Rereading the Nature of Atomic Doom Towns

摘要

Beginning in 1951, the Nevada Proving Ground, just 65 miles north of downtown Las Vegas, replaced the Pacific Islands as the site where the United States perfected its nuclear arsenal. Mushroom clouds and dramatic atmospheric nuclear tests, like "Nancy" (figure 1), became visual spectacles that defined the modern history of the region. By 1957 the Nevada Test Site (NTS) was an "outdoor laboratory" and "experimental landscape" central to US Cold War weapons development and host to an array of remarkable and often reckless government-sponsored scientific activities.