Journalist and author Joshua Frank article about The Mayak disaster of 1957:
..."while covered up by both the Soviets abroad and the US government at home, (it) should have raised serious alarms about nuclear safety and the risks associated with radioactive contamination. However, being truthful about the danger associated with producing atomic bombs and storing radioactive waste would have also meant having to confront the reality that Hanford, Mayak’s sister facility in the United States, along with other nuclear sites around the country, was putting local populations and environment in serious peril. Keeping the war machine running meant putting a positive spin on nuclear technology, from weapons to nuclear energy. In a sense, American power was based on the myth that there was little downside to nuclear proliferation, only endless potential. The mythical capabilities of atomic energy continue to permeate debates today about combating climate change and challenging our fossil fuel addiction."
(This is an excerpt from Frank's just published book Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America (That, is Hanford and the Columbia River of Washington State, the setting of my novel Storytellers at the Columbia River)
