Nuclear Legacy: Students of Two Atomic Cities

by Maureen Doyle McQuerry

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 157477087X
• ISBN13: 9781574770872
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Battelle Press
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 2.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.8" x 11.3"

Customer Reviews

This is what education can be

As President of the Ukrainian American Club of WA from 1993-1999 and as Co-Chair of the Ukrainian Studies Endowment Campaign at the University of Washington, I was intrigued by the article in the Seattle Times about the effort which led to the publication of Nuclear Legacy: Students of Two Atomic Cities.The book is a stunning achievement at so many levels. Students and teachers managed to do interdisciplinary, integrative study. From local settings, they dealt with international and intercultural matters. Science and technology were given a human dimension. The universal significance of particular issues was underscored. Abstractions became particulars. People came together. In a society where youth and adults are lured by the trivial, these teachers and students dealt with fundamentals. They modeled for the nation what education at all levels should and can be.In the process, they inspired hope. While it was natural in 1986 to speak of the Chornobyl explosion in apocalyptic categories that stressed catastrophe, the basic meaning of "apocalyptic" as a "revelation" was lost. Has something been disclosed about human beings and the world? What can we learn about ourselves and our relation to other selves and the environment in which and with which we must live? The book and all that preceded it answered a resounding "Yes!"A thank you to the authors also for resisting the pressures against doing such work in Ukrainian. It is so much easier to capitulate to those who still insist on using Russian instead of the official language of the country.This is simply an excellent book.SincerelyEugene E. Lemcio, Ph.D. (206) 281-2208 elemcio@spu.edu

Nuclear Legacy: Students of Two Atomic Cities

This fascinating book combines the fresh and frank opinions common to youth anywhere with the unique circumstances that faced these young people, who grew up in cities dominated by the nuclear industry in Richland, Washington and Slavutych, Ukraine (near Chornobyl). It turns out the book gives you an inside view of young people in two distinct national cultures, in spite of the shared nuclear culture. The Ukrainian children faced the most tragic of pasts, and you find pieces that pull at the heartstrings, like the girl who was learning a poem with her father when the Chornobyl disaster occurred. Now she feels for him and the pain he still suffers from the radiation he received. You notice the love of town and homeland among the Ukrainian youth that is expressed quite poetically. The American youth are more straightforward and reserved about their love of their community. They have clearly dug into the history of their area, with stories about the Indians, the farmers who were removed from their land by the Manhattan Project, the current scientific culture of the Richland area, and lighter pieces-like a sidebar about a local Spudnut Shop. The book gives a good background on nuclear and environmental issues that surround each community. One of the ironies is that the remaining wastes at Hanford and the Zone around the Chornobyl accident have resulted in land remaining or returning to natural habitat for animals-and these issues and the animals are described along with the stories about local people. Another shared theme is the effort of each economy to diversify. The book has some great color photos of the local areas and people and is beautifully designed and put together with English and Ukrainian text side by side on each page. There is something here for everybody, but the book will especially appeal to those with an interest in nuclear issues and students and teachers who may be considering similar projects. It's quite amazing what these students accomplished-a powerful and professional job at a remarkably young age.