| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xii, 336 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [283]-318) and index. |
| Contents |
Part 1. The road to Hanford. -- Chapter 1. Beginnings. -- Chapter 2. The chain reaction. -- Chapter 3. Element 94. -- Chapter 4. The decision -- Chapter 5. The Met Lab. -- Chapter 6. Plutonium at last. -- Chapter 7. The demonstration. -- Part 2. A factory in the desert -- chapter 8.The evicted -- Chapter 9. The builders -- Chapter 10. The B Reactor -- Chapter 11. The T Plant -- Chapter 12. Implosion -- Chapter 13. Washington, D.C. -- Chapter 14. Trinity -- Chapter 15. Tinian Island -- Part 3. Under the mushroom cloud -- Chapter 16. Nagasaki Medical College Hospital -- Chapter 17. The Urakami Valley -- Chapter 18. Nagasaki -- Part 4. Confronting Armageddon -- Chapter 19. The Cold War -- Chapter 20. Building the nuclear arsenal -- Chapter 21. Peak production -- Chapter 22. The reckoning -- Chapter 23. Remembering. |
| Summary |
"A thrilling narrative of scientific triumph-and the unimaginable, world-ending peril it brought us. 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 with unimaginable explosive power. It would begin with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured by humans. In a matter of months, a city designed to produce this dangerous material arose from the desert of eastern Washington State. Plutonium powered the bomb that dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 (a target selected in almost arbitrary fashion). And the work of Glenn Seaborg, Enrico Fermi, and hundreds of thousands of others-the physicists, engineers, laborers, and support staff of the Hanford Nuclear Facility-would remain the basis of the entire US nuclear arsenal during the Cold War and into the present. With his characteristic blend of scientific clarity and human stories, Steve Olson offers this dramatic story of human achievement-and hubris-to a new generation"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Subject |
Atomic bomb -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
|
|
Plutonium industry -- Washington (State) -- Hanford -- History -- 20th century.
|
|
Hanford Engineer Works -- History.
|
|
Nuclear weapons -- United States -- History.
|
|
HISTORY / Military / World War II.
|
|
HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Pacific Northwest (OR, WA).
|
|
HISTORY / Military / Nuclear Warfare.
|
|
Hanford Engineer Works. (OCoLC)fst00714558
|
|
Atomic bomb. (OCoLC)fst00820568
|
|
Nuclear weapons. (OCoLC)fst01040971
|
|
Plutonium industry. (OCoLC)fst01067462
|
|
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
|
|
Washington (State) -- Hanford.
(OCoLC)fst01207440
|
| Chronological Term |
1900-1999
|
| Genre/Form |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
|
| Added Title |
Plutonium and the making of the atomic age |
| ISBN |
9780393634976 (hardcover) |
|
0393634973 (hardcover) |
|
9780393634983 electronic publication |
| Standard No. |
40030055270 |
|
