Neighbors, nuisances and noxious releases: Community conflict and environmental hazards in the atomic city

Drawing from in-depth interviews with over 120 respondents, participant observation, and document analysis, we examine differential perceptions of environmental harms in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, home of a U.S. Government nuclear facility. The Oak Ridge Reservation has a 50-year history of nuclear weapons production and a poor environmental record. In the 1980s, a series of environmental revelations occurred and in 1989, the entire Oak Ridge Reservation was placed on the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund list. This sparked heated debates within the community over environmental hazards and ultimately led to conflict and dissension. We analyze residents’ perceptions of environmental harms and highlight the salient variables contributing to community dissension, including conflicting levels of government trust, length of community residence, employment, race/ethnicity, and environmental health/illness.