunnels, the devices detonated came to number 1700+ (the actual number has not been fully disclosed). Many bombs were primarily detonated at a cost of of anywhere from $1 million up to $500 million each. As noted, a device could be housed and detonated for any sort of complex, mundane, or trivial prupose- any one of which, above ground or near the surface, would shower portions of Southern Nevada, Western Nevada, Eastern California, NE AZ, and Western or Southern UTAH with moderate to extreme radioactive dustings. (Totally irresponsible on the military's part).

3] Nuclear devices were tested to be a construction tool. The most infamous of these was the Sedan test, whose crater is now 1280 feet across and roughly 320 feet deep (the device was buried at 780 feet. The dirt that used to comprise the crater hole was blown clean over two mountain ranges, and fallout dust into regions beyond to the East. The actual bomb was the size of a quart gatorade bottle, and the detonation comprised 70% fusion, and 30% fission. The main problem of deepening the Panama Canal using the device (its intended use) was controlling the fallout and the radioactivity in the area.

4] NRDS. A flank area of the Test Site, the Apollo rocket was perfected here, and the area served as an alternate test area of nuclear technology that did not include nuke warheads. There were buildings where nuke devices could be assembled of disassembled, radiation testing from the Bren Tower, enrichment testing, and others. In order to discover what it would take to sabotage a nuclear reactor to detonation or other serious malfunction, two were built and destroyed here. The area included cask and container testing for transporting nuclear components across the continent and elsewhere. It was in NRDS that radiactive isotopes were developed as a base product, then sent to other laboratories to develop into medical uses and applications. Yucca Mountain is on the flank of NRDS.

5] NTS, the big laboratory. Cows, horses, wildlife, burros, geology, plate tectonics, water history, archaeology, anthropology, flight, power generation, electrical technology, chemistry, alloys and metallurgy, safety and rescue, mining, boring machines, earthquake technology. If one were to focus solely on the BOMB, they would lose sight of the fact that the BOMB was only the facilitator, for scientists from around the world have been able to participate in and on site activities; even former adversaries. Not every experiment is a military experiment. Though the military was fairly reckless in its handling of the employees, contractors, and the maladies caused by their 'vigor' to learn about the bomb, the bombwas only one component of the site, and other experiments that make up a lot of our modern world is directely and indirectly the product of the NTS.

Dina Titus is fully aware of many of the feature of the Test Site, and her book explains and narrates many important aspects of the testing. Perhaps for all of the malignment of the NTS, overall it was a necessary exercise. It would have been a whole lot better had the officials used better judgment in protecting the NTS employees, servicemen, and downwinders. The problem with the whole infamous part of the NTS stems from irresponsible military actions and propaganda. When secrecy and experimentation are involved, no public is going to get the whole story.

As things go, it is my opinion that the NTS should be restarted and USED again (it seems to be a theme implied in the book). The area will never be clean or non radioactive. As a laboratory, it has lots of significant potential. NRDS, one of the most radioactive sites on the planet, should be used to develop peacetime and military technology. Certainly even glass encasement facilities could be built and managed here.

Nuke reactors should be built to re-energize nuke products used in power generation, medical uses, as well as encasement and deactivation of spent nuke rods and surplus. There are both high and low risk reactors. Those that make cat scan and other medical radioactive isotopes are not all that risky, nor high tech.

Yucca Mountain should be licensed and be the first of other nuclear storage facilities. NASA could have a place to rebuild and rennovate space gear, now that no one living is capable of building a Saturn Rocket, much less have a place to improve it.

Nevada is a fairly unique state, and lots of open space; but no budget, and no cash, no long term ability to keep its posterity working at home. Nevada could have as its residents, all the most advanced technical minds and schools. One laboratory begets another. The NTS isn't solely about bombs; the majority of test results ended up affecting all planet occupants in a vastly more poistive way. A fact that even the book's author does not deny.

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Under normal conditions, I wouldn't include the following information, but with the subject above I feel it is imperative that those who are not yet informed, to be informed.

[...].

As part of the Energy Employees Occupational Compensation Act; Part E, anyone who worked in supplies, testing, mineral extraction and refining, Test site support personnel (including building trades), miners, safety personnel, salvage and cleanup, transportation, and others, who worked at testing facilities in the development and discovery of Nuclear based weaponry and testing, MAY be eligible for compensation from the US Government as part of being a cold war and technology developer or test facilitator. Living and Deceased; meaning that the families of those who contracted illness or medical conditions as a result of working in such areas across the USA, can apply for the benefit in lieu of their deceased loved ones, as well as living people.

This process can be long and tedious, and there are those who may not make it (qualify) due to sketchy information, lost records, and relative government obstacles placed along the path. There are those, like myself, who, having worked in some very 'hot' areas, and exposed to massive radiation in the course of employment, have had their explicit and precise records destroyed by former employers as a means to reduce retribution, retaliation, and monetary awards to the victim(s). Instead of the Government simply giving the award, one has to prove their case as though they had a Ph.D in medical, biology, and chemistry, as well as some inside knowledge (that can be verified) through adjacent sources and character witnesses.

Rather than expound further, I would suggest that you or your relatives of the affected parties, contact the Ombudsman at the sites, email address, or phone numbers listed above. Best of luck!

Outstanding. Any person who believes the governments lies about Yucca Mountain and that nuclear waste can be transported safely across the United States, should read this book.

An uneven book that tries to cover a wide range of issues and topics, but does so in most cases only superficially. Some topics seem to be well researched, while others seem to have been thrown together on the fly. There's very little new in this book, which is of interest only for its perspective, which is not vehemently anti-testing.