Under the Cap of Invisibility

The Pantex Nuclear Weapons Plant and the Texas Panhandle

Lucie Genay

• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780826364227
• eBook ISBN: 9780826364234
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Pantex was built during World War II near the town of Amarillo, Texas. The site was converted early in the Cold War to assemble nuclear weapons and produce high explosives. For nearly fifty years Pantex has been the sole assembly and disassembly plant for nuclear weapons in the United States. Today, most of the activities of the plant consist of the manufacture of high explosive components and the dismantlement or life extension of weapons. Unlike the much more famous nuclear-weapons-production sites at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Rocky Flats, the Pantex plant has drawn little attention, hidden under a metaphoric "cap of invisibility." Lucie Genay now lifts that invisibility cap to give the world its first in-depth look at Pantex and the people who have spent their lives as neighbors and employees of this secretive industry. The book investigates how Pantex has impacted local identity by molding elements of the past into the guaranty of its future and its concealment. It further examines the multiple facets of Pantexism through the voices of native and adoptive Panhandlers.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword by Alex Hunt
• Introduction. The Bomb Factory
• Chapter 1. The Bishop’s Call
• Chapter 2. The Novelist’s Fascination
• Chapter 3. The Filmmaker’s Circus
• Chapter 4. The Patriots’ Pride
• Chapter 5. The Peaceniks’ Moral Crusade
• Chapter 6. The Boosters’ Dreams and Fears
• Chapter 7. The Farmers’ Fight
• Chapter 8. The Envrionmentalists’ Quest to Learn and Teach
• Chapter 9. The Nuclear Workers’ Silence
• Conclusion. Growth, Bombs, and Water
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index