David Bolingbroke - Hanford’s Nuclear Animals | April 12, 2024 | Recording here

David Bolingbroke shared a series of Cold War era stories from his book project on the different wild and domesticated animals that encountered radiation at Hanford and the scientists who studied them. David shared stories about salmon and beagles in laboratory holding tanks and pens, sheep at the site's animal farm, human scientists working on the site, and migratory elk and eagles who found homes at Hanford. Together, these animals show how Hanford became both a nuclear and natural landscape that made ecological knowledge and risk along with plutonium.

David Bolingbroke is an Associate Historian for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ (LDS) Church History Department. He received a Ph.D. in American environmental history from Washington State University in December 2020. His research areas include animals, nuclear contamination, environmental restoration, Pacific Northwest agriculture, Nevada fisheries, and Latin American LDS history in the twentieth century. He is currently working on a book project titled Nuclear Animals: Hanford and a World of Environmental Risk, Contamination, and Restoration.

Steve Olson - Hanford, A Personal History | March 8, 2024 | Recording here

In Steve Olson's book, The Apocalypse Factory, he argues that the Hanford nuclear reservation is the single most important site of the nuclear era. But when Steve started writing the book he knew very little about Hanford – despite growing up just 15 miles from the nearest reactor. Steve discussed both Hanford's impact on the world and his personal connections to the site.

Steve Olson is the author of the book, The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age, a new history of the nuclear era told from the perspective of the Hanford nuclear reservation. His previous book, Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens, won the Washington State Book Award and was named one of the best nonfiction books of 2016 by Amazon. He also is the author of Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins, which was nominated for the National Book Award, and other books, and he has written for the Atlantic Monthly, Science, the Smithsonian, and many other magazines. Since 1979, he has been a consultant writer for the National Academy of Sciences, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and other national scientific organizations. A native of Washington State, he now lives in Seattle.

Shannon Cram - On Telling Impossible Stories: Nuclear Waste and the Politics of Narrative | February 16, 2024

Shannon discussed the complex and contingent practices of nuclear storytelling. Drawing from her recent book, Unmaking the Bomb: Environmental Cleanup and the Politics of Impossibility, she considered how narratives of atomic risk, reason, pollution, and protection have come to be, and ask how they could be otherwise.

Shannon Cram is an associate professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell and author of Unmaking the Bomb: Environmental Cleanup and the Politics of Impossibility. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley and has received fellowships from the Simpson Center for the Humanities, the Vermont Studio Center, the American Council of Learned Societies, and elsewhere. Cram’s research and writing considers the everyday life of environmental contamination, with a particular focus on the body as a site of politics. She was a member of the Hanford Advisory Board for ten years.

Tom Sicilia - The Runway to a Supermodel: How to build a model and what it all means | December 15, 2023 | Recording here

At Hanford, models are used to do things like predict how contamination moves in the environment. In his talk, Tom Sicilia shared a brief overview of what models are, what makes them wrong (but useful, sometimes), and some ways they are used at Hanford, including the Cumulative Impact Evaluation. There will be calculus.

Tom Sicilia, RG has been the Hanford Hydrogeologist for the Oregon Department of Energy since 2018. He first became in involved with Hanford in the early 2000s, when he decided to go to school and try to figure out how to clean things up. After receiving a BS in Geology from Western Washington University and a MS in Hydrogeology from Clemson University, Tom spent ten years as an environmental consultant in New England. As a consultant, he investigated, designed and implemented remediation plans, and closed complex contaminated industrial waste sites. He also developed groundwater models to design and optimize treatment systems and to determine capture zones for municipal wellfields. These days he spends his time learning and talking about Hanford, visiting the Tri-Cities, studying Oregon’s energy security and liquid fuels systems, and leading Oregon’s radioactive waste assessment program.

Shampa Biswas & Anne Harrington - Decolonizing Nuclear Studies: Incorporating Race, Gender, and the Environment in the Teaching of Nuclear Studies | December 1, 2023 | Recording here

With the help of a grant from the Ploughshares Fund to decolonize the nuclear studies curriculum, Shampa Biswas and Anne Harrington collaborated with a group of scholars to build three teaching modules that center questions of race, colonialism, gender, and the environment as they relate to nuclear weapons. This webinar introduced participants to the resources available in each of the modules, which can be incorporated into efforts to educate students, policy makers, advocates, and activists about nuclear weapons production and use, as well as nuclear arms control and disarmament.

Shampa Biswas is the Judge & Mrs. Timothy A. Paul Chair of Political Science at Whitman College. She is a postcolonial International Relations theorist whose work examines the inequalities of the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime. She is the author of Nuclear Desire: Power and the Postcolonial Nuclear Order (University of Minnesota Press, 2014). She is currently working on a project on nuclear memorialization and the global story of Fat Man.

Anne I. Harrington is an associate professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Cardiff University. Anne earned her PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 2010. Since then she has held fellowships at major universities in the US and Europe. Her publications have appeared, among other places, in the Nonproliferation Review, Millennium, Critical Studies on Security, Foreign Policy, Task & Purpose, and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Her most recent publication is a co-edited volume (with Jeffrey Knopf), Behavioral Economics and Nuclear Weapons.

Ariana Tibon-Kilma - Closing the Generational Gap for Nuclear Justice | September 29, 2023 | Recording here

Ariana Tibon-Kilma discussed a brief history of the events that took place in the Marshall Islands and highlighted the generational gap in knowledge about the history of nuclear testing in her home and the challenges resulting from this lack of knowledge.

Ariana is a descendant of survivors of the catastrophic Bravo Shot that was detonated in the Marshall Islands. She lives with her family in Majuro, where she works with students and youth to encourage engagement in nuclear dialogue.

Ariana Tibon-Kilma works as a Commissioner at the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) National Nuclear Commission. Ariana helped develop a nuclear legacy curriculum for the RMI’s Public Schools System and co-taught a Nuclear Issues in the Pacific course at the College of the Marshall Islands. Ariana holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.

Dr. Arjun Makhijani - Too Hot to Handle: Managing Radioactive Waste in the U.S. | June 2, 2023 | Recording here

Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), dug into the issues we face in the U.S. as we navigate how to dispose and manage our nuclear waste. IEER provides the public with accurate scientific information to promote the democratization of science and a safer, healthier environment.

Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of IEER, holds a Ph.D. in engineering (specialization: nuclear fusion) from the University of California at Berkeley. He has produced many studies and articles on nuclear fuel cycle related issues, including weapons production, testing, and nuclear waste, over the past twenty years. He is the principal author of the first study ever done (completed in 1971) on energy conservation potential in the U.S. economy.

Dr. Makhijani has authored many books including, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy, the first analysis of a transition to a U.S. economy based completely on renewable energy, without any use of fossil fuels or nuclear power. He is the principal editor of Nuclear Wastelands and the principal author of Mending the Ozone Hole. His most recent book is Exploring Tritium Dangers.

Joshua McGuffie - Hot Fish in the 1940s | April 21, 2023 | Recording here

Joshua shared work related to his dissertation, in which he tells the stories of scientists from the medical section of the Manhattan Project and shares their research on the biological effects of radiation at the Hanford Fish Lab and in the Marshall Islands. Hanford’s story often makes the site seem like a uniquely atomic place. The Fish Lab’s story shows how intimately Hanford fit into America’s larger atomic geography.

Joshua McGuffie is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at UCLA. His research focuses on the intersections between biology, medicine, race, and the environment during the US atomic project. Joshua earned an MA at Oregon State University, where he studied ecologists working at Hanford’s Arid Lands Ecology Reserve. Along with his academic career, Joshua serves as a parish pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He and his family live in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, north of Los Angeles, and love taking to the trails on the weekend.

Irene Lusztig - RICHLAND | March 31, 2023

Irene Lusztig shared materials from her latest documentary film titled, RICHLAND, which offers a portrait of a community staking its identity and future on its nuclear origin story. The film moves between archival past and observational present, and blooms into an expansive and lyrical meditation on home, safety, whiteness, land, and deep time. Irene is a feminist filmmaker, archival researcher, and educator. Through her films, Irene works in a space of delicate mediation between people, their pasts, and the present-tense landscapes and spaces where unresolved histories bloom and erupt.

Irene Lusztig is a feminist filmmaker, archival researcher, and educator. She works in a space of delicate mediation between people, their pasts, and the present-tense spaces and landscapes where unresolved histories bloom and erupt. Born in England and raised in Boston, Irene is a first generation American whose parents fled Ceaucescu’s Romania as political asylum-seekers. Her work has been screened around the world and she has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Fulbright, two MacDowell fellowships, the Flaherty Film Seminar, and the Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship. She teaches filmmaking at UC Santa Cruz where she is Professor of Film and Digital Media.

Jay Needham - Narrative Half-Life | March 3, 2023

Jay Needham invited us to travel back to the 1940s through his personal collection of archival recordings that his grandfather made as a hobby with his Soundscriber dictation machine. Narrative Half-Life is a continuing series of sound recordings about Hanford that co-mingle and complicate family histories. Jay heard these family histories from his grandfather, Lt. Colonel William Sapper—who was a Manhattan Project engineer—and from his mother, Lynn Needham, who grew up in Richland during the Second World War. Jay shared how the war-era history of Richland played a defining factor in the paths he would take in life and in his artistic career. Jay’s grandfather documented original jazz music, limericks, and labor poems, as well as conducted interviews and recorded regional radio broadcasts.

Jay Needham is an artist, musician, researcher, writer-editor, and cultural producer who utilizes multiple creative platforms to produce his works, many of which have a focus on sound and site specific field research. As a hearing-divergent person, Jay explores present and emerging ecologies of the electromagnetic spectrum that often feature the sense of sound and vibration as a component in the interpretation of his works. His sound art, productions for radio, visual art, performances and installations have appeared at museums, festivals and on the airwaves, worldwide.

Roger Peet - The Wound at the Heart of the World | January 6, 2023 | Recording here

Roger Peet discussed the Shinkolobwe mine, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that sourced nearly all of the uranium used in the Manhattan Project. The uranium that powered the discovery of nuclear fission and its use in the first atomic weapons came from Shinkolobwe. Vastly more concentrated and powerful than any other deposit of uranium found anywhere else on Earth, the Shinkolobwe ore made possible an apocalyptic effort of engineering that has transformed the way that power works in the modern world. The mine's exploitation has left a legacy of contaminated territories, poisoned communities, and a gross shadow of atomic devastation which echoes through our most popular contemporary stories, and clouds our ability to imagine a different world. Roger’s presentation described the arc of that history, and display an original linocut map-print which traces the evidence left behind in the landscape by those Congolese rocks; the foundation of the Manhattan Project.

Roger Peet is an artist and printmaker in Portland, OR. He is a founding member of the Justseeds Artists' Cooperative, a group of North American artists creating visual tools for social and environmental movements, and coordinates the national Endangered Species Mural Project for the Center for Biological Diversity. He is currently collaborating with organizers and activists in Congo, Japan, and across the USA to connect the story of the Shinkolobwe mine to the broader history of America's nuclear legacy, including the contaminated landscapes of the Hanford Site.

Etsuko Ichikawa - VITRIFIED | December 2, 2022 | Recording here

Etsuko Ichikawa talked about her recent body of work, VITRIFIED, in which she uses uranium glass as a key element in her sculpture, installation, film, and photography. This particular choice of material relates to a shift in her personal values that occurred after the devastating 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown in her home country of Japan. During the lecture, Etsuko shared a few short clips from her films including, Echo at Satsop, which was filmed entirely inside the cooling tower at Satsop—an abandoned nuclear power plant in Elma, WA.

Etsuko Ichikawa is a Tokyo-born, U.S. based multi-media artist, filmmaker, and activist. She received a bachelor's of Fine Arts degree from Tokyo Zokei University and attended the Tokyo Glass Art Institute in Kanagawa. Etsuko also attended the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA and worked for Dale Chihuly as a studio assistant for 8 years. Her work has been exhibited internationally in the U.S., Asia, and Europe. She is currently traveling nomadically around the world participating in art residencies.

Shiloh Krupar & Sarah Kanouse - A People’s Atlas of Nuclear Colorado | November 4, 2022 | If you would like a link to the recording, email miyab@hanfordchallenge.org

Shiloh Krupar and Sarah Kanouse discussed their living digital document: A People’s Atlas of Nuclear Colorado, which incorporates essays, maps, issue briefs, and art from more than 40 contributors to showcase the nuclear legacy of Colorado. The atlas highlights issues including the seizure of tribal lands, secrecy, environmental contamination, worker exposures, and downwinder exposures that are similarly prevalent at Hanford.

Shiloh Krupar is a geographer and Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor at Georgetown University, where she directs the Culture and Politics Program in the School of Foreign Service. Shiloh is author of Hot Spotter’s Report: Military Fables of Toxic Waste, co-author of Deadly Biocultures: The Ethics of Life-making, and co-author of the forthcoming volume Exaction: Governing Territories of Austerity, Bias, and Dross. Shiloh received a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California-Berkeley. She holds an MA in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and a BA from Case Western University. She is co-editor of A People’s Atlas of Nuclear Colorado.

Sarah Kanouse is an interdisciplinary artist and critical writer examining the political ecology of landscape and space. Sarah has contributed to exhibitions, festivals, creative research platforms, film festivals, and academic institutions worldwide. She is also the author or co-author of thirty peer-reviewed or invited publications. Sarah is Associate Professor of Media Arts in the Department of Art + Design at Northeastern University. She holds an MFA degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an undergraduate degree from Yale University. She is co-editor of A People’s Atlas of Nuclear Colorado.

Glenna Cole Allee - Hanford Reach: In the Atomic Field | October 14, 2022 | Recording here

Glenna Cole Allee discussed her art installation, Hanford Reach: In the Atomic Field, that is showing from September 8-January 15 at the Wanapum Heritage Center in Mattawa, WA. Glenna uses photography, sound, and video to reflect the atomic histories of Hanford and the secrecy that enshrouds them. The exhibit is based on Glenna’s recently published book Hanford Reach: In the Atomic Field. The book includes photographs and interviews with residents living near and affected by the Hanford Nuclear Site.

Glenna Cole Allee is an interdisciplinary artist. Her work explores the shifting relationships between place, myth, and memory. She holds an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute and a BA from Reed College and has exhibited nationally and internationally.

Kathleen Flenniken - A Poetic Connection to Place | September 30, 2022 | Recording here

Kathleen Flenniken read poetry from her award-winning book, Plume, and explained the background behind her artistic process. Kathleen also shared her personal connection to the Hanford Site as a child growing up in Richland, WA at the height of the Cold War and her time as an engineer working on site.

Kathleen is a former Washington state poet laureate and grew up in Richland, WA near Hanford. Kathleen is the author of three books of poetry, Post Romantic, Plume, and Famous. Her awards include a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Artist Trust.

Kathleen teaches poetry through arts agencies like Writers in the Schools and Jack Straw. For 13 years she was an editor at Floating Bridge Press and currently serves on the board of Jack Straw, an audio arts studio and cultural center. Kathleen holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Pacific Lutheran University, as well as bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering.

Vince Panesko - Unlocking the Mystery of Hanford’s Ancient Lake Beds | July 15, 2022 | Recording here

Vince Panesko discussed the mystery of ancient lake beds under the Hanford Site and how they impact where contamination moves and ends up. Vince explored issues related to deep time, geologic history, and lessons to remember far into the future.

Vince is a retired nuclear scientist and Hanford manager who has been involved with the Hanford site for 59 years. As a retired volunteer, Vince served on the Hanford Advisory Board for 19 years. His work at Hanford included program and environmental protection management, exposure modeling, working with Hanford tank waste, writing and managing monitoring plans, technical reports, and technical reviews.

Vince obtained a BS in Chemistry from the University of Washington, attended the UW Medical school, followed by one year in the UW Radiological Science Program. He later studied fault-tree analysis at Carnegie-Mellon University and accident analysis from the Department of Energy in Richland.

Tim Connor - Scabland Sojourn | June 10, 2022 | Recording here

Photographer and author Tim Connor discussed his newly released book, Beautiful Wounds: A Search for Solace and Light in Washington's Channeled Scablands.

Tim uses the landscape as a portal into deep time—showing through photographs and historical narrative how the geography and landscape of the Hanford Site was shaped by cataclysmic flooding over 15,000 years ago. By looking at the past transformation of the land over time, we can begin to visualize a far-away future for Hanford. 

Tim Connor is a national award-winning journalist/photographer and activist based in Spokane, WA. He is perhaps best known for his multi-year investigations and Congressional testimony into wide-reaching safety and environmental hazards at the Hanford Nuclear Site.

Pedro de la Torre III - Reasonably Impossible: Future Land Use at Hanford | April 22, 2022

Professor de la Torre III discussed the power dynamics affecting the unspoken assumptions that shape Hanford cleanup and expectations of Hanford’s future use. For example, questioning the “reasonableness" of official positions that assume federal control of Hanford land use for thousands of years.

Pedro de la Torre III is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY), and an Adjunct Instructor in the Humanities Department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. His research focuses on competing relations to place and history, as well as current and future land use, in contaminated spaces. He received a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also received an M.A. in anthropology from the New School for Social Research, and a B.A. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.