The afterlife of a nuclear test site: Gerard DeGroot investigates the effects of the 'peace dividend' on the Nevada desert.(Cross Current; Nevada Test Site)

IN CHAPARRAL, NEVADA, the end of the Cold War was no cause for celebration. For over forty years, testing atomic bombs had brought billions of dollars into the state's coffers. The Bomb gave literal meaning to the term 'boomtown'. Chaparral, which once supplied prostitutes for workers at the Nevada Test Site, understandably went into steep decline when the NTS officially ceased operation in 1998.

Like the mining towns of Nevada's past, it seemed destined to become a ghost town. But, as its website currently boasts, 'Chaparral refused to wither and die'. Kitty Storm, owner of the ...

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