Nuclear Field Looks Inward at Diversity and Racism

In the days and weeks following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, the Belfer Center community joined in the public outcry against individual and systemic racism and began an intensive look inward at what must be done to dismantle the racism that continues in the United States.

In August, Aditi Verma, a Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow with the Center’s Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) and International Security Program, MTA Fellow Denia Djokić, and Associate Katlyn M. Turner – along with colleagues Lauren J. Borja and Madicken Munk – published an oped in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists titled “A call for antiracist action and accountability in the US nuclear community.” In the article, the authors noted that “the true work of becoming antiracist still lies ahead: accepting and rectifying their own complicity in the problem.”

The article notes that at the time of the inception of the nuclear field in the U.S., racist norms, politics, and attitudes were ingrained in the nuclear culture. For example, they write: “the Manhattan Project—the largest united scientific undertaking of its time—created many of its production facilities by displacing vulnerable minority communities, often without compensation. Many such U.S. nuclear facilities, particularly those for the weapons program, were built without consent on indigenous land, displacing or poisoning those who lived in the vicinity…. Black women who were employed at the Y-12 National Security Complex lived in racially segregated facilities, and generally had lower paying jobs at the facility than whites.”

Acting on its commitment to work toward eliminating racism in the nuclear field, MTA held a panel discussion in October focused on this important issue. It was organized by current and former MTA fellows, including those who authored the Bulletin article.

“Exclusionary mechanisms continue to keep away those whose perspectives are most needed in the field's professional spaces,” Verma said in her opening remarks at the event.  

An upcoming seminar from MTA will focus on racism and other issues related to uranium production on the Navajo Nation.

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