A People's Atlas of Nuclear Colorado

Reviewed by: Cecilia Knaub

Review started: March 17, 2024

Review last updated: March 19, 2024

Site Link: https://www.coloradonuclearatlas.org/

Archive Link: Popup makes the archive link of homepage impossible to use

Data Sources

• Essays
• Images
• Maps
• Timelines

Partners and Funding Sources

• Georgetown University
• Northeastern University
• Byse (web development)

Processes

• Digitized photos retrieved from individual contributors and organizations.
• Essays embedded as hypertext
• Byse (web development)

Presentation

The atlas has a unique navigation; users may browse the Atlas by following the path which corresponds to the movement of radioactive materials from the earth through their transformation into nuclear energy or weapons, then to waste. To find different resources directly, users can click the Map View, Essays, and Artwork through the menu button or search for a resource by name.

Digital Tools Used

Not disclosed

Languages

• English

Review

The "People's Atlas of Nuclear Colorado" provides an extensive digital collection of information, essays, and art aimed to help people better understand the consequences of the United States’ nuclear industry. With more than 40 contributors to date, the atlas collects maps, photographs, site descriptions, and briefs offering personal, historical, and political contexts. Co-edited by Sarah Kanouse and Shiloh Krupar, with a number of individual contributors, funding from Northeastern University and Georgetown University, and creative support from Byse, the project was first released in February 2021.

The project successfully provides a full picture of the consequences of nuclear energy or weapons production, offering different perspectives, both informative and personal, through all stages of the process. The essays, infographics, and artistic works educate users about the Nuclear apparatus in Colorado and share the human toll.Connections emerge across contributions, rooted in disparities of race, class, wealth, geography, and access. The editors facilitated dialogue illuminating how socioeconomic inequities enabled the exploitation of local Colorado communities as nuclear production sites. The discussion also expands globally, probing the role of the U.S. nuclear complex in rendering distant lands zones of radioactive ruin. Multidisciplinary collaboration allowed the Atlas to map nuclearism's permeation of place, people, and perspective.

While the navigation teaches users about production of nuclear material by guiding them through the project sequentially, it makes content difficult to find. Hyperlinks often advance users to parallel stages, making it challenging to understand how the page relates to the previous ones or the sequential process as a whole.

How does this project address information?
Overall, the Atlas provides a textured view of the nuclear cycle, centered in a single location to understand the full effects. By weaving scholarly essays and artwork within a sequential organization, users get enriched insight into the complex, interconnected reality in communities touched by nuclearization.

How well does this project handle information?
The Atlas seeks to expand our thinking about the impact of nuclear dependence by presenting essays and artworks on the subject. Centering this type of media emphasizes the nuanced human toll of the nuclear industry that can be overlooked. While this is admirable, the site's information architecture makes many of these resources undiscoverable. The editorial decision to lead viewers through the nuclear process, and group resources accordingly, leads to a frustrating experience that fails to successfully lead the readers to information they need.