Nuclear Networks, Radiation, and Secrecy in Los Angeles, 1946-1960

FAIN: FT-53367-05

Janet Farrell Brodie
Claremont Graduate University (Claremont, CA 91711-5909)

This project explores two important developments in American life in the decade after World War II: the ways secrecy became institutionalized among groups and institutions involved with nuclear matters, and the dense networks that developed around the study of radioactivity. To bring specificity and focus to such broad problems, the project analyzes radiation networks and their secrecy in two institutions in Los Angeles—a city transformed by nuclear defense/nuclear offense contracts in the postwar period. The two institutions, the RAND Corporation and an atomic energy project at UCLA, included groups and individuals working with the military and the medical uses of radiation. In that work they benefited from and contributed to the development of new systems of secrecy.