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'Dirty Harry – When The American Dream Became A Reality'

In 1951, the first Atom bomb was detonated over a section of remote desert, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Between 1951 and 1992, a total of 928 nuclear weapons tests were conducted at what became the Nevada Test Site.

This was ground zero for U.S. nuclear weapons testing, and the last test took place Sept. 23, 1992 – 16 years ago. Starting in the early 1990s, independent producer Claes Andreasson interviewed test site workers, scientists, legal scholars and test officials, as well as people living near the test site.

“Dirty Harry: When the American Dream Became A Nightmare” is a culmination of those interviews, contradicted with the official government assurances that the radioactive fallout was safe. A story of cancer, death and the long search for justice.

Host Jon Beaupre is a guides listeners through the stories, and was made possible by the PRX re-versioning project. 

FEATURING

Kern Bulloch, sheep farmer, Cedar City, Utah

Hal Curtis, iron worker at the Nevada Test Site

Troy Wade, former test manager, Las Vegas, Nevada

Elmer Picket, Claudia Peterson, Michelle Thomas, “downwinders,” St. George, Utah

Janet Gordon and Patricia Gordon Dominguez, “downwinders,” Las Vegas, Nevada

Mike Wilcox, former test site worker, Las Vegas, Nevada

Joseph Lyon, University of Utah professor, Salt Lake City

John Gofman, professor emeritus, San Francisco, California

Bruce Jenkins, U.S. District Court Judge, Salt Lake City, Utah
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