The Plutonium Files

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Author :
Publisher : Delta
ISBN 13 : 0307767337
Total Pages : 724 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (77 download)

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Book Synopsis The Plutonium Files by : Eileen Welsome

Download or read book The Plutonium Files written by Eileen Welsome and published by Delta. This book was released on 2010-10-20 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the vast wartime factories of the Manhattan Project began producing plutonium in quantities never before seen on earth, scientists working on the top-secret bomb-building program grew apprehensive. Fearful that plutonium might cause a cancer epidemic among workers and desperate to learn more about what it could do to the human body, the Manhattan Project's medical doctors embarked upon an experiment in which eighteen unsuspecting patients in hospital wards throughout the country were secretly injected with the cancer-causing substance. Most of these patients would go to their graves without ever knowing what had been done to them. Now, in The Plutonium Files, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Eileen Welsome reveals for the first time the breadth of the extraordinary fifty-year cover-up surrounding the plutonium injections, as well as the deceitful nature of thousands of other experiments conducted on American citizens in the postwar years. Welsome's remarkable investigation spans the 1930s to the 1990s and draws upon hundreds of newly declassified documents and other primary sources to disclose this shadowy chapter in American history. She gives a voice to such innocents as Helen Hutchison, a young woman who entered a prenatal clinic in Nashville for a routine checkup and was instead given a radioactive "cocktail" to drink; Gordon Shattuck, one of several boys at a state school for the developmentally disabled in Massachusetts who was fed radioactive oatmeal for breakfast; and Maude Jacobs, a Cincinnati woman suffering from cancer and subjected to an experimental radiation treatment designed to help military planners learn how to win a nuclear war. Welsome also tells the stories of the scientists themselves, many of whom learned the ways of secrecy on the Manhattan Project. Among them are Stafford Warren, a grand figure whose bravado masked a cunning intelligence; Joseph Hamilton, who felt he was immune to the dangers of radiation only to suffer later from a fatal leukemia; and physician Louis Hempelmann, one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the plan to inject humans with potentially carcinogenic doses of plutonium. Hidden discussions of fifty years past are reconstructed here, wherein trusted government officials debated the ethical and legal implications of the experiments, demolishing forever the argument that these studies took place in a less enlightened era. Powered by her groundbreaking reportage and singular narrative gifts, Eileen Welsome has created a work of profound humanity as well as major historical significance. From the Hardcover edition.

Health Risks of Radon and Other Internally Deposited Alpha-Emitters

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Author :
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309037891
Total Pages : 623 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis Health Risks of Radon and Other Internally Deposited Alpha-Emitters by : National Research Council

Download or read book Health Risks of Radon and Other Internally Deposited Alpha-Emitters written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1988-02-01 with total page 623 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes hazards from radon progeny and other alpha-emitters that humans may inhale or ingest from their environment. In their analysis, the authors summarize in one document clinical and epidemiological evidence, the results of animal studies, research on alpha-particle damage at the cellular level, metabolic pathways for internal alpha-emitters, dosimetry and microdosimetry of radionuclides deposited in specific tissues, and the chemical toxicity of some low-specific-activity alpha-emitters. Techniques for estimating the risks to humans posed by radon and other internally deposited alpha-emitters are offered, along with a discussion of formulas, models, methods, and the level of uncertainty inherent in the risk estimates.

The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

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Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393634981
Total Pages : 331 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (936 download)

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Book Synopsis The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age by : Steve Olson

Download or read book The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age written by Steve Olson and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2020-07-28 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling narrative of scientific triumph, decades of secrecy, and the unimaginable destruction wrought by the creation of the atomic bomb. It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce and weaponize the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs. In the desert of eastern Washington State, far from prying eyes, scientists Glenn Seaborg, Enrico Fermi, and many thousands of others—the physicists, engineers, laborers, and support staff at the facility—manufactured plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and for the bombs in the current American nuclear arsenal, enabling the construction of weapons with the potential to end human civilization. With his characteristic blend of scientific clarity and storytelling, Steve Olson asks why Hanford has been largely overlooked in histories of the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. Olson, who grew up just twenty miles from Hanford’s B Reactor, recounts how a small Washington town played host to some of the most influential scientists and engineers in American history as they sought to create the substance at the core of the most destructive weapons ever created. The Apocalypse Factory offers a new generation this dramatic story of human achievement and, ultimately, of lethal hubris.

Plutonium, Deadly Gold of the Nuclear Age

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.X/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Plutonium, Deadly Gold of the Nuclear Age by : Howard Hu

Download or read book Plutonium, Deadly Gold of the Nuclear Age written by Howard Hu and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Restricted Data

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022602038X
Total Pages : 558 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis Restricted Data by : Alex Wellerstein

Download or read book Restricted Data written by Alex Wellerstein and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-04-09 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Nuclear weapons, since their conception, have been the subject of secrecy. In the months after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American scientific establishment, the American government, and the American public all wrestled with what was called the "problem of secrecy," wondering not only whether secrecy was appropriate and effective as a means of controlling this new technology but also whether it was compatible with the country's core values. Out of a messy context of propaganda, confusion, spy scares, and the grave counsel of competing groups of scientists, what historian Alex Wellerstein calls a "new regime of secrecy" was put into place. It was unlike any other previous or since. Nuclear secrets were given their own unique legal designation in American law ("restricted data"), one that operates differently than all other forms of national security classification and exists to this day. Drawing on massive amounts of declassified files, including records released by the government for the first time at the author's request, Restricted Data is a narrative account of nuclear secrecy and the tensions and uncertainty that built as the Cold War continued. In the US, both science and democracy are pitted against nuclear secrecy, and this makes its history uniquely compelling and timely"--

Plutonium in the Environment

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Author :
Publisher : Elsevier
ISBN 13 : 0080539149
Total Pages : 463 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (85 download)

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Book Synopsis Plutonium in the Environment by : A. Kudo

Download or read book Plutonium in the Environment written by A. Kudo and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2001-02-23 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first volume of the new series, Radioactivity in the Environment, focuses on the environmental occurrence, the speciation, the behaviour, the fate, the applications and the health consequences of that much-feared and much-publicised element, plutonium. Featuring a collection of selected, peer-reviewed, up-to-date papers by leading researchers in the field, this work provides a state-of-the-art description of plutonium in the environment. This title helps to explain where present frontiers are drawn in our continuing efforts to understand the science of environmental plutonium and will help to place widespread concerns into perspective. As a whole this new book series on environmental radioactivity addresses, at academic research level, the key aspects of this socially important and complex interdisciplinary subject. Presented objectively and with the ultimate authority gained from the many contributions by the world's leading experts, the negative and positive consequences of having a radioactive world around us will be documented and given perspective.

Full Body Burden

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Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0307955656
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (79 download)

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Book Synopsis Full Body Burden by : Kristen Iversen

Download or read book Full Body Burden written by Kristen Iversen and published by Crown. This book was released on 2013-06-04 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An intimate and deeply human memoir that shows why we should all be concerned about nuclear safety, and the dangers of ignoring science in the name of national security.”—Rebecca Skloot, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks A shocking account of the government’s attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic waste released by a secret nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and a community’s vain search for justice—soon to be a feature documentary Kristen Iversen grew up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated "the most contaminated site in America." Full Body Burden is the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and--unknown to those who lived there--tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium. It's also a book about the destructive power of secrets--both family and government. Her father's hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what was made at Rocky Flats--best not to inquire too deeply into any of it. But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions and discovered some disturbing realities. Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPA documents, and class-action testimony, this taut, beautifully written book is both captivating and unnerving.

Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments: Ancillary materials

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (319 download)

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Book Synopsis Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments: Ancillary materials by : United States. Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments

Download or read book Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments: Ancillary materials written by United States. Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Polonium in the Playhouse

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Publisher : Trillium
ISBN 13 : 9780814213384
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (133 download)

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Book Synopsis Polonium in the Playhouse by : Linda Carrick Thomas

Download or read book Polonium in the Playhouse written by Linda Carrick Thomas and published by Trillium. This book was released on 2017 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the height of the race to build an atomic bomb, an indoor tennis court in one of the Midwest's most affluent residential neighborhoods became a secret Manhattan Project laboratory. Polonium in the Playhouse: The Manhattan Project's Secret Chemistry Work in Dayton, Ohio presents the intriguing story of how this most unlikely site in Dayton, Ohio, became one of the most classified portions of the Manhattan Project. Seized by the War Department in 1944 for the bomb project, the Runnymede Playhouse was transformed into a polonium processing facility, providing a critical radioactive ingredient for the bomb initiator--the mechanism that triggered a chain reaction. With the help of a Soviet spy working undercover at the site, it was also key to the Soviet Union's atomic bomb program. The work was directed by industrial chemist Charles Allen Thomas who had been chosen by J. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves to coordinate Manhattan Project chemistry and metallurgy. As one of the nation's first science administrators, Thomas was responsible for choreographing the plutonium work at Los Alamos and the Project's key laboratories. The elegant glass-roofed building belonged to his wife's family. Weaving Manhattan Project history with the life and work of the scientist, industrial leader and singing-showman Thomas, Polonium in the Playhouse offers a fascinating look at the vast and complicated program that changed world history and introduces the men and women who raced against time to build the initiator for the bomb.

Uranium · Plutonium Transplutonic Elements

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3642655513
Total Pages : 1037 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (426 download)

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Book Synopsis Uranium · Plutonium Transplutonic Elements by : Harold C. Hodge

Download or read book Uranium · Plutonium Transplutonic Elements written by Harold C. Hodge and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 1037 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than a year ago the three editors sat down at a table and worked out a set of six chapter headings which they believed might serve, in turn, for each of the three sections of this handbook. (The reader will note a similarity in order of presentation and in emphasis.) However, as our editorial plans progressed it became apparent that for each element and for the element group, there were one or two special topics appropiate for that section alone. Accordingly, in the section on uranium the common pattern holds for Chaps. 1 through 6 which include: an introduction (Chap. 1), a discussion of the physical and chemical properties (Chap. 2), experimental data on animals (Chap. 3), ex perimental data on man (Chap. 4), the rationale and development of air con centration limits to control industrial worker exposure (Chap. 5), and the prac tical problems of applying such limits in the uranium industry (Chap. 6). Chap. 7 entitled "Uranium Mining Hazards" is the subject category which is special for uranium; the chapter brings up to date the account of an important occupational hazard which was first noted by GEORGIUS AGRICOLA (1490-1555).

Nature's Building Blocks

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780198503408
Total Pages : 556 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Nature's Building Blocks by : John Emsley

Download or read book Nature's Building Blocks written by John Emsley and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2003 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A readable, informative, fascinating entry on each one of the 100-odd chemical elements, arranged alphabetically from actinium to zirconium. Each entry comprises an explanation of where the element's name comes from, followed by Body element (the role it plays in living things), Element ofhistory (how and when it was discovered), Economic element (what it is used for), Environmental element (where it occurs, how much), Chemical element (facts, figures and narrative), and Element of surprise (an amazing, little-known fact about it). A wonderful 'dipping into' source for the familyreference shelf and for students.

Poisoning the Pacific

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1538130343
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (381 download)

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Book Synopsis Poisoning the Pacific by : Jon Mitchell

Download or read book Poisoning the Pacific written by Jon Mitchell and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-10-12 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this devastating exposé, investigative journalist Jon Mitchell reveals the shocking toxic contamination of the Pacific Ocean and millions of victims by the US military. For decades, US military operations have been contaminating the Pacific region with toxic substances, including plutonium, dioxin, and VX nerve agent. Hundreds of thousands of service members, their families, and residents have been exposed—but the United States has hidden the damage and refused to help victims. After World War II, the United States granted immunity to Japanese military scientists in exchange for their data on biological weapons tests conducted in China; in the following years, nuclear detonations in the Pacific obliterated entire islands and exposed Americans, Marshallese, Chamorros, and Japanese fishing crews to radioactive fallout. At the same time, the United States experimented with biological weapons on Okinawa and stockpiled the island with nuclear and chemical munitions, causing numerous accidents. Meanwhile, the CIA orchestrated a campaign to introduce nuclear power to Japan—the folly of which became horrifyingly clear in the 2011 meltdowns in Fukushima Prefecture. Caught in a geopolitical grey zone, US territories have been among the worst affected by military contamination, including Guam, Saipan, and Johnston Island, the final disposal site of apocalyptic volumes of chemical weapons and Agent Orange. Accompanying this damage, US authorities have waged a campaign of cover-ups, lies, and attacks on the media, which the author has experienced firsthand in the form of military surveillance and attempts by the State Department to impede his work. Now, for the first time, this explosive book reveals the horrific extent of contamination in the Pacific and the lengths the Pentagon will go to conceal it.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1439126224
Total Pages : 890 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis The Making of the Atomic Bomb by : Richard Rhodes

Download or read book The Making of the Atomic Bomb written by Richard Rhodes and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-09-18 with total page 890 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award** The definitive history of nuclear weapons—from the turn-of-the-century discovery of nuclear energy to J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project—this epic work details the science, the people, and the sociopolitical realities that led to the development of the atomic bomb. This sweeping account begins in the 19th century, with the discovery of nuclear fission, and continues to World War Two and the Americans’ race to beat Hitler’s Nazis. That competition launched the Manhattan Project and the nearly overnight construction of a vast military-industrial complex that culminated in the fateful dropping of the first bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Reading like a character-driven suspense novel, the book introduces the players in this saga of physics, politics, and human psychology—from FDR and Einstein to the visionary scientists who pioneered quantum theory and the application of thermonuclear fission, including Planck, Szilard, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, Meitner, von Neumann, and Lawrence. From nuclear power’s earliest foreshadowing in the work of H.G. Wells to the bright glare of Trinity at Alamogordo and the arms race of the Cold War, this dread invention forever changed the course of human history, and The Making of The Atomic Bomb provides a panoramic backdrop for that story. Richard Rhodes’s ability to craft compelling biographical portraits is matched only by his rigorous scholarship. Told in rich human, political, and scientific detail that any reader can follow, The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a thought-provoking and masterful work.

Working on the Bomb

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Publisher : Continuing Education Press
ISBN 13 : 9780876781159
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (811 download)

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Book Synopsis Working on the Bomb by : S. L. Sanger

Download or read book Working on the Bomb written by S. L. Sanger and published by Continuing Education Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of the Hanford Engineering Works, a site in eastern Washington that produced and separated plutonium for the Manhattan Project.

Pieces of the Action

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Publisher : Stripe Press
ISBN 13 : 1953953263
Total Pages : 553 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (539 download)

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Book Synopsis Pieces of the Action by : Vannevar Bush

Download or read book Pieces of the Action written by Vannevar Bush and published by Stripe Press. This book was released on 2022-06-28 with total page 553 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inside account of one of the most innovative R&D ecosystems of the 20th century, from the man who was at the center of it all. Over a 60-year career in public affairs, Vannevar Bush—engineer, inventor, educator, and public face of government-funded science—sought to eliminate roadblocks to innovation in science and technology. In Pieces of the Action, a collection of memoir-essays, he reflects on his role in shaping the policies and organizations that powered American research and development in the mid-20th century. As the architect and administrator of an R&D pipeline that efficiently coordinated the work of civilian scientists and the military during World War II, he was central to catalyzing the development of radar and the proximity fuze, the mass production of penicillin, and the initiation of the Manhattan Project. Pieces of the Action offers his hard-won lessons on how to operate and manage effectively within complex organizations, build bridges between people and disciplines, and drive ambitious, unprecedented programs to fruition. With wry humor, Bush also shares personal observations and anecdotes—pelting cows with apples, poking fun at servicemen who tried to keep his own invention secret from him—that offer a glimpse of the personality behind the accolades. Originally published in 1970, this updated edition includes 15 archival images from Bush’s life and career and a foreword from entrepreneur and Idea Machines podcast host Ben Reinhardt that contextualizes the lessons Pieces of the Action can offer to contemporary readers: that change depends both on heroic individuals and effective organizations; that a leader’s job is one of coordination; and that the path from idea to innovation is a long and winding one, inextricably bound to those involved—those enduring figures who have a piece of the action.

Structural Chemistry of Inorganic Actinide Compounds

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Author :
Publisher : Elsevier
ISBN 13 : 0080467911
Total Pages : 505 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Structural Chemistry of Inorganic Actinide Compounds by : Sergey Krivovichev

Download or read book Structural Chemistry of Inorganic Actinide Compounds written by Sergey Krivovichev and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2006-12-08 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Structural Chemistry of Inorganic Actinide Compounds is a collection of 13 reviews on structural and coordination chemistry of actinide compounds. Within the last decade, these compounds have attracted considerable attention because of their importance for radioactive waste management, catalysis, ion-exchange and absorption applications, etc. Synthetic and natural actinide compounds are also of great environmental concern as they form as a result of alteration of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste under Earth surface conditions, during burn-up of nuclear fuel in reactors, represent oxidation products of uranium miles and mine tailings, etc. The actinide compounds are also of considerable interest to material scientists due to the unique electronic properties of actinides that give rise to interesting physical properties controlled by the structural architecture of respective compounds. The book provides both general overview and review of recent developments in the field, including such emergent topics as nanomaterials and nanoparticles and their relevance to the transfer of actinides under environmental conditions.* Covers over 2,000 actinide compounds including materials, minerals and coordination polymers* Summarizes recent achievements in the field* Some chapters reveal (secret) advances made by the Soviet Union during the 'Cold war'

Plutopia

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199855765
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (998 download)

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Book Synopsis Plutopia by : Kathryn L. Brown

Download or read book Plutopia written by Kathryn L. Brown and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Plutopia, Brown draws on official records and dozens of interviews to tell the stories of Richland, Washington and Ozersk, Russia-the first two cities in the world to produce plutonium. To contain secrets, American and Soviet leaders created plutopias--communities of nuclear families living in highly-subsidized, limited-access atomic cities. Brown shows that the plants' segregation of permanent and temporary workers and of nuclear and non-nuclear zones created a bubble of immunity, where dumps and accidents were glossed over and plant managers freely embezzled and polluted. In four decades, the Hanford plant near Richland and the Maiak plant near Ozersk each issued at least 200 million curies of radioactive isotopes into the surrounding environment--equaling four Chernobyls--laying waste to hundreds of square miles and contaminating rivers, fields, forests, and food supplies. Because of the decades of secrecy, downwind and downriver neighbors of the plutonium plants had difficulty proving what they suspected, that the rash of illnesses, cancers, and birth defects in their communities were caused by the plants' radioactive emissions. Plutopia was successful because in its zoned-off isolation it appeared to deliver the promises of the American dream and Soviet communism; in reality, it concealed disasters that remain highly unstable and threatening today. -- From publisher description.