Wednesday, 8 October 2025

Five Minute History with Trisha T. Pritikin: The Hanford Scandal

 

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.



Publication Date: September 15th, 2025
Publisher: Moonshine Cove Press
Pages: 328
Genre: Historical Fiction / Dark Humour

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.


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This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited


Trisha T. Pritikin


Trisha Pritikin is an internationally known advocate for fallout-exposed populations downwind of nuclear weapons production and testing sites. She is an attorney and former occupational therapist.

Trisha was born and raised in Richland, the government-owned atomic town closest to the Hanford nuclear weapons production facility in southeastern Washington State. Hanford manufactured the plutonium used in the Trinity Test, the world’s first test of an atomic bomb, detonated July 16,1945 at Alamogordo, NM, and for Fat Man, the plutonium bomb that decimated Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

Beginning in late 1944, and for more than forty years thereafter, Hanford operators secretly released millions of curies of radioactive byproducts into the air and to the waters of the Columbia River, exposing civilians downwind and downriver. Hanford’s airborne radiation spread across eastern Washington, northern Oregon, Idaho, Western Montana, and entered British Columbia.

Trisha suffers from significant thyroid damage, hypoparathyroidism, and other disabling health issues caused by exposure to Hanford’s fallout in utero and during childhood. Infants and children are especially susceptible to the damaging effects of radiation exposure.

Trisha’s first book, The Hanford Plaintiffs: Voices from the Fight for Atomic Justice,  published in 2020 by the University Press of Kansas, has won multiple awards, including San Francisco Book Festival, 1st place (history); Nautilus Silver award (journalism and investigative reporting); American Book Fest Book Awards Finalist (US History); Eric Hoffer Awards, Shortlist Grand Prize Finalist; and Chanticleer International Book Awards, 1st Place, (longform journalism). The Hanford Plaintiffs was released in Japanese in 2023 by Akashi Shoten Publishing House, Tokyo.

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Five Minute History with Trisha T. Pritikin: The Hanford Scandal

  Five Minute History with  Trisha T. Pritikin   The  Hanford Scandal Then Came the Summer Snow is a fictional tale set in 1958, in the ‘At...