Ann Ronald

Ann Ronald has written about above ground atom bomb testing in Nevada in 1953, the Upshot-Knothole project that detonated 11 "gadgets" with resulting spread of radiation over the entire US but with the largest concentration in the west. She uses both a very non fiction detailed account of the tests and a fictional cast of characters to show immediate effects of the tests. The only drawback is that while she refers to the eventual human deaths that resulted from the tests, she gives no specifics. She's much more detailed about the immediate effects on the thousands of sheep that happened to graze on radiation covered foliage - and the government's denial of responsibility. There's an interesting conversation among some fictional scientists at the end of the book regarding the ramifications of testing from a pure science to political to social consequences.
Further information can be found at:
http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/utah_today/nucleartestingandthedownwin...
http://www.catastrophemap.com/downwinders.html
with a good Youtube video of the tests at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZSjZfAyYB4
I was especially interested in the title of a book she used in her research - The Day We Bombed Utah by John G. Fuller. Thousands of cancers, mainly thyroid and leukemia, resulted from our "Friendly Fallout".… (meer)