Hanford Site

The Hanford Site in the United States was the home of the first full-scale plutonium reactor in the world. It produced millions of gallons of radioactive waste and is now the site of massive cleanup efforts.

Tags:

nuclear tests

Themes:

Landscape Transformation

Pollution

Regions:

Hanford Site

Nuclear Fission

The discovery of the nuclear chain reaction enabled the construction of atomic bombs and nuclear power plants—something never intended by the scientists.

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Mapping

The cartography of nuclear bombings and nuclear waste can be understood and visualized in different ways depending on who is drawing the map. This is a chapter of the virtual exhibition “Representing Environmental Risk in the Landscapes of US Militarization” by literary scholar Hsuan L. Hsu.

Representing Environmental Risk in the Landscapes of US Militarization

This virtual exhibition curated by literary scholar Hsuan Hsu examines the environmental impact of US military activities worldwide and how activists have used art and other forms of representational media to convey the harmful effects of militarization on the local population and landscape.

Hsuan Hsu

About the author

Hsu, Hsuan L.

University of California, Davis, USA

is an associate professor of English at the University of California, Davis and the author of Literature and the Production of Space in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (Cambridge) and Sitting in Darkness: Mark Twain’s Asia and Comparative Racialization (NYU, forthcoming). He has published articles on cultures of environmental risk in Jump Cut, Discourse, Daedalus, and New Literary History and co-edited a special issue of Discourse on the topic of “Environment, Race, and Representation.”

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Introduction

This is the introductory page of the virtual exhibition “Representing Environmental Risks in the Landscapes of US Militarization”—written and curated by literary scholar Hsuan Hsu.

Representing Environmental Risk in the Landscapes of US Militarization

This virtual exhibition curated by literary scholar Hsuan Hsu examines the environmental impact of US military activities worldwide and how activists have used art and other forms of representational media to convey the harmful effects of militarization on the local population and landscape.

Hsuan Hsu

About the author

Hsu, Hsuan L.

University of California, Davis, USA

is an associate professor of English at the University of California, Davis and the author of Literature and the Production of Space in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (Cambridge) and Sitting in Darkness: Mark Twain’s Asia and Comparative Racialization (NYU, forthcoming). He has published articles on cultures of environmental risk in Jump Cut, Discourse, Daedalus, and New Literary History and co-edited a special issue of Discourse on the topic of “Environment, Race, and Representation.”

Browse the exhibition

About the exhibition

This exhibit considers how different forms of representation have been used to influence public perceptions of environmental harm associated with US military bases and activities worldwide. Instead of attempting a comprehensive survey of all the images, monuments, and narratives that have been devoted to these environmental impacts, I have focused on significant modes of representation including maps, films, literature, photographs, and monuments.

Representing Environmental Risk in the Landscapes of US Militarization

This virtual exhibition curated by literary scholar Hsuan Hsu examines the environmental impact of US military activities worldwide and how activists have used art and other forms of representational media to convey the harmful effects of militarization on the local population and landscape.

Hsuan Hsu

About the author

Hsu, Hsuan L.

University of California, Davis, USA

is an associate professor of English at the University of California, Davis and the author of Literature and the Production of Space in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (Cambridge) and Sitting in Darkness: Mark Twain’s Asia and Comparative Racialization (NYU, forthcoming). He has published articles on cultures of environmental risk in Jump Cut, Discourse, Daedalus, and New Literary History and co-edited a special issue of Discourse on the topic of “Environment, Race, and Representation.”

Browse the exhibition

Hanford: A Conversation about Nuclear Waste and Cleanup

In Hanford: A Conversation About Nuclear Waste and Cleanup, Roy Gephart takes us on a journey through a world of facts, values, conflicts, and choices facing the most complex environmental cleanup project in the United States, the US Department of Energy’s Hanford Site.

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Hanford Site Historic District: History of the Plutonium Production Facilities, 1943–1990

Thorough compilation, exhaustive research, and precise chronology are the hallmarks of this work on the Hanford Site Historic District, a plutonium production facility that operated from 1943 to 1990.

Read more about Hanford Site Historic District: History of the Plutonium Production Facilities, 1943–1990

The Nuclear Disaster of Kyshtym 1957 and the Politics of the Cold War

by Thomas Rabl

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Arcadia, 2012, no. 20

Read more about The Nuclear Disaster of Kyshtym 1957 and the Politics of the Cold War

"'Welcome to the Atomic Park': American Nuclear Landscapes and the 'Unnaturally Natural'"

The two landscapes, Nevada Test Site and Yosemite National Park, have, on the surface, very little in common. However, in recent years, a number of nuclear and post-nuclear landscapes have been praised for attracting rare species of flora and fauna…

Read more about "'Welcome to the Atomic Park': American Nuclear Landscapes and the 'Unnaturally Natural'"

Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

The treaty prohibits nuclear weapons tests or other nuclear explosions under water, in the atmosphere, or in outer space, but still permits underground nuclear tests.

Tags:

Themes:

Environmental Politics

Regions:

Moscow