GROWING UP IN THE LAND OF KRYPTONITE
A Documentary Film about the Decades of Atomic Testing and the People "Downwind."
Between 1951 and 1992, the United States detonated
1,030 nuclear tests.
All of them produced radioactive fallout that fell from mushroom clouds or vented radioactive material from underground tests into the atmosphere.
Radioactive clouds crossed directly over my hometown, Milford, Utah, raining down thier lethal fallout with more dosages
than those that caused the evacuation of Chernobyl during the 1986 Nuclear Disaster.
"They are a low-use segment of the population."
- Atomic Energy Commission Official
“There isn’t a person or a family who lived in Milford during the years of atomic testing that hasn’t been affected in some way or another by what happened here.”
- Casey G. Williams
Cinema is an important and influential art form that has the power to transcend borders and connect people from different cultures. Film can serve as a platform for social commentary, and promote cultural exchange and understanding. Growing Up in the Land of Kryptonite will be the personal account of those who grew up “downwind” and the generational effects of atomic testing
Two tests from the Plowshare series in 1962 and 1968
rained radioactive fallout directly over Milford.
These two Plowshare blasts are listed as the highest radiation exposure by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Cancer Institute.
Plowshare was developed in order to determine the feasibility of using nuclear detonations to quickly and economically excavate large amounts of Earth and rock. Proposed applications included the creation of harbors, open pit mines, railroad and highway cuts through mountainous terrain, the construction of dams., and the digging of a second Panama Canal.
It was determined after the 1968 event that the radioactive fallout from such uses would be extensive and that 40,000 Panamanian Indians would have to be evacuated in order to dig the second Panama Canal. The project was abandoned.
The irony is not lost on me. An Atomic Energy Commission official at that time referred to the people of Utah as "a low-use segment of the population." We were fiercely patriotic and religious and would not raise a ruckus.
"After all, we believed and held inviolate the values of Superman -
"Truth, Justice, and The American Way."
While the record is flawed, the underlying fact remains: The nuclear clouds created in the Nevada desert passed not only over Utah, Nevada, and Arizona but over the entire continent. The full significance of this fact may not be fully known for years, if ever. What is known, however, is that the shadow of the atomic cloud was shared by not only Nevada but by all states, not only Milford, Utah but by most cities and towns across the country. Moreover, the clouds did not stop at national borders but entered into the jet stream and storm patterns and circumnavigated the entire globe.
