To understand the war over salmon, we have to go back to 1855. That’s when chiefs from the Yakama Nation and other Pacific Northwest tribes signed treaties that are still used as the basis for laws and policies around salmon fishing. Some tribal members believe the Yakama signed a treaty under duress. In some ways, this document represents the first of a multi-generational series of promises the U.S. government made and broke. It also created a powerful legal framework the Yakama still use to advocate for fishing rights.
The scramble to meet the energy demands of AI and data centers is leading to what some are calling a "Nuclear Renaissance," and the Pacific Northwest is at the heart of it. Oregon and Washington are the sites of the world’s first full-scale nuclear power plant (Hanford), the world’s then largest pressurized-water nuclear reactor (Trojan Nuclear Power Plant), the only company with regulatory approval to build small modular reactors (NuScale), and a growing number of power-hungry data centers — and yet Oregon has a constitutional amendment banning new nuclear projects. Why? It all comes back to the region's history with nuclear, and the legacy of the environmental movement in the Northwest.
"Trojan Wars," from OPB and 30 Minutes West, tells the story of how our grand plans for cheap, reliable, carbon-free power in the 20th century ended up in a heap of concrete and barrels of nuclear waste on the banks of the Columbia River. And we ask: What went wrong the first time around? And is it possible to get it right this time?