John D'Agata (The Narrator)
The narrator of this mostly nonfictional narrative, John D'Agata is a professional essayist and journalist. About a Mountain chronicles his travel to Las Vegas and the poking around he did concerning the nature of the town and one of its major problems: Yucca Mountain. D'Agata is a straightforward, seemingly impartial narrator, giving the facts in what appears to be an objective manner. Investigations into the validity of his claims, however, along with the author's notable rude defensiveness and questionable artistic license, give the impression that D'Agata isn't quite as ingenuous as he purports to be.
Levi Presley
Levi Presley made national news as a sixteen-year-old boy who committed suicide by jumping off a tall building in Las Vegas. He is an important figure in the book: his action sets a depressing backdrop for the whole plot. The last chapter concludes with a detailed account of his day and night before he committed the fateful deed. Levi was clearly a troubled youth, and his afflictions are representative of those of the Las Vegas community as a whole, playing into both the beauty and the troubles of the gambling capital of the U.S.
Senator Harry Reid
Senator Reid, of Nevada, begins the story as a hero to the people of Las Vegas. He seems to stand up for their situation concerning Yucca Mountain on principle, and his actions befit those of a chivalrous knight. A little later, however, he accepts money from the organizations behind the plan for Yucca Mountain and others, revealing that his loyalty to the city is weaker than his desire for power and affluence. After this betrayal, he fades into obscurity for the rest of the book.
Chairman Robert Fri
D'Agata spends a lot of time chasing down the origin of the number 10,000 as it relates to the number of years proclaimed to be the "danger period" of the radioactive waste planned to be dumped into Yucca Mountain. The tour guide, Blair, says that this represents the half-life of the waste. This explanation, however, is far from satisfactory (since by the period of one half-life, the waste would still be radioactive enough to kill a person in minutes), so D'Agata goes in search of the origin of this number. After being rerouted many times, he eventually comes into contact with Robert Fri, committee chairman at Resources for the Future. Fri reveals that the number is arbitrary; the scientists recommend a million years for the waste to lose its radioactivity, but that wasn't feasible for the production team, so they just changed the time frame. Fri's testimony reveals the corrupt and dangerous nature of this operation.
Joshua Abbey
Joshua Abbey is the son of famous author and anarchist Edward Abbey, and he is also a friend of D'Agata's mother. D'Agata has a long conversation with Abbey on a long drive, during which he learns about the culture of the city, the plans for the mountain, and the personal life of Edward Abbey. Unlike his father, Joshua seems like a nice guy.
Residents of Las Vegas
D'Agata converses with a variety of Las Vegas locals, including those that reside in or near the mountainous areas. The ideas in the novel regarding urban and nature environments are exemplified by these people.
