Loom of the Future: Nuclear Decolonization and UW

Abstract

With the Trinity test in 1945, the U.S. began a long history of damaging communities near testing sites. The veneration of nuclear weapons development as the keystone of national security provided the U.S. an unchecked privilege to absolve itself of accountability. Aided by both public and private institutions, the U.S. tested nuclear weapons on and near Indigenous lands, continuing a colonial structure of coercion, extraction, and violence. The University of Washington participated in these colonizing efforts by leading radiation studies and conducting extractive research in the Marshall Islands and Hanford, WA. In repairing colonial harms, the University of Washington must lead a transition to decolonization from within.