Downwinders and the Radioactive West
In the 1950s, after several years of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, the United States government moved its above-ground testing program to the Nevada Test Site in the desert west of St. George. The small town was informed that the testing was taking place, and schoolchildren were even brought outside to watch the mushroom clouds appear in the distance. But beginning with apparent impacts on the local livestock, it soon became clear that the testing was not completely safe, despite denials by the Atomic Energy Commission that there was any cause for concern.
In his new documentary film