For decades, the Nevada desert's rugged beauty has veiled its use as a nuclear weapons testing site. Now another crisis looms over the Yucca Mountains--their consideration as the proposed national repository for nuclear waste. Kuletz combines scientific data with interviews with scientists and local Native Americans to shed light on this global controversy. Photos/illustrations.

For decades, nuclear testing in America's southwest was shrouded in secrecy, with images gradually made public of mushroom clouds blooming over the desert. Now, another nuclear crisis looms over this region: the storage of tens of thousands of tons of nuclear waste. Tainted Desert maps the nuclear landscapes of the US inter-desert southwest, a land sacrificed to the Cold-War arms race and nuclear energy policy.