Although the Cold War is commonly considered 'over,' the legacies of that conflict continue to unfold throughout the globe. One site of post-Cold War controversy involves the consequences of U.S. nuclear weapons production for worker safety, public health, and the environment. Over the past two decades, citizens, organizations, and governments have passionately debated the nature of these consequences, and how they should be managed. This volume clarifies the role of communication in creating, maintaining, and transforming the relationships between these parties, and in shaping the outcomes of related organizational and political deliberations. Providing various perspectives on nuclear culture and discourse, this anthology serves as a model of interdisciplinary communication scholarship that cuts across the subfields of political, environmental, and organizational communication studies, and rhetoric.

Bryan C. Taylor is associate professor of communication at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Stephen P. Depoe is associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Cincinnati, where he also directs the Center for Health and Environmental Communication Research. William J. Kinsella is a faculty member in the Department of Communication and the interdisciplinary program in Science, Technology, and Society at North Carolina State University. Maribeth S. Metzler is associate professor and director of the public relations program at the University of Cincinnati.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Linking Nuclear Legacies and Communication StudiesChapter 2 The Discourse of Officials and Stakeholders of Nuclear Weapons ProductionChapter 3 Convergence and Divergence in the Public Dialogue on Nuclear Weapons CleanupChapter 4 Becoming Hanford Downwinders: Producing Community and Challenging Discursive ContainmentChapter 5 Regional Communication and Sense of Place Surrounding the Waste Isolation Pilot PlantChapter 6 Organizing the Past, Present, and Future of Nuclear Weapons ProductionChapter 7 Cold War Triumphant: The Rhetorical Uses of History, Memory, and Heritage Preservation within the Department of Energy's Nuclear Weapons ComplexChapter 8 TRUTH is Generated HERE: Knowledge Loss and the Production of Nuclear Confidence in the Post-Cold War EraChapter 9 (Forever) At Work in the Fields of the Bomb: Images of Long Term Stewardship in Post-Cold War Nuclear DiscourseChapter 10 Critical ResponseChapter 11 Response: Nuclear Legacies and Opportunities for Politically and Ethically Engaged Communication Scholarship