Five Minute History with Trisha T. Pritikin
The Hanford Scandal
Then Came the Summer Snow is a fictional tale set in 1958, in the ‘Atomic City’ of Richland, Washington, downwind of the Hanford atomic weapons production site. The story is based on true historical events.
I was born and raised in Richland. Like many others who grew up during Hanford’s decades of plutonium production, I was exposed to a wide range of airborne and river-borne radionuclides secretly released from the Hanford site. Many of us who were exposed to Hanford’s fallout as infants and children now have radiation-related cancers and other radiogenic diseases.
Hanford began to release radioactive byproducts of plutonium production to the air and water beginning in November 1944, with start-up of the site and continuing during the decades of the subsequent Cold War. Plutonium produced at Hanford was used in the world’s first test of an atomic bomb, the Trinity Test, detonated July 16, 1945, and in the plutonium bomb (Fat Man) that decimated Nagasaki August 9, 1945.
Airborne fallout from Hanford blanketed a wide area of the Inland Pacific Northwest, and entered British Columbia. Hanford operators dumped liquid and solid radioactive byproducts into the Columbia River. Children were particularly susceptible to the effects of radiation exposure.
A wide range of radionuclides were released from Hanford. With regard to I-131, a radionuclide prevalent in Hanford’s airborne radiation, the Atomic Energy Commission and Hanford operators were aware that potassium iodide pills and iodized table salt could block the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine. Yet, they did nothing to protect communities downwind, concerned that letting the public know the air and water was full of radiation would “cause undue alarm.”
Then Came the Summer Snow is an exploration of what might have happened had a mother in Richland inadvertently discovered that the milk in her young son’s glass was radioactive. This is a true atomic age hero’s journey.
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To find out more about Trisha's new book, scroll down.
In 1958, Edith Higgenbothum, a housewife in Richland, Washington, downwind of the massive Hanford nuclear weapons production site, discovers that the milk her young son Herbie drinks contains radioactive iodine from Hanford's secret fallout releases. Radioactive iodine can damage the thyroid, especially in children.
When Herbie is diagnosed with aggressive thyroid cancer, Edith allies with mothers of children with thyroid cancer and leukemia in communities blanketed by fallout from Nevada Test Site A-bomb tests on a true atomic age hero's journey to save the children.
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited
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Thanks so much for hosting Trisha Pritikin today, with such an eye-opening article linked to her new novel, Then Came The Summer Snow.
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Cathie xx
The Coffee Pot Book Club