The Columbia Basin was dusted only with sagebrush and bunchgrass before settlers harnessed the power of the mighty Columbia River. With irrigation came the small town of Richland, and its sister towns of White Bluffs and Hanford. On the advent of U.S. involvement in the Second World War, Richland was discovered by government scientists. Breaking ground in March of 1943, through one of the fastest-built government operations ever, the first nuclear reactor went "critical" in September of that year. Most of the workers did not understand what they had produced until after Nagasaki was...