ABSTRACT
This article examines one of the more dramatic yet poorly understood claims about the impacts of nuclear science and technology, the stigmatization of places associated with a nuclear facility. In this case the facility is a nuclear weapons site and the associated places are residential properties. The studies reported here focus on a dramatic news story aboutconditions at the Rocky Flats, Colorado nuclear weapons facility. The studies are conceptualized within the social amplification of risk framework (Kasperson et al., 1988; Kasperson, 1992) and provide an analysis of bothnewspaper coverage and a survey of actual and potential home buyers in the adjacent metropolitan area.
