The Apocalypse Factory

by Steve Olson

  246“It would be fine with me”: Rhodes, Arsenals of Folly, 265.

  248Since 1943, the federal government had built: Gephart, 5.3–5.16.

  249the waste would deliver a fatal dose: Lloyd et al., 1.

  249plant operators had released: Gephart, 5.25–5.37.

  250In 1986, a group called the Hanford Family: D’Antonio, 200–22.

  251Careful study of Hanford workers: Gilbert et al., “Mortality of Workers,” 586–90, and Wing, “Plutonium-related work,” 153.

  252studies going all the way back to the Manhattan Project: Voelz et al., 611.

  252nor could studies of populations living nearby: Boice et al., 431.

  253“On the morning I got plucked”: Flenniken, 19.

  CHAPTER 23: REMEMBERING

  255The department was estimating: Niles, x, 60.

  256“no future long-term use”: US Department of Energy, Decommissioning of Eight Surplus Production Reactors, 1.1.

  256“We’re not in the museum business”: Ballard, “70th Anniversary Address.”

  258“You have, here in your midst”: Rhodes, “Hanford and History.”

  258In 2013, unsuccessfully: Smith, Congressman Doc Hastings, 369–70.

  259The law firms that the government hired: Greene, 10.

  261“a substantial degree of reassurance to the population”: National Academy of Sciences, 121.

  261“These ‘reassurances’ were worthless”: Pritikin, 31.

  262“These findings do not definitively rule out the possibility”: Davis et al., 543.

  262Some people undoubtedly got sick and died: Grossman et al., 267.

  262In a hypothetical case where all Americans: National Research Council, 7.

  263Most scientists who study radiation and health: Cravens, 65–79.

  263“This is the greatest honor ever bestowed upon me”: LBL Research Review.

  264“Do I wish I hadn’t discovered plutonium?”: Jolly, 161.

  265more than two-thirds of the 49 people: Argonne National Laboratory, “The Chicago Pile 1 Pioneers.”

  EPILOGUE

  274One day in 1950: Jones, “Where Is Everybody?,” 3.

  275People have proposed dozens: Webb, If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens.

  275Reflecting on the Cuban missile crisis: Allison, “The Cuban Missile Crisis at 50,” 11.

  275People may be reassured that the number of warheads: Kristensen and Norris, 289.

  275Even a limited exchange of nuclear weapons: Toon et al., 1224.

  275A full-scale nuclear war would end food production: Robock et al., 9.

  276The reprocessing of reactor fuel to yield plutonium: Feiveson et al., 10–13.

  276All countries will need to agree to a verifiable and enforceable treaty: Daley, 155–88.

  278One time, Fermi was walking: Atomic Heritage Foundation.

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