Secrets of the Atomic City

josefritzishere

Lockheed and Union carbide already had very poor track records in this regard.

beloch

If you want to learn about a slightly earlier Canadian equivalent, look up Port Hope, Port Radium, and Eldorado Resources. They mined and refined a large portion of the Uranium for the Manhattan project. The people involved had no clue how to handle things safely and Port Hope is still remediating the contamination that resulted.

mrngm

Full version of the longread over at The Atavist Magazine, titled "Toxic Lies": https://magazine.atavist.com/2026/toxic-lies-radiation-paduc... Earlier submission (4 points, 0 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49149056

cowthulhu

There is something uniquely sad and frustrating in how the victims of this story - the plant workers - were so resistant to the idea of the contamination being dangerous.

8bitsrule

"Safe, clean, too cheap to meter" More? > We Almost Lost Detroit"- Wikipedia > a 1975 Reader's Digest book by John G. Fuller,[1] presents a history of Fermi 1, America's first commercial breeder reactor, with emphasis on the 1966 partial nuclear meltdown. ISBN 0883490706