Plutopia

Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters is a 2013 book by American environmental historian Kate Brown. The book is a comparative history of the cities of Richland, in the northwest United States adjacent to the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford Site plutonium production area, and Ozersk, in Russia's southern Ural mountain region. These two cities were home to the world's first plutonium production sites, and in Plutopia Brown charts the environmental and social impacts of those sites on the residents of and the environment surrounding the two cities.[1][2] Brown argues that the demands of plutonium production – both the danger of the physical process and the secrecy required in the Cold War context – led both US and Soviet officials to create "Plutopias," ideal communities to placate resident families in exchange for their cooperation and control over their bodies. This entailed creating significant state-run welfare programs along with high levels of consumerism in both places. However, each city witnessed what Brown terms "slow-motion disasters" via the slow, and usually controlled, release of high levels of radiation into their surrounding environments.[3]

Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters
AuthorKate Brown
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectsNuclear energy; Cold War
GenreEnvironmental History
Published2013
PublisherOxford University Press
Pages416
AwardsGeorge Perkins Marsh Prize; Ellis W. Hawley Prize
ISBN9780199855766

Awards

Plutopia was awarded the 2014 George Perkins Marsh Prize from the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) and the 2014 Ellis W. Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians (OAH).[4]

gollark: Banning alcohol was tried and failed because of that. Banning weed... happened, seemingly hasn't prevented people getting/using it anyway (but resulted in loads of people pointlessly going to prison), and is beginning to be reverted.
gollark: Well, yes. I don't think it's a good reason, but I think it's *why*.
gollark: It's not a justification. It's a reason.
gollark: Because alcohol is easier to make (I think) and more ingrained in our culture.
gollark: ... no.

References
  1. PLUTOPIA | Kirkus Reviews.
  2. Reichman, Henry (2016-01-02). "Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters". Peace Review. 28 (1): 132–135. doi:10.1080/10402659.2015.1130418. ISSN 1040-2659.
  3. "Kate Brown: Nuclear "Plutopias" the Largest Welfare Program in American History (INTERVIEW) | History News Network". historynewsnetwork.org. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  4. "Kate Brown: Uncovering the Realities of the Chernobyl Accident | Wilson Center". www.wilsoncenter.org. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
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