Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters: From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima Author: James Mahaffey | Language: English | ISBN:
1605984922 | Format: EPUB
Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters: From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima Description
A gripping narrative of nuclear mishaps and meltdowns around the globe, all of which have proven pivotal to the advancement of nuclear science.
From the moment radiation was discovered in the late nineteenth century, nuclear science has had a rich history of innovative scientific exploration and discovery, coupled with mistakes, accidents, and downright disasters.
Mahaffey, a long-time advocate of continued nuclear research and nuclear energy, looks at each incident in turn and analyzes what happened and why, often discovering where scientists went wrong when analyzing past meltdowns.
Every incident has lead to new facets in understanding about the mighty atom—and Mahaffey puts forth what the future should be for this final frontier of science that still holds so much promise.
8 page B&W insert
- Hardcover: 460 pages
- Publisher: Pegasus; 1 edition (February 15, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1605984922
- ISBN-13: 978-1605984926
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
This book is full of important revelations. It will surely be viewed as ammunition for the anti-nuclear activists who have used the most famous accidents involving nuclear reactors (3mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima) to put a halt to most new building of reactors. Is this wise? Not at all. Some environmentalists are now supporting Nuclear Energy as a means of curbing the proliferation of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. You are not going to get a dogmatic stand either pro or anti from this author. But if you read the last chapter, you will see that the author is hardly anti-nuclear. What you will get in front of that final chapter is a complex, meticulous history of almost all of the accidents involving nuclear technology. A lot more than just 3 events. Some involve minor spills and contamination, but most nuclear accidents are kept secret because of "state security"...one event in Russia contaminated a vast area and gave rise to unbelievable stories of mass death, but the details came out only after the break-up of the Soviet Union. That event was basically an industrial explosion of stored radioactive waste that acted like a dirty bomb exposing almost half a million people to dangerous levels of radiation. You do not necessarily need a reactor melt-down or a dropped bomb to do widespread damage with nuclear material. Russia is not the only foolish nation to fumble nuclear technology. In addition to TMI, there have been numerous U.S. accidents including many unreported accidental droppings of atomic bombs. Many small unknown accidents have occurred because of simple ignorance about the devilish instability of nuclear fuels. These fuels can go "critical" in an instant if stored or handled improperly.
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