Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom

DIANE Publishing Company

Mar 1995 · DIANE Publishing

About this ebook

Describes environmental, safety, and health problems throughout the nuclear weapons complex and what the U.S. Dept. of Energy is doing to address them. Covers: building nuclear warheads: the process; wastes and other byproducts of the cold war (spent nuclear fuel, plutonium residues, radioactive waste, transuranic waste, hazardous waste, etc.); contamination and cleanup; an international perspective; transition to new missions; and looking to the future. Over 100 b/w photos. Extensive glossary and bibliography.

Ratings and reviews

This is a historic book with a clear explanation of 50 years of Cold War nuclear weapons production of the envirommental contamination and waste problems that resulted. We now know it will cost more than $200 billion to deal with this legacy, and the end result will be the a lot of radioactively contaminated sites because radiation is not something you can elminate, but only try to consolidate and contain. What is most remarkable about this book is that it produced by the same secretive enterprise - DOE/ERDA/AEC that produced the problems awy from the eyes of the normal oversight required of the private sector. Who says elections don't mater. This book is evidence that appointing the right people to DOE after the 1992 election changed the world of nuclear weapons cleanup.