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Nuclear Accidents and Disasters
This volume describes the history and outcomes of various accident s and disasters within nuclear energy and research.
- GenresHistory
162 pages, Hardcover
First published November 11, 2011
About the author
James Mahaffey
15 books109 followersDr. James Mahaffey was senior research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute and has worked at the Defense Nuclear Agency, the National Ground Intelligence Center, and the Air Force Air Logistics Center, focusing on nuclear power, nano-technology, and cold fusion.
(Bio from publisher)
Some of the author's works are published under the James A. Mahaffey or Jim Mahaffey names.
(Bio from publisher)
Some of the author's works are published under the James A. Mahaffey or Jim Mahaffey names.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 17, 2017
This is another in my series of disaster books. The author is clearly familiar with the ins and outs of nuclear engineering, and his expertise made the detailing of different historic nuclear accidents easy to understand. The book is problematic, though, in that it dismisses real fears the public - including me - has when it comes to nuclear power.
The pros of this book are strong. Mahaffey is good at explaining why things go wrong, and he's not afraid to insert his perspective into the explanations. As a result, the book has the feel of a series of interesting history lectures, complete with diagrams of different reactors. He sometimes personifies the reactors or their parts - water "trying to run away," for instance, or a valve "wanting to close." This helps the reader to relate to the actions going on, and I was grateful. It kept the process-heavy chapters from feeling too dry.
Also, his history is thorough. I think my favorite part of the book is the part where a turn of the century Tennessee mountain man predicts Oak Ridge National Labs. (He ended up in a mental hospital, but even Mahaffey describes the predictions as "eerie.") He goes beyond reactor accidents to talk about the radium health craze, a radiation accident spread over the Western world in slow motion.
I learned about accidents beyond the classic Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. Windscale, sodium reactor accidents in California, Soviet accidents, and even more obscure Japanese incidents are dissected. I now know, for instance, that it is a Bad Idea to store uranium or plutonium in round or cylindrical containers and why. I learned about the issues with sodium-cooled reactors, why the Windscale accident was such a stupid thing, what happened with various Broken Arrow events, and even some trivia about bombers.
There are two things that bothered me about the book. The first thing is that it seems that it was written in a different order than the final published volume. Abbreviations that would have been useful early in the book are explained in later chapters.
The other thing that bothered me is that he keeps disregarding the stances of anti-nuclear activists. He maintains that since no rises in cancer or other effects have been noted in people downwind from accidents, that most qualify as industrial accidents, rather than atomic or radiation events. He repeats this over and over, and it gets old. I don't think that it's a good idea to completely dismiss the concerns of large groups of people because some people exposed to high amounts of radiation died of other causes.
Still, this is very worth the read!
The pros of this book are strong. Mahaffey is good at explaining why things go wrong, and he's not afraid to insert his perspective into the explanations. As a result, the book has the feel of a series of interesting history lectures, complete with diagrams of different reactors. He sometimes personifies the reactors or their parts - water "trying to run away," for instance, or a valve "wanting to close." This helps the reader to relate to the actions going on, and I was grateful. It kept the process-heavy chapters from feeling too dry.
Also, his history is thorough. I think my favorite part of the book is the part where a turn of the century Tennessee mountain man predicts Oak Ridge National Labs. (He ended up in a mental hospital, but even Mahaffey describes the predictions as "eerie.") He goes beyond reactor accidents to talk about the radium health craze, a radiation accident spread over the Western world in slow motion.
I learned about accidents beyond the classic Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. Windscale, sodium reactor accidents in California, Soviet accidents, and even more obscure Japanese incidents are dissected. I now know, for instance, that it is a Bad Idea to store uranium or plutonium in round or cylindrical containers and why. I learned about the issues with sodium-cooled reactors, why the Windscale accident was such a stupid thing, what happened with various Broken Arrow events, and even some trivia about bombers.
There are two things that bothered me about the book. The first thing is that it seems that it was written in a different order than the final published volume. Abbreviations that would have been useful early in the book are explained in later chapters.
The other thing that bothered me is that he keeps disregarding the stances of anti-nuclear activists. He maintains that since no rises in cancer or other effects have been noted in people downwind from accidents, that most qualify as industrial accidents, rather than atomic or radiation events. He repeats this over and over, and it gets old. I don't think that it's a good idea to completely dismiss the concerns of large groups of people because some people exposed to high amounts of radiation died of other causes.
Still, this is very worth the read!
September 1, 2016
This is a brilliant book. The author is very knowledgable, and manages to strike a balance between explaining things in such a way as to educate a lay-person without sacrificing attention to detail. There are elements of real humour in this, where warranted.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews