Steve Olson
The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age
The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age
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Excellent- More about The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age
The United States marshalled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power at the Hanford nuclear facility in order to produce plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. This enabled the construction of weapons with the potential to end human civilisation, and Steve Olson asks why Hanford has been largely overlooked in histories of the Manhattan Project and the Cold War.
Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 18 February 2022
Publisher: WW Norton & Co
The quest to harness the power of the atom 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 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 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.
Weight: 278g
Dimension: 147 x 321 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780393868357
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