ABSTRACT
The problem of the nuclear state and various sites of research, testing, and stationing immediately presents several quandaries of scale which have long acted to endanger local populations. Simply put, federal jurisdiction, secrecy, and technocracy have acted to shut out local people from knowledge or oversight of processes that directly impact their living spaces and well-being. However, on a fortunate note, at least in some places this shows signs of change as different local actors (governments of US states, Native American Pueblos, activist groups) have begun to open up the processes that formerly left local citizens out in the cold. This paper focuses on the nuclear legacy of New Mexico, a US state distinguished not only by its extreme poverty (regularly rivaling Mississippi for economic vibrancy and school rankings), but by being a major site, perhaps the major site, for US nuclear weapons development. The fifth-largest state by area, New Mexico has a population only now approaching two million. Nonetheless, it is home to two of the major national laboratories dedicated to weapons research (Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory), a major army testing ground (White Sands Missile Range), and three air force bases (Kirtland, including Manzano Mountain, a major repository for US nuclear weapons; Holloman, base of the F-117 stealth fighter squadrons; and Cannon, home of the 27th Special Operations Wing, which conducts “infiltration, exfiltration, direct action, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, personnel recovery, psychological operations and information operations”).1 This heavy military and weapons-related presence is a major component of the state’s economy, but it has also shrouded a great deal of sensitive and dangerous work in secrecy that has prevented local populations from knowing just what is going on around
them and what they may have reason to fear (in terms of hazardous substances, potential accidents, etc.).
