Book Description
A distinguished authority tells the spellbinding story of the people and politics behind the development of the Soviet atom bomb. Based on interviews with participants and research in newly opened archives, the book reveals how the American atomic monopoly affected Stalin`s foreign policy, the role of espionage in the evolution of the Soviet bomb, and the relationship between Soviet nuclear scientists and the country`s political leaders.
Customer Reviews:
An island of intellectual autonomy in a totalitarian state.......2004-09-09
D. Holloway tells us outstandingly and very detailed the gripping story of the development of nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union. He shows us that the SU success was the result of the effort of Russian scientists with I.V. Kurchatov in a crucial role, although some data were obtained via spying (Klaus Fuchs).
The nuclear weapons building combined the best (scientists, engineers) and the worst of the SU, with prisoners working in appalling conditions (no protection) and real nuclear exercises with soldiers as guinea pigs.
D. Holloway analyzes also pregnantly the hostile ideological environment for scientists. The regime's fundamental logic remained political. The politicians had the right to define what was science and pseudoscience. In the name of dialectical materialism whole scientific disciplines (e.g. genetics) were destroyed (the Lyssenko case).
Physics also came under attack. Beria asked Kurchatov if it was true that quantum mechanics and relativity theory were idealist, antimaterialist. Kurchatov replied that if relativity theory and qm were rejected, the bomb would be rejected too. Stalin's ultimate answer was:' Leave them in peace, we can shoot them later!' (p. 204)
This 'pseudoscientific' debate was held within a bureaucratic framework. Scientists were well paid and the party bureaucrats and ideologues were jealous and wanted to take their place, even if they were incompetent. Beria left physics unhampered because he needed the bomb. In that sense, physics remained a small element of civil society in a totalitarian state. But if the scientists had failed, they would certainly have received a neckshot.
The impact of nuclear weapons on international political relations is also outstandingly explained.
After WW II the Soviet leaders assumed rightly that the US was seeking world dominance and that the SU was the main impediment. The scientific planners in the US discussed seriously a preemptive (!) strike against the US.
Stalin was not impressed by the US nuclear power. He continued tot think that conventional weapons and troops had still the upper hand. As an example, he took the risk of the Berlin crisis in 1948. But he grasped that the SU also needed the bomb.
The physicists knew that an international balance of power was needed. They understood the effects of a nuclear war and explained to the politicians that the survival of the human race was at stake.
After Stalin, Khrushev renounced Lenin's thesis that war was inevitable between capitalist states. As the nuclear stockpile grew, he admitted that a peaceful coexistence of capitalism and socialism was preferable.
D. Holloway wrote a magisterial analysis of an essential part of mankind's history. A fascinating read.
An Excellent Overview of the Entire Period.......2004-02-28
Stalin and the Bomb is an excellent overview not only of the Soviet atomic project but of the entire Stalin period. Holloway discusses some of the disastorous policies Stalin pursued in the scientific arena (for example, when it came to biology) and shows how Stalin was able to control his ideological impulses when it came to a project that would net him real power.
Stalin and the Bomb is extremely readable and provides some nice detail on Kurchatov, the father of the Soviet A-bomb. A little more on Sakharov and the H-bomb project would have been nice, but was not central to the thrust of the book. Significantly, this book delves into significant technical detail about the research and construction of nuclear weapons, but the author does a superb job of making the science accessable to people without PhDs in physics.
Plenty of characters, with just a few plots........2002-03-18
I was most interested in who had the first hydrogen bomb (the first real plan, the ideal materials, a way to make it, and a test device) and I didn't mind reading about "some radioactive indicator which is formed with the participation of fast deuterons" (p. 304) to find out. Sorting out the physics, which can be revealed to those who care to know, with a comparison of alternate paths to the same result, reveals something far more substantial than the usual plot, based on the politics of world domination, the main concern of Stalin and the author of this book. Stalin gets some sympathy for facing a stark post-war reality, based on his comparison of what World War II did to Russia and Germany, compared to the damage which the few atomic bombs which existed in his lifetime could produce, and it might be said that he acted accordingly in attempting to maintain countervailing threats whenever he was pressured. Any notion of absolute justice, or even feasible military advantage, seems to be as elusive for the superpowers (and one still exists today) as for the petty despots and warlords that often become characters in this book about how such weapons came to be. I didn't mind the revelations about certain events: a war in Korea at a critical point in this book even makes the question of when Mao ordered the Chinese divisions into Korea an interesting question to be considered. In most of these books, I like the events which influenced Sakharov most, the best. The description of the shock wave from the November 1955 test on pages 316-7 includes, "All of this triggers an irrational yet very strong emotional impact."
Intriguing Analysis of a Hidden Episode.......2000-06-03
David Holloway, a professor at Stanford, has published an intriguing history of Soviet nuclear weapons development in _Stalin_and_the_Bomb_. This volume interweaves two main themes--the technical difficulties in designing and fabricating nuclear weapons, and the political motivations commanding these efforts along with their strategic implications.
Many of the major participants are familiar to readers of Soviet history, such as Stalin, Beria, Molotov and Khrushchev. However, the important actors in this drama were the technical experts who created these engines of destruction on behalf of their masters. Many prominent scientists labored to provide the theoretical and experimental support demanded by Stalin for rapid industrialization, laying the groundwork for the tremendous infrastructure needed to duplicate the achievements of the Manhattan Project years later. Research in radioactivity eventually led to the first spontaneous fission experiment in 1940, but this did not attract attention in the West, where restrictions began for publication on nuclear physics.
Work on fission continued during the war, but the lack of uranium prevented much advancement. Holloway, in examining the directives during this period, found priorities unchanged following the Potsdam meeting, in contrast to the subsequent demand for uranium production after Hiroshima. He attributes Stalin's casual reaction to Truman's mention of a new weapon to skepticism regarding its importance. But the bomb as a colossal reality, not merely as an intelligence phantom, presented Stalin with a new strategic contention. His response was to show resolve in the face of anticipated intimidation coupled with orders to develop this technology independently. However, he only recognized the bomb as an instrument of Anglo-American policy, and refused to consider it militarily decisive in any potential conflict. When challenging US policy over Berlin, for example, Stalin carefully applied pressure while keeping his options open and took care not to escalate tensions beyond retraction.
The achievement of creating an atomic bomb, given the devastating post-war depravation of the Soviet Union can be credited primarily to Igor Kurchatov, the scientific director of the nuclear project from 1942 until his death in 1960. Kurchatov was a well respected figure in Soviet physics, but he also provided a methodical and systematic orchestration to a project with many difficult sundry en-gineering obstacles to overcome, not to mention the menacing oversight by Beria, head of the NKVD. Although awarded privileged status in the post-war Soviet Union, the scientists recognized their position as predicated on successful completion of this task.
The primary obstacle remained the inadequate supply of uranium metal until 1948 when the first production reactor was built. Uranium isotope separation and plutonium precipitation were tackled with indus-trial vigor. The gaseous diffusion facility, modeled on the Oak Ridge plant involved particular engineering difficulties to be solved before uranium enrichment could proceed. Yulii Khariton, director of the secret nu-clear research laboratory Arzamas-16, led the study on the physics of detonation. Implosion was needed to compress the plutonium a few microseconds in order to start the chain reaction. Their first atom bomb was exploded August 1949 at Semipalatinsk with a yield of 20 kilotons of TNT. Thus the Soviet Union joined the nuclear club.
While espionage yielded useful information at the West's expense, Holloway argues that Klaus Fuchs saved the Soviets only about a year or two by giving dimensions of the plutonium implosion design. He compares the first Soviet atom bomb explosion in 1949 with the first British demonstration in 1952 despite much closer collaboration with the Americans than anything obtained clandestinely by their Soviet counterparts. Holloway also contends that the contribution by captured Germans was comparatively minor and sped the project by only a few weeks or months--principally in the area of processing uranium.
While the bomb was being developed, Stalin initiated orders on delivery systems--bombers by Vladimir Myasishchev and rockets by Sergei Korolev. In Stalin's view, another war was inevitable within two decades, and the atomic bomb would serve as merely another policy instrument. After he died in March 1953, his successors embarked on a less confrontational rapproachement with the West.
After the Soviets demonstrated their ability to create weapons based on nuclear fission, Truman decided to pursue the hydrogen bomb, because there was no indication that Stalin would reciprocate a policy of restraint. After some false starts, a method to use X-ray compression from fission to implode the thermonuclear charge was discovered, enabling a yield limited only by the quantity of nuclear fuel. The Mike test in November 1952 verified this concept with an ungainly 60-ton refrigerated assembly. Meanwhile, the Russians embarked on fusion independently. A young physicist, Andrei Sakarov began work in 1948 and joined the Arzamas-16 facility, developing the "Layer Cake" which resembled the boosted fission weapon, before advancing on the two-stage Super. The first thermonuclear bomb was exploded in August 1953, and apparently alarmed Kurchatov, being 20 times more power-ful than the first Soviet fission bomb four years earlier. In November 1955, the first two-stage thermonuclear bomb with a yield of 1.6 megatons was exploded.
The first Soviet fusion explosion produced a profound change in the attitudes of politburo members about the same time that Americans realized that this new weapon represented a far more potent destructive force than the fission variety. In the aftermath of this revelation, a more conciliatory "peaceful coexistence" doctrine began to develop. Khrushchev's increased dialog with western leaders also facilitated long dormant communication between Soviet physicists and their colleagues beyond the Iron Curtain. Kurchatov's visit in 1956 was well received at Harwell, the British power station. From this small privileged enclave, a civilizing influence was nurtured within a totalitarian society. Eventually, Sakarov went beyond the usual misgivings of Soviet society to become a dissident and human rights advocate.
_Stalin_ concludes that the arms race between the two blocks was contingent solely on Stalin's intentions. Holloway believes that in the post-war years the bomb probably restrained the use of force but also made Stalin less cooperative to avoid seeming weak.
The book is not without flaws--some identifications to the KGB presumably belong to NKVD, the American arsenal in June 1946 lists a grossly exces-sive nine atom bombs taken from the _Bulletin of_Atomic_Scientists_ compared to _The Winning_Weapon_ by Gregg Herken which identified a single partially disassembled weapon in the inventory in January 1947, and an annoying transliteration of two Cyrillic characters as "ia" and "iu" instead of "ya" and "yu" as more conventionally employed. Otherwise, _Stalin_ is a tremendous addition to our knowledge of Russian capabilities in physics instigated by a repressive regime at the dawn of the nuclear age.
Customer Reviews:
Relaxation is key to all life's problems.......2006-11-13
Why five stars? Simple. This book is simple. It is straight foward, easy to use, and safe. Why, after all that has been said, do I claim this book is safe? There is only one chapter on kundalini activation, and it is only in an indirect fashion, that activation occurs. The book focusses on sitting and relaxation techniques. The emphasis is on attentive awareness, cultivated to the point of concentration. There are no techniques in the entire book which would produce any explosive psychic reactions. Taking the alarmist position can be remedied with a perview of antero alli's angel tech, the article on kundalini crackups is particularly enlightening. The main exercise involving the kundalini is the solar plexus charging technique, by which the practitioner concentrates on an internally generated heat until absorbsion of the bodymind process saturates awareness with heat. This experience of laya is an indirect experience of the kundalini energy, centered in the manipura chakra, the center of balance and equilibrium. I suggest starting with chapter one, use the chakra meditation from magical tattwas, or the suhum gayatri from death and dying. Do it fourteen days before moving on. You don't need them to achieve progress however, remember the technique is the goal. Achieving relaxation and self-mastery are in fact noble goals we should all hope to attain in our lifetime, I believe.
In response to previous reviewers.......2006-01-01
Some previous reviewers such as "rain cloud" has declared himself god and has declared other people's pains and feelings unimportant. What he and others like him (and there are far too many of them) fails to realize is that just as a drug might give no side effects to one person, it may give horrifying side effects to another. This is the way kundalini works. Just because you happen to be part of the majority that do not feel any side effects from kundalini, it would ignorant, careless, unfeeling, self centered, self absorptive, and stupid of you to think that other people won't experience it either. In addition, it would be selfish, irresponsible, unaccountable, and even criminal of you to preach kundalini as if there were no dangers or precautions to beware of. You are playing with fire and playing with fate itself. You are playing with other people's lives and potentially destroying lives.
There may or may not be an ultimate good effect to kundalini, but is it worth the hell it can give to some people? Is this a deal with the devil?
Approach kundalini with caution. If you feel sideffects from a kundalini procedure then stop before you hurt yourself real bad. Another big problem with kundalini is that you don't know if you went too far until it is too late. The side effects sometimes takes up to 24 hours to "kick in" after a kundalini session, so if anything, the initial session should be very brief and very light - not the overloaded stuff advertised by this book.
Finally, if the Bible's book of genesis warns of the "serpent" (a.k.a. kundalini ) who decieves you with occult powers in exchange for your own alienation from god, how can you trust it? Gopi Krishna, a well known sufferer of kundalini hell, concluded in his books that there was no God, only a mindless energy that permeates all. This shows that kundalini has alienated him from God to a far higher degree than adam and eve when they were expelled from eden.
This may very well be a counterfeit spirituality. The bible has stated "A tree can be judged by its fruits". Knowing the hell that this serpent can do, what kind of tree do you think it is ? In addition to the physical and mental horrors, a lot of people have reported involuntary actions that make them act like snakes - including postures and hissing ! A lot of people have reported a helpless feeling like an angry demon or evil spirit is taking over their body. Unlike a lot of other things that produce side effects, Kundalini's side effects are known to commonly last a lifetime.
Another example of "A tree can be judged by its fruits" is the character of a lot of these kundalini instructors. For example, if they talk a lot about love and spirituality, yet they often burst out in rages of anger, that should tell you that something is not quite right.
Instead of diving into this risky snake pit of kundalini, I would recommend that you should consult a gifted pastor or individual with the power of Jesus in him.
It works! Faster than DSL or CABLE!.......2005-09-19
Ok, seriously...results will vary. Was this book so dangerous as others claimed it to be? Did it hold some magical blue print to a secret system that was somehow hidden away all this time from the general public? It sure sounded like it when I read the reviews on this workbook. All this danger and enhanced psychic powers for under $20 bucks! Truly, "AMAZING"...I thought to myself. So with my anxious trembling hand, I reached over and guided my mouse to the check out button. With one swift click I added the workbook to my Amazon.com shopping cart. Didn't sleep much, too much anticipating. When finally, it ( the dangerous workbook ) arrived. Good thing, reading the cover didn't make my kundalini rise up and kill me.(Just Kidding) Looking inside the workbook didn't make my chakras spin off my etheric body and leave me a hollow shell either. (I'm Kidding ok.) If I paid more than $20 for this workbook...well that might have given my blood pressure a dangerous spike upwards. So far so good. The workbook was simply just that, a workbook. I'm glad I purchased it. It will help with my study on Manifestation.
Caution.......2003-12-24
Kundalini is an extremely effective practice, and it is absolutely NOT something that should be learned from a book. Dr. Mumford's emphasis on fast results, and ego based gratification is a dangerous way to begin exploring your body's energy, and there are dangers in practicing the pranayama he advocates.
This topic should be explored with a teacher-- fast results are not always good results.
a good guide for progress but little skrewed.......2002-11-23
as a how to book for the more esoteric practices of yoga not bad,simple and direct explanations & exercises. and yes it is intense but doable.what I find skrewed is mumford's explanation of the yamas and niyamas they are little off. I would refer you to the yoga sutras or the thirumandiram. both are much better guides on the philosopy. bisides that overall a good book
nanmaste
Book Description
In "a chilling documentary history of America's above-ground nuclear tests conducted during the 1950s and early 1960s, Miller takes on the subject and universalizes it, at the same time giving it the flavor of a Dos Passos novel" ("Kirkus Reviews").
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding information, decent writing.......2007-02-21
Richard Miller's "Under the Cloud" is probably a must-read for any of the late baby-boomers like myself who grew up during the Cold War but mostly after above-ground nuclear testing had ended. I was born in 1957 and for most of my life, the above-ground tests were a thing of the past and not really much discussed. But Miller's book reveals how I and most others of my age were probably victims of fallout to some degree. The book provides a very good sense of time relative to the major test series and documents much of the fallout movement and intensity. Miller's narrative style is easy to read but at times a just a wee bit melodramatic. It also gets confusing for the non-physicist as he tends to change units of measurement for radiation exposure constantly - in one test the exposure is in rads, then it's in roentgens, then it's in millicuries - and most of us don't know the relationship. But these criticisms are quibbles with what is for the most part an outstanding book and a very revealing look at something the government wouldn't want you to know. Along with Richard Rhodes' books on the nuclear program, this is a first-rate volume.
Decades of Nuclear testing.......2007-01-19
Excellent and thorough account of the nuclear testing era in America, the South Pacific and the Soviet Union. The book's focus is the open air testing in Nevada, and details of those tests and fallout trails in the 50s and 60s. The book is written in a style that makes it fascinating, not bogged down with complex scientific jargon. It sidesteps to describe what was going on in American culture at the time, in the cities that were virtually unaware they were downwind of deadly exposure. Author explains how it all occurred, why, and the tragic legacy it has left.
Highly recommended for anyone. Should be of interest to all since as the book so accuruately reveals, we were all downwinders.
Great Book.......2007-01-05
Have read it cover to cover a few times. This is a book that should be read in schools. A shocking and mostly untold portion of American history. To read about the extent of continental US Nuclear testing and the often covered up dangers (By the AEC) is a real eye opener. Many of the stories are told from the perspective of eye witnesses and include other bits of timely and relevant history that help to capture the moment. Pages of diagrams detailing the fallout patterns of many tests show that fallout was often scattered across the entire country (instead of just endangering the NTS area). A "must read" for anyone with an open mind towards real facts and American History.
UNDER THE CLOUD.......2006-05-25
I remember in the 50's and 60's being taught to get under my desk in case of a nuclear blast and to stay inside in case of nuclear fallout. Naturally this would only come from Russia and even our small town in Wyoming had a fallout shelter, we thought this was great as our state had several ICBM silos. After reading this book I was once again educated on the perils of nuclear fallout, NOT ONLY WAS IT ALL OVER THE USA, IT WAS MEASURED BY OUR GOVERNMENT AND AT NO TIME WAS ANYONE WARNED TO STAY INSIDE OR TAKE ANY PRECAUTIONS REGUARDING, FOOD, WATER OR LIVESTOCK. This is a crime against humanity and the fallout is still with us in the extremely high cancer rates that follow the fallout maps. The most incredible thing about this book is that it really happened and the American people were and still are totally uninformed. How many RADS were you exposed to? Check it out!
Under the Cloud R.L. Miller.......2000-01-26
As one who has lived very close to this subject for nearly half a century, I find 'Under the Cloud' by R.L.Miller THE most exhaustive and comprehensive examination of our atmospheric nuclear testing program I have ever found. It's a facinating read, I've read it cover to cover, every single word, at least twice. The extensive fallout maps,the juxtaposing of 1950's social factors alongside the myriad of events (shots) provides the historian as well as the curious, with an insight not only to what we did,but why we did it. 'Under the Cloud' will make you feel like you're huddled in the trench 7000 yards from Ground Zero or having a cocktail in 'Doomtown' waiting for Apple II. If you only read one book on our Nuclear Testing Program, or can only have one book on this subject in your library,EVER, make sure it's 'Under the Cloud'. Order it now, but be advised,you're not going to put it down until the last page.
Book Description
The politics of oil revolves around its price and the reliability of its suppliers. In turn, many international conflicts in the world today are rooted in these politics. Not surprisingly: the price of oil is managed by a cartel-OPEC-some of whose member governments are deeply hostile to the United States and other major importers of oil. And OPEC controls nearly two-thirds of the world's oil reserves. Ironically, the United States and many others, especially non-OPEC producers of energy, have come to rely on OPEC to set prices that encourage the development of high-cost oil elsewhere, and thus promote some diversity of supply.Fundamental to any understanding of the politics of the contemporary world is an understanding of the politics and most recent history of petroleum. Francisco Parra, drawing on his long and varied experience in international oil, sets out the events that have shaped the industry over the past fifty years--the displacement of coal as the world's prime fuel; the tight control of international oil by the seven major oil companies (all US or British), monopolizing production in the Middle East and Venezuela; the rise of OPEC and the ousting of the companies in a bitter struggle in which the companies were abandoned by their home governments; how the world was hypnotized for more than a decade by the delusion of impending depletion; and the political turbulence that has led to wars in the Middle East, to US sanctions on Iran, Iraq, and Libya, and, most recently, to the invasion of Iraq.After a surge in non-OPEC oil production in the 1980s and 1990s, dependence on the Middle East is increasing and OPEC's control over price is volatile. Parra asks whether this enduring predicament-that holds the threat of political conditions being attached to the supply of oil-can be managed by the "West", to avert successive and deepening crises in the pricing and supply of oil and in the world at large.
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Corporate Profit and Nuclear Safety: Strategy at Northeast Utilities in the 1990s
Paul W. MacAvoy , and
Jean W. Rosenthal
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0691119945 |
Book Description
Northeast Utilities Company adopted an ambitious new competitive strategy in the mid-1980s, seeking to become the low-cost supplier in New England electric power markets bracing for deregulation. Given its high-cost nuclear facilities, doing so required a corporate turnaround. For a decade Northeast faced increasing public and employee resistance to cost cutting at its nuclear plants. Though management achieved many of its goals, curtailing outlays on nuclear operations meant high risk that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would close the plants because of frequent, prolonged outages. This is just what happened in 1996. Did management's deliberate cost-containment strategy take nuclear operations to an inevitable regulatory shutdown, and if so, why? Was it the pursuit of executive compensation tied to cost containment that caused undue risk of regulatory shutdown?
Paul MacAvoy and Jean Rosenthal describe ten years of corporate performance preceding the shutdown, detailing aggressive executive decisions, mounting regulatory actions in response to increasingly severe operational failures, and--at the same time--overall improvement in corporate earnings, stock prices, and executive pay packages. They relate the complexities of managing declining nuclear plant operations under ever more pressing budgetary targets. Their discussion of the increasing risk of outages raises the issue of the tradeoff of profit and conservative management of hazard operations.
All the more timely in light of the massive 2003 East Coast blackout, Corporate Profit and Nuclear Safety represents a powerful and cautionary commentary on industrial practices that goes to the heart of effective corporate governance.
Book Description
When asked to name the world’s first major nuclear accident, most people cite the Three Mile Island incident or the Chernobyl disaster. Revealed in this book is one of American history’s best-kept secrets: the world’s first nuclear reactor accident to claim fatalities happened on United States soil. Chronicled here for the first time is the strange tale of SL-1, a military test reactor located in Idaho’s Lost River Desert that exploded on the night of January 3, 1961, killing the three-man maintenance crew on duty. Through details uncovered in official documents, firsthand accounts from rescue workers and nuclear industry insiders, and exclusive interviews with the victims’ families and friends, this book probes intriguing questions about the devastating blast that have remained unanswered for more than 40 years. From reports of a faulty reactor design and mismanagement of the reactor’s facilities to rumors of incompetent personnel and a failed love affair that prompted deliberate sabotage of the plant, these plausible explanations for the explosion raise questions about whether the truth was deliberately suppressed to protect the nuclear energy industry.
Customer Reviews:
idaho falls.......2007-01-09
Was there at test site when this happened. Mostly accurate and alerts the reader to the dificulty in managing a nuclear accident. Accidents are rare but the nuclear waste problem is real challenge of all operational reactors. Probably mostly enjoyed by someone familiar with or working in nuclear field.
riveting: death, sex and uranium.......2006-06-10
I read half of this while waiting for the train! The author's style is very clear and he's a good storyteller. While some of the chapters were a bit sensationalized, this book is well worth your time and money. "Idaho Falls" is more interesting than 99% of contemporary fiction out there :)
Fascinating.......2004-02-14
In the interest of full disclosure I will say up front that I am not in any way connected to The Site (locals' name for the facility out on the desert now called the INEEL) I have friends who work there and friends who would love to see it shut down.
That said I think McKeown does an excellent job in telling what's known about the SL-1 accident (if that's what it was) and the rumors that surrounded it. I found it an first-rate read (I read it in two days) and very informative.
McKeown goes to great lengths to delineate between what can be and is known and what is rumor and supposition. He also repeatedly explains (which keeps me from giving the book a 5th star) how different attitudes were then, particulary among the personel working at and responsible for the facility. This is the excuse given and accepted by the author for the lack of disclosure at the time. There's nothing here about what changed, or more importantly, what didn't change, as a result of SL-1.
Its unfortunate that the story of this incident is completely unkown by the general public. Both the heroism of those there immediately after the incident and the behavior of those in charge should be common knowledge. Reading this book goes a long way in correcting that.
Important lesson from history.......2003-12-10
McKeown does a good job of pulling together the many strands of this story, giving just enough technical detail to know what went wrong, and enough (relevant) human interest to keep the story interesting.
Yes, it's true that Idaho Falls isn't exactly a brand-new 'revelation', but few outside the nuclear industry have heard about it, or know its significance. McKeown shows that the ultimate cause was a failure by the designers of the reactor to take into account Murphy's Law - if something can go wrong, it will. This is a common thread running thru nuclear incidents ranging from Windscale to Chernobyl. With some energy experts now calling for us to embrace nuclear power again in order to meet energy demand without triggering excessive global warming, McKeown's book is a very timely reminder of why and how things went wrong 50 years ago, and what we need to look out for the second time around (if nuclear power is granted one)
quite interesting.......2003-08-03
I read this book while visiting my son in Idaho Falls this summer. I found it quite interesting, so much so that I drove the fifty miles or so out of the city into the Lost River desert, and toured the facility where nuclear energy was first generated back in 1951.
This is a well-written book, and I thought the author did a fine job of presenting all sides of this little-known mystery.
Customer Reviews:
Kryon/Lee Carroll Hit The Mark Again!.......2000-12-03
This is probably the best yet from Lee Carroll and the Kryon books! If you have been reading them and/or going to seminars, it's like the road map for creating the future for yourself and the planet. Spiritual issues as well as political,scientific and religious issues are discussed now that the 2000 marker has been passed. I found myself wondering at all the new revelations and yet realizing on some level, it sounded very familiar! Message of hope and love and the power to really make a difference in this world abound! A must read!
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The Offshore Imperative: Shell Oil's Search for Petroleum in Postwar America (Kenneth E. Montague Series in Oil and Business History)
Tyler Priest
Manufacturer: Texas A&M University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1585445681 |
Book Description
After World War II, the discovery and production of onshore oil in the United States faced decline. As a result, offshore prospects in the Gulf of Mexico took on new strategic value. Shell Oil Company pioneered many of the early moves offshore and continues to lead the way into "deepwater."
Tyler Priest's study is the first time the modern history of Shell Oil has been told in any detail. Drawing on interviews with Shell retirees and many other sources, Priest relates how the imagination, talent, and hard work of personnel at all levels shaped the evolution of the company. The narrative also covers important aspects of Shell Oil's corporate evolution, but the company's pioneering steps into the deepwater fields of the Gulf of Mexico are its signature achievement. Priest's study demonstrates that engineers did not suddenly create methods for finding and producing oil and gas from astounding water depths. Rather, they built on a half-century of accumulated knowledge and improvements to technical systems.
Shell Oil's story is unique, but it also illuminates the modern history of the petroleum industry. As Priest demonstrates, this company's experiences offer a starting point for examining the understudied topics of strategic decision-making, scientific research, management of technology, and corporate organization and culture within modern oil companies, as well as how these activities applied to offshore development.
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Nuclear Politics in America: A History and Theory of Government Regulation (Studies in Government and Public Policy)
Robert J. Duffy
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
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ASIN: 0700608532 |
Book Description
The promise and peril of nuclear power have been a preoccupation of the modern age. Though the nuclear industry has witnessed periods of expansion and retrenchment, there are now more than one hundred nuclear reactors providing America with almost a quarter of its electrical power.
Robert Duffy now examines the politics of nuclear power over the last fifty years, relating broad trends in American politics to changes in the regulation of the nuclear industry to show how federal policies in this area have been made, implemented, and altered. He weaves a discussion of institutional change in all three branches of government into a study of agenda-setting, regulatory reform, and "subgovernment" politics, demonstrating how these forces combined to create policy change in this important area of public policy.
Duffy's work traces nuclear politics from the creation of a powerful subgovernment through the public lobby reforms of the late 1960s and early 1970s and the deregulatory backlash of the Reagan years. He demonstrates that while policies did change in the 1970s, they did not change as much as other accounts have suggested, and that the industry continued to receive considerable federal support. The book is particularly significant for extending the discussion of nuclear policy through the Bush and Clinton years, including the controversy over waste disposal, new licensing procedures enacted in the 1992 Amendments to the Atomic Energy Act, and the effects of deregulation of electric utilities.
By providing both a description of the transformation of this policy community and an analysis of how regulatory change occurs, Nuclear Politics in America offers a new and important view of policymaking in America.
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Shoreham and the Rise and Fall of the Nuclear Power Industry
Kenneth F. McCallion
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0275942996 |
Book Description
This book traces the history of the nuclear power industry in the United States from the 1950s when electricity from nuclear power was expected to be "too cheap to meter," to the 1990s when the nuclear power industry lies in shambles and the landscape is dotted with the billion dollar carcasses of unfinished or inoperable nuclear power plants. Using the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant on Long Island as a case study, and reviewing the civil racketeering trial relating to that plant, McCallion details how a fatal combination of fraud, incompetence, and naivete has driven utility companies to the brink (and in some cases, beyond the brink) of bankruptcy in the vain quest for the nuclear power fix.
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