Plutopia

{{short description|Comparative history book}}

{{Infobox book

| name = Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters

| author = Kate Brown

| language = English

| country = United States

| genre = Environmental history

| published = 2013

| publisher = Oxford University Press

| isbn = 9780199855766

| pages = 416

| image = File:Plutopia_book_cover_(Oxford_University_Press,_2013).jpg

| subjects = Nuclear energy; Cold War

| awards = John H. Dunning Prize; George Perkins Marsh Prize; Ellis W. Hawley Prize

| media_type = Print

}}

Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters is a 2013 book by American environmental historian Kate Brown. The book is a comparative history of the cities of Richland, in the northwest United States adjacent to the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford Site plutonium production area, and Ozersk, in Russia's southern Ural mountain region.{{cite journal |last1=Gordin |first1=Michael D. |title=Reviewed Work: Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters by Kate Brown |journal=Slavic Review |date=2014 |volume=73 |issue=1 |pages=156–158 |doi=10.5612/slavicreview.73.1.0156 |jstor=10.5612/slavicreview.73.1.0156 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5612/slavicreview.73.1.0156 |accessdate=2 October 2020|url-access=subscription }} These two cities were home to the world's first plutonium production sites, and in Plutopia Brown charts the environmental and social impacts of those sites on the residents of and the environment surrounding the two cities.{{Cite book |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kate-brown/plutopia/ |title=PLUTOPIA {{!}} Kirkus Reviews |language=en |access-date=2024-01-17}}{{Cite journal|last=Reichman|first=Henry|date=2016-01-02|title=Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters|journal=Peace Review|volume=28|issue=1|pages=132–135|doi=10.1080/10402659.2015.1130418|s2cid=147584094|issn=1040-2659}} Brown argues that the demands of plutonium production – both the danger of the physical process and the secrecy required in the Cold War context – led both US and Soviet officials to create "Plutopias," ideal communities to placate resident families in exchange for their cooperation and control over their bodies. This entailed creating significant state-run welfare programs along with high levels of consumerism in both places. However, each city witnessed what Brown terms "slow-motion disasters" via the slow, and usually controlled, release of high levels of radiation into their surrounding environments.{{Cite web|title=Kate Brown: Nuclear "Plutopias" the Largest Welfare Program in American History (INTERVIEW) {{!}} History News Network|url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/153096|access-date=2020-07-18|website=historynewsnetwork.org}}{{Cite web|last=Zasky|first=Jason|title=Plutopia - Kate Brown - A tale of two cities that produced plutonium, environmental disaster|url=http://failuremag.com/article/plutopia|access-date=2021-11-16|website=failuremag.com|language=en}}