Fallout: Disasters, Lies, and the Legacy of the Nuclear Age
- ISBN-10
- 0807092495
- ISBN-13
- 9780807092491
- Series
- Fallout
- Category
- Science
- Pages
- 264
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2018-05-22
- Publisher
- Beacon Press
- Author
- Fred Pearce
Description
An investigation into our complicated 8-decade-long relationship with nuclear technology, from the bomb to nuclear accidents to nuclear waste. From Hiroshima to Chernobyl, Fukushima to the growing legacy of lethal radioactive waste, humanity’s struggle to conquer atomic energy is rife with secrecy, deceit, human error, blatant disregard for life, short-sighted politics, and fear. Fallout is an eye-opening odyssey through the first eight decades of this struggle and the radioactive landscapes it has left behind. We are, he finds, forever torn between technological hubris and all-too-human terror about what we have created. At first, Pearce reminds us, America loved the bomb. Las Vegas, only seventy miles from the Nevada site of some hundred atmospheric tests, crowned four Miss Atomic Bombs in 1950s. Later, communities downwind of these tests suffered high cancer rates. The fate of a group of Japanese fishermen, who suffered high radiation doses from the first hydrogen bomb test in Bikini atoll, was worse. The United States Atomic Energy Commission accused them of being Red spies and ignored requests from the doctors desperately trying to treat them. Pearce moves on to explore the closed cities of the Soviet Union, where plutonium was refined and nuclear bombs tested throughout the ’50s and ’60s, and where the full extent of environmental and human damage is only now coming to light. Exploring the radioactive badlands created by nuclear accidents—not only the well-known examples of Chernobyl and Fukushima, but also the little known area around Satlykovo in the Russian Ural Mountains and the Windscale fire in the UK—Pearce describes the compulsive secrecy, deviousness, and lack of accountability that have persisted even as the technology has morphed from military to civilian uses. Finally, Pearce turns to the toxic legacies of nuclear technology: the emerging dilemmas over handling its waste and decommissioning of the great radioactive structures of the nuclear age, and the fearful doublethink over the world’s growing stockpiles of plutonium, the most lethal and ubiquitous product of nuclear technologies. For any reader who craves a clear-headed examination of the tangled relationship between a powerful technology and human politics, foibles, fears, and arrogance, Fallout is the definitive look at humanity’s nuclear adventure.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World
By Lesley M.M. BlumeThis knowledge has remained among the greatest deterrents to using them since the end of World War II. Released on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, Fallout is an engrossing detective story, as well as an important piece of hidden ...
-
Fallout
By Todd StrasserThen he hoists himself up and grabs Mr. Shaw's arm. "Let go!" Mr. Shaw tries to yank free. "You'll kill us all!" Dad warns. "I can't stay in here anymore!" "Dad, stop!"Ronnie cries as his father tries to drag him. "You're scaring him, ...
-
Fallout: A Tale of Mutation
By Erwan LafleurielThe year was 1997 and Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game had just been released by Interplay. This book looks back at the entire Fallout saga, tells the story of the series' birth, retraces its history and deciphers its mechanics.
-
Fallout
By Todd StrasserInternationally best-selling author Todd Strasser has written his most impressive and personal novel to date, ruthlessly yet sensitively exploring the terrifying what-ifs of one of the most explosive moments in human history.
-
Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown
By Steve SheinkinFallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown
-
Fallout
By Ellen HopkinsWritten in free verse, explores how three teenagers try to cope with the consequences of their mother's addiction to crystal meth and its effects on their lives.
-
Fallout: You're S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
By Insight EditionsThis in-world book by Vault-Tec highlights seven key attributes of vault dwellers in Bethesda Game Studio's hit Fallout® video game franchise.
-
Fallout
By Kenneth RoyceFallout
-
The Fallout
By S. A. BodeenThe Fallout is S.A. Bodeen's highly anticipated, thrilling sequel that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
-
Fallout
By James W. HustonJames W. Huston. from his face. Mahmood's feeble struggling lessened as his arms fell slack against his side. ... Riaz looked at the man he had begun addressing earlier. “How many men can you take across the border into Kashmir?