Plutopia Forever

physicsworld.com Reviews Alexei Kojevnikov white-collar professionals in the rest of the country. The litany of environmental crimes at both plutopia sites extends over decades. During the early years, Plutopia forever in a hurry to produce plutonium, the plants often processed irradiated fuel without letting it cool down long enough for the most radioactive, short-lived isotopes to decay. And when the Maiak Combine’s waste-storage facility overfilled in 1949, Soviet managers did not dare Reuters/Denis SinyakovReuters/Denis interrupt production. Instead, they decided to release radioactive liq- uids into the river Techa, contami- nating its basin forever. That same year, their American counterparts ordered the so-called “Green Run” – a release of highly radioactive waste into the Columbia River that was, they claimed, a scientific experiment. The waste facilities at both sites leaked and released isotopes into the air. Originally meant to be tem- porary, they were constructed upon a wishful assumption that science would eventually figure out how to Inhospitable zone Kate Brown does research in places ject, housing workers from the US dispose of radioactive garbage. In The area around the where most of her colleagues pre- plutonium-production facility in a 1957 a storage container at Maiak Techa river in Russia fer not to travel. Her wonderful racially segregated settlement. After overheated and exploded, produc- remains radioactively first book, A Biography of No Place the end of the Second World War, it ing Chernobyl-scale contamina- contaminated (2005), explored the pre-Second- evolved into a futuristic city that pro- tion in the Urals. Soviet authorities decades after the World-War history of the west- vided its residents – predominantly ordered the resettlement of villages nearby Maiak ernmost borderland of the Soviet blue-collar workers – with privileged from the most dangerous area along Combine’s Union, which was then home to a middle-class salaries and standards the Techa, but the resettlement took radioactive-waste mix of ethnic minorities, including of living, including better housing, several years and was not even com- facility overflowed. Polish, German, Ukrainian and schools, policing and special health- pleted, leaving some inhabitants Jewish. For her new book Plutopia, care services. within the heavily polluted zone. Plutopia: Nuclear Brown visited two of the world’s most In the early years, Richland’s In the US, special interests of land Families, Atomic radioactively contaminated regions: Soviet counterpart, Ozersk, segre- speculators ensured that areas near Cities, and the the areas near the Hanford Nuclear gated its permanent civilian work- the Hanford site were irrigated and Great Soviet and Reservation in Washington State force from conscripted soldiers and sold to aspiring farmers who were American and the Maiak Combine in the Ural prisoners, but motivated them with not informed of the risks. Plutonium Disasters Mountains, once the centres of plu- the sense of duty and self-sacrifice Plant supervisors – whether Kate Brown tonium production for the Ameri- that came directly out of the war- appointed by Soviet atomic agen- 2013 Oxford can and Soviet nuclear industries. time effort of saving the country cies or by corporate subcontractors University Press Her primary interest lies in exposing from foreign invasion. Not only the such as General Electric or West- £16.88/$27.95hb the dark underside of their military- rank-and-file, but also top scientists inghouse – established similarly 416pp 528pp economic activities: the history of and generals, exposed themselves to styled regimes of corporate loyalty, environmental pollution and the high levels of radiation during work secrecy, public assurances of safety development of segregated “atomic emergencies. By 1960, when the and intimidation of whistle-blowers. cities” that provided privilege and Soviet Union had achieved a modi- In Plutopia, Brown gives voice to better protection for the plants’ per- cum of security through nuclear critics of the cover-up practices as manent staff, but not for the “com- deterrence, the city made a transi- she describes her travels to the pol- moners” who lived and farmed just tion to a more peacetime mode and luted areas, interviews those who outside the fence. followed Richland in adopting a con- challenged the atomic establishment Brown, a historian at the Univer- sumerist strategy. The concept of the or were victimized by it, and reports sity of Maryland, Baltimore County, “middle class” is not in a literal sense stories of accidents, illnesses and invented the word “plutopia” to applicable to Soviet society, which genetic deformities possibly related characterize these cities, whose did not permit the development of a to radioactive exposure. citizens were compensated for their truly rich, upper class. However, its Brown is aware that her inform- risky work and diminished liberties elites were allowed a lifestyle that ants are not always reliable sources. with an abundantly consumerist life- reminds Western observers of their Indeed, many are prone to the sorts of style designed to ensure their loyalty own middle classes; just as in Rich- rumours and conspiracy theories that and conformity. The city of Rich- land, blue-collar workers in Ozersk are abundantly generated around all land, near the Hanford site, began received salaries and perks that closed sites that place strict control as an outpost of the Manhattan Pro- would have been appropriate for over information. But at the same Physics World March 2014 55 Reviews physicsworld.com time, they are also bearers and collec- they still engaged in what Brown calls autobiographical books. Vladislav tors of unique information that has “a crime of opportunity” by studying Larin’s Kombinat Maiak (2005), the often been ignored or overlooked. diseases and genetic disorders among most detailed existing account of the Overall, Brown does a careful and villagers who had been left to live zone’s ecological problems, is used in convincing job as a sceptical inves- along the banks of the radioactive a limited way. Insiders – residents of tigator. She reports personal stories Techa for two generations. For the plutopia – could have provided more and tries to independently verify and more dangerous work of cleaning up information, both in writing and in separate reliable from unconfirmed and containing accidents, both sites possible interviews. parts, while admitting that many used so-called “jumpers” – workers The winding down of the Cold War questions remain unresolved. conscripted or hired on a limited- left plutopia’s managers worried: One such unresolved problem term basis who were subsequently what would happen to their cities and concerns health risks associated with transferred elsewhere and no longer employees once plutonium was no long-term exposure to radiation in monitored for health effects. longer a top priority for the govern- relatively low average doses. In the Brown visited contaminated vil- ment? As it turned out, pollution is a early years, when radiation monitor- lages on the Techa and talked to their profitable business and cleaning it up ing was restricted primarily to high- residents, but could not get inside the guarantees an even more perpetual intensity gamma rays, workers at security zone encircling Maiak and source of spending than the initial certain stages of plutonium produc- Ozersk. This leaves the Soviet side production of radioactive materi- tion were often overexposed to other of her story somewhat lacking in als. Thus, even in the post-Cold-War dangers. Having observed dete- primary accounts, especially for the world, grants continue to pour into riorating health and some terminal chapters describing the early years of the military-industrial complex of cases among employees, Soviet doc- construction. To fill the gap, she uses the atomic cities, and to the haves tors coined the term “chronic radia- narratives from the secondary liter- rather than the have-nots. In her tion sickness” and imposed limits on ature about atomic spies. However, conclusion, Brown hints cryptically the overall time workers could spend such literature is neither very relia- that “We are all citizens of plutopia.” in dangerous areas. Over the years, ble (when writing about spies, many Her core metaphor may indeed be they treated about 1000 patients suf- authors feel entitled to embellish sto- extendable to our increasingly seg- fering from this disease, but their ries beyond reason), nor especially regated societies, to those living in American colleagues have been relevant to the topic (unlike Los Ala- gated communities or in states heav- reluctant to accept the diagnosis. mos, Hanford is not known to have ily guarded against immigration, In the meantime, some medical leaked classified information to the and for whom the existence of such crimes were also committed. During Soviet side). At the same time, some freedom-restricting boundaries is the late 1960s, US researchers used very appropriate sources are miss- justified by the sense of entitlement, prisoners in Walla Walla, near the ing. I was surprised to find no men- privilege and hierarchy created by Hanford site, as experimental sub- tion of Zhores Medvedev, who blew the boundaries themselves. jects and exposed their testicles to the cover of secrecy over the 1957 high doses of radiation. Soviet doc- radioactive disaster in the Urals, or Alexei Kojevnikov is a historian at the tors did not deliberately set up condi- of Mikhail Grabovsky’s Plutonievaia University of British Columbia, Canada, tions for human experimentation, but Zona (2002) and other quasi- e-mail [email protected] Web life: AstroEDU Who is behind it? Anything else I should know? AstroEDU is managed by Edward Gomez of the Las Each activity comes with extensive Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope and Pedro documentation for teachers. Some also give Russo of Leiden University in the Netherlands, information on how the activity could fit into with support from the International Astronomy particular science curricula; for example, “Model Union’s Office for Development.

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