Uranium

Book Reviews

Uranium

From atomic bombs to cellphones, a history of uranium’s rise.

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR By Steve Weinberg |  March 5, 2009 edition

“…………………………After Zoellner dispenses with World War II-related uranium lore, he covers the uranium saga from multiple angles. Some of the book’s latter half is organized geographically, as Zoellner demonstrates the moral and financial impacts of uranium fever in locales as diverse as Niger, Australia, and the state of Utah. Other portions of the book are organized by the product-yields of uranium – medical treatments, energy to power homes and businesses, and decorative uses (despite the danger.)

The perils are rarely far from the center of the discussion, even when everybody involved in a uranium enterprise is well intentioned.After all, Zoellner explains, uranium “cannot undergo fission in a reactor without producing a tiny residue of plutonium,” the form used in bombmaking. “A ‘peaceful’ nuclear reactor is no different in basic design from the complex at Hanford [Washington State] that manufactured the plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb.”Then, Zoellner comments sagely, “herein lies one of the damnable paradoxes of uranium: The apparatus that spins a turbine also happens to be a munitions plant. One is a coefficient of the other; the mineral cannot escape its own unstable essence.”…………………………

Uranium | csmonitor.com

March 6, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war