Under the Cap of Invisibility

The Pantex Nuclear Weapons Plant and the Texas Panhandle

by Lucie Genay

Foreword by Alex Hunt

Published by: University of New Mexico Press

304 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in, 14 halftones, 1 map

Hardcover
9780826364227 | December 2022

$85.00

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PDF
9780826364234 | December 2022

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Paperback
9780826368126 | May 2025

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9780826368133 | May 2025

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Description
Contributors
Acclaim
Table Of Contents

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.

Lucie Genay is an associate professor of US civilization in the English and American Studies Department at the University of Limoges, France. She is also the author of Land of Nuclear Enchantment: A New Mexican History of the Nuclear Weapons Industry (UNM Press).

“Under the Cap of Invisibility is engaging and evocative, relaying a highly significant story of nuclearization against an unexpected backdrop, rural Texas. Moreover, the book is a well-executed example of regional history. It balances national contexts with local characters in a way that showcases what makes the Panhandle and the Pantex Plant unique while also connecting these stories to larger frameworks. . . . This book should have a place on the shelves of most military, western, and Texas historians.”—Southern California Quarterly

“With great insight and a rich narrative, Genay brings the history of Pantex to the fore of scholarship in the history of America’s nuclear arsenal and its impact on the American West.”—Ryan H. Edgington, author of Range Wars: The Environmental Contest for White Sands Missile Range

“A thoughtful and important addition to the history of the atomic West. . . . It is a reminder that we are still living with the legacy of the Cold War.”—Leisl Carr Childers, author of The Size of the Risk: Histories of Multiple Use in the Great Basin

Acronyms
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Alex Hunt
Introduction. The Bomb Factory

Chapter One. The Bishop’s Call
Chapter Two. The Novelist’s Fascination
Chapter Three. The Filmmaker’s Circus
Chapter Four. The Patriots’ Pride
Chapter Five. The Peaceniks’ Moral Crusade
Chapter Six. The Boosters’ Dreams and Fears
Chapter Seven. The Farmers’ Fight
Chapter Eight. The Environmentalists’ Quest to Learn and Teach
Chapter Nine. The Nuclear Workers’ Silence

Conclusion. Growth, Bombs, and Water
Notes
Selected Bibliography