Fallout : disasters, lies, and the legacy of the nuclear age / Fred Pearce.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pearce, Fred, author.

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Radioactive pollution.

Nuclear accidents.

Nuclear industry.

Physical Description:

viii, 255 pages ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Disasters, lies, and the legacy of the nuclear age

Place of Publication:

Boston : Beacon Press, [2018]

Summary:

"Environmental journalist Fred Pearce travels the globe to investigate our complicated seven-decade long relationship with nuclear technology, from the bomb to nuclear accidents to nuclear waste. While concern about climate change has led some environmentalists to embrace renewable energy sources like wind and solar, others have expressed a renewed interest in nuclear power as an alternative source of carbon-neutral energy. But can humanity handle the risks involved? In Fallout, Fred Pearce uncovers the environmental and psychological landscapes created since the dropping of the first atomic bomb. Traveling from Nevada to Japan to the UK to secret sites of the old Soviet Union, he explores first the landscapes transformed by uranium and by nuclear accidents--sites both well-known and little known. He then examines in detail the toxic legacies of nuclear technology, the emerging dilemmas over handling its waste, the decommissioning of the great radioactive structures of the nuclear age, and the fearful doublethink over our growing stockpiles of plutonium, the most lethal and ubiquitous product of nuclear technologies. How, Pearce asks, has the nuclear experience has changed us? Is nuclear technology indeed the existential threat it sometimes appears? Should we be burdening future generations with radioactive waste that will be deadly for thousands of years? Fallout is the definitive look at humanity's nuclear adventure, for any reader who craves a clear-headed examination of the tangled relationship between a powerful technology and human politics, foibles, fears, and arrogance"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part 1 The Destroyer of Worlds

Chapter 1 Hiroshima: An Invisible Scar p. 9

Chapter 2 Critical Mass: MAUD in the Nuclear Garden p. 16

Chapter 3 Las Vegas: Every Mushroom Cloud Has a Silver Lining p. 22

Chapter 4 Pacific Tests: Godzilla and the Lucky Dragon p. 29

Chapter 5 Semipalatinsk: Secrets of the Steppe p. 38

Chapter 6 Plutonium Mountain: Proliferation Paradise p. 45

Part 2 Cold War and Hot Particles

Chapter 7 Mayak: "Pressed for Time" Behind the Urals p. 53

Chapter 8 Metlmo: Even the Samovars Were Radioactive p. 61

Chapter 9 Rocky Flats: Plutonium in the Snake Pit p. 71

Chapter 10 Colorado Silos: Uncle Sam's Nuclear Heartland p. 80

Chapter 11 Broken Arrows: Dr. Strangelove and the Radioactive Rabbits p. 88

Chapter 12 Windscale Fire: "A Cover-Up, Plain and Simple" p. 91

Part 3 Atoms for Peace

Chapter 13 Three Mile Island: How Not to Run a Power Plant p. 103

Chapter 14 Chernobyl: A "Beautiful" Disaster p. 114

Chapter 15 Chernobyl: Vodka and Fallout p. 124

Chapter 16 Chernobyl: Hunting in Packs p. 134

Chapter 17 Fukushima: A Scorpion's Discovery p. 139

Chapter 18 Fukushima: Baba's Homecoming p. 144

Chapter 19 Radiophobia: The Ghost at Fukushima p. 152

Chapter 20 Millisieverts: A Dose of Reason p. 160

Part 4 Cleaning Up

Chapter 21 Sizewell: The Nuclear Laundryman p. 171

Chapter 22 Sellafield: Stone Circles and Nuclear Legacies p. 178

Chapter 23 Hanford: Decommissioning an Industry p. 186

Chapter 24 Gorleben: Passport to a Non-Nuclear Future? p. 192

Chapter 25 Waste: Out of Harm's Way p. 201.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Pearce, Fred. Fallout.

ISBN:

9780807092491

0807092495

OCLC:

990121488

Publisher Number:

99976924517