In the standard contracts, typed on onion–skin paper, the mining companies that dug and blasted ura

In the standard contracts, typed on onion–skin paper, the mining companies that dug and blasted uranium out of the ground promised to leave the land "in as good condition as received." But when the Cold War uranium boom slowed in the '60s, firms often disappeared without even a token effort to comply; leaving shafts open, piles of radioactive tailings, contaminated soil and water. (Photo by Gail Fisher/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)