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Zusammenfassung von Atomic Accidents

Name: Atomic Accidents
Rating: 4.1 (45 reviews)
Author: James Mahaffey

James Mahaffey

A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters from the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima

4.1 (45 Bewertungen)

14 Min.

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Atomic Accidents by James Mahaffey is an informative book that explores the history of nuclear power accidents. It recounts chilling tales of the disasters and their aftermath, revealing the dangerous and complex nature of nuclear technology.

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What’s in it for me? Understand past mistakes and the future promise of nuclear power.

When Japan was struck by a powerful earthquake and tsunami, one of its coastal nuclear power plants, Fukushima 1, experienced a catastrophic meltdown. As a result, German Chancellor Angela Merkel changed her previously positive view of nuclear power to one of outright distrust almost overnight.

This disaster was the most recent in the history of nuclear power. Such accidents, as rare as they are, are sufficiently horrific to change public opinion irrevocably. Nuclear power was once seen as an energy source that held the key to a greener future. After Fukushima, however, this is no longer the case.

Through exploring the history of atomic energy, you’ll discover how decades of development have led society toward safer ground and more stable ways of harnessing nuclear power. Given the relatively short history of nuclear experimentation, the years ahead just might bring us into a new nuclear era, completely free of nuclear fears.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how a decade of technology determined the fate of Fukushima’s two plants;
why human error played a huge part in the Chernobyl meltdown; and
how 300 years, not 30,000, could be the new “safe” number for nuclear waste.

The discovery of radiation and radioactive elements was both exciting and deadly.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Nikola Tesla accidently discovered radiation. Then, in 1896, after more research and experimentation, Wilhelm Rontgen published the first paper on radiation.

Soon, scientists around the world were researching this new phenomenon. Scientists Marie and Pierre Curie soon discovered a radioactive element that they named radium.

Yet underneath the excitement, radiation held a dark secret: it was mortally dangerous.

The pioneers of radiation research were not aware of its pernicious effects. They would all suffer, in one way or another, from the negative effects of radiation.

Tesla’s health deteriorated after repeated exposure to radiation. An assistant of Thomas Edison’s died from overexposure; Pierre Curie was weakened from prolonged exposure to radioactive materials.

While new medical applications for radiation were discovered, because people didn’t yet know how truly dangerous it could be, those using these new methods didn’t take sufficient precautions.

X-ray machines became a widely used diagnostic tool, yet technicians, exposed on a daily basis, suffered from leukemia and cataracts. Today medical professionals use appropriate precautions to protect themselves from excess radiation exposure.

Despite the health risks, radiation still offered many exciting solutions. Radium therapy, in which tumors are exposed to radium, became one of the few effective treatments against cancer at the time.

The “healing power” of radiation, however, was a popular idea and one that foolhardy entrepreneurs tried to cash in on, often with tragic consequences.

Businessman William Bailey created a “medicine” that was essentially water enriched with small quantities of radioactive materials. His tonic, “Radithor,” was popular until people started getting sick. Millionaire Eben McBurney Byers, who had consumed large quantities of the tonic, suffered from weakening bones, so much so that his jaw almost completely deteriorated.

Such tragedies changed the public perception of radiation, and are the source of modern society’s fear of the phenomenon. But those fears would only deepen as scientists explored a further use of radiation – the nuclear bomb.

Research for the nuclear bomb was an experiment on a massive scale with unknown consequences.

By the late 1930s, the public was well aware of the dangers of radiation and its potential to kill. But despite the risks, the campaign to build an atomic bomb was seen by advocates as a way to end World War II with a minimum of casualties.

Although the United States was the first country to build a bomb, German scientists were close behind. US scientists worked in secret laboratories in Washington State and New Mexico, and the United States recruited some of the most talented scientists of the time for the project. Many of these men, including Albert Einstein, had fled from Germany’s Nazi regime.

Accidents with nuclear bombs during military exercises happen more often than you might think.

Looking at the devastation caused in Japan, one would think that today’s nuclear bombs are closely watched, carefully handled and highly protected. But this is not exactly the case.

In fact, there have been many accidents involving nuclear bombs. Some 65 cases of incidents with nuclear weapons have been documented to date, and that’s only bombs belonging to the United States.

The disaster in Chernobyl can be attributed to bad nuclear power plant design and human error.

In the 1970s, engineers were confident that nuclear power plants could avoid large-scale accidents. Unfortunately, the Chernobyl disaster in April 1986 proved them wrong.

This catastrophic event took place during a routine safety operation. At the time, no technician with an advanced understanding of nuclear physics was on duty. What’s more, no staff knew how to fully implement the required safety measures in case of an accident.

The Fukushima nuclear plant was poised for disaster, given its location in an earthquake zone.

Even though Japan’s Pacific coast is a hotbed of major earthquakes, officials still deemed this area an appropriate location for two nuclear power plants: Fukushima 1 and Fukushima 2.

The disaster in 2011 was inevitable for a number of reasons.

It will take time and money to envision a new future for nuclear power plant design.

In the 1950s, Admiral Hyman Rickover of the US Navy designed a small-scale power plant to power nuclear submarines. His design would in time come to dominate the civil nuclear industry.

Why was this the case? First, Rickover’s design was both efficient and robust.

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Worum geht es in Atomic Accidents?

Atomic Accidents (2014) explores the evolution of one of the most fascinating and yet controversial technologies of our times, nuclear energy. These blinks explore the development of nuclear technology and reveal the details behind the tragic accidents that occurred along the way.

Bestes Zitat aus Atomic Accidents

Rontgen noticed that exposure to radiation made him sleepy, and he speculated that he discovered a new sleep aid.

—James Mahaffey

Wer Atomic Accidents lesen sollte

People curious about the pros and cons of nuclear energy
Historians or students of engineering and technology
People wanting to better understand the debate over nuclear power

Über den Autor

Nuclear engineer James Mahaffey was a senior research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute and has worked for the US Defence Department’s Defense Nuclear Agency, the Air Force Air Logistics Center and the National Ground Intelligence Center. He is also the author of Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power.

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