Fallout: Disasters, Lies, And The Legacy Of The Nuclear Age

Synopsis

An Investigation Into Our Complicated 7-decade-long Relationship With Nuclear Technology, From The Bomb To Nuclear Accidents To Nuclear Waste. From Hiroshima To Chernobyl, From 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, Fred Pearce 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 Site Of Some One Hundred Atmospheric Tests, Crowned Four Miss Atomic Bombs In The 1950s. Pearce Moves On To Explore The Closed Cities Of The Soviet Union, Where Plutonium Was Refined And Nuclear Bombs Tested Throughout The 1950s And '60s, And Where The Full Extent Of Environmental And Human Damage Is Only Now Coming To Light. Finally, Pearce Turns To The Toxic Legacies Of Nuclear Technology: The Emerging Dilemmas Over Handling Its Waste And Decommissioning The Great Radioactive Structures Of The Nuclear Age, As Well As 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.