The Hanford plaintiffs : voices from the fight for atomic justice / created by Trisha T. Pritikin ; with a foreword by Richard C. Eymann and Tom H. Foulds and an introduction by Karen Dorn Steele.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Forgotten Guinea Pigs -- Hanford and the Manhattan Project : Plaintiff 1: Charlotte Rae McCormick, Plaintiff 2: Marlene Campbell, Plaintiff 3: Jay Mullen, Plaintiff 4: Sally Albers Stearns, Plaintiff 5: Rance Jones -- The Early Cold War, 1945-1950 : Plaintiff 6: Lesley Frazier Thompson, Plaintiff 7: Susan Ward, Plaintiff 8: Bonnie Rae, Plaintiff 9: Connie Nelson, Plaintiff 10: June Stark Casey -- Chapter 4. The Cold War 1951 -- Poisoned Milk : Plaintiff 11: Michael Helland, Plaintiff 12: Dan S. -- Chapter 6. Hanford : Signs of Trouble Downwind : Plaintiff 13: Brenda Weaver, Plaintiff 14: Jamie Weaver, Plaintiff 15: Tom Bailie, Plaintiff 16: Mary Bailie Reeve -- NTS : Signs of Trouble Downwind -- Hanford: The Silent Holocaust : Plaintiff 17: Geneva Shroll, Plaintiff 18: Keith Lindaas, Plaintiff 19: Lois Foraker, Plaintiff 20: Marcy Lawless, Plaintiff 21: Jackie Harden -- Hanford Downwinders Turn to the Courts : Plaintiff 22: J. M., Plaintiff 23: Trisha Thompson Pritikin -- Reversal of Allen Bellwether Verdicts : The Catalyst for Change : Plaintiff 24: Judith Mayer -- Appendix: Citizen Letter to Dr. Dick Jackson, NCEH.

"For four decades, from its opening as a Manhattan Project outpost during World War, the Hanford nuclear facility in Washington State regularly released radiation into the air and water surrounding it, blanketing farms, towns, and the Columbia River. Residents - many of them families of Hanford workers - were repeatedly assured that facility posed no threat, despite rising rates of illness and death in both people and animals. Not until the 1980s, when documents related to nuclear testing were finally declassified, did the public learn that the government had known all along that Hanford was a danger to the people of the Pacific Northwest. Starting in 1991, thousands of downwinders filed personal injury claims against the contractors who operated Hanford, seeking recompense for their high rates of cancer, thyroid disease, and other issues. In The Hanford Plaintiffs, Trisha Pritikin - a Hanford downwinder, attorney, and named plaintiff - tells the story of Hanford, its downwinders, and their battle for justice. She gives historical context to both Hanford and the larger issue of American nuclear testing, drawing especially on the experiences of Nevada Test Site downwinders. She details In Re Hanford, the class action suit, and the multitude of uphill battles downwinders face in a legal system that protects the government on all fronts. But the core of the book, its greatest contribution, is the set of 24 oral histories from Hanford plaintiffs. Here is the personal cost of America's nuclear power, told in the words of those who struggled not just with illness and loss but also to be believed in the face of government insistence that nothing was wrong"--