Many of the effects of nuclear fallout and radiation have been intentionally hidden by governments around the world. Public knowledge has been driven by activists demanding recognition and justice. Many Downwinders fought for years, in the press and in the courts, to have their health and environmental concerns taken seriously. Just as radiation is invisible, many of these stories continue to be unseen.

From 2017 to 2020, Jacob Hamblin and Linda Richards facilitated the Oregon State University Downwinders Project, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, to support research and scholarship on the Downwinders cases near the Hanford nuclear site in Washington. Additionally, each summer the project team sponsored a workshop that brought a variety of stakeholders together to explore the science, history, and lived history of radiation exposure. These workshops took a broad view of nuclear contamination, beyond Hanford, beyond the United States, and beyond academia. Community members and activists presented their testimonies and creative work alongside scholars studying exposure worldwide.

Helen Jaccard, organiser of theVeterans For Peace Golden Rule anti-nuclear Project comments “The topic of radioactive harm is important in the context of government, societal and industrial suppression of inconvenient truths, especially the secretive nuclear industry, both weapons and power. It’s necessary to expose the harms of the entire nuclear chain – uranium mining and milling; enriching the fissionable U235 from U238; use of U235 for weapons and energy;  use of U238 for depleted uranium weapons; and finally,  disposal of the poisonous, radioactive waste.  And this is just the past and current radioactive harms of the nuclear industry.  Future harms include the existential threat of a nuclear exchange, additional nuclear power plant meltdowns, and putting money and minds to nuclear energy instead of renewable and societal programs.  The latter is particularly important when thinking on a local scale. 
Making the Unseen Visible collects some of the best work arising from the project and its workshops. Scholarly research chapters and reflective essays cover topics and experiences ranging from colonial nuclear testing in North Africa to uranium mining in the Navajo Nation and battles over public memory around Hanford. Scholarship on nuclear topics has largely happened on a case study basis, focusing on individual disasters or locations. Making the Unseen Visible brings a variety of current community and scholarly work together to create a clearer, larger web uniting nuclear humanities research across time and geography.

Version 1.0.0