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Physics and Nuclear Arms Today is a collection of the best articles written about the arms race which appeared in Physics Today between 1976 and 1989. The articles explore a wide variety of topical issues such as the effects of nuclear weapons, nuclear testing, offensive strategic weapons, defensive SDI or Star Wars weapons, nuclear nonproliferation and the social responsibility of scientists as well as a wide selection of articles which chronicle the history of nuclear weaponry. The authors also represent a broad spectrum of well known names in the physics community including Andrei Sakharov, Sidney Drell, Wolfgang Panofsky, Edward Teller, Frank von Hippel, Victor Weiskopf, and Freeman Dyson. Of interest to physicists interested in arms control issues, nuclear weapons, and international relations; science and defense policy makers.
From the very start, at the age of twenty-one, Herbert York was swept into the century's most daring and dangerous technical achievement, the making of the atomic bomb. In Arms and the Physicist, York takes us backstage to witness key events of our time: to the Manhattan Project for the birth of the atomic bomb; to Lawrence Livermore where the H-bomb was built; to Washington to eavesdrop on how post-war history was being forged; and to Geneva where he tried to stem the madness. Readers will meet some of our greatest heros and villains--Lawrence, Oppenheimer, Weisskopf, Teller, General Groves, President Eisenhower, and a cast of hundreds--friends, colleagues, enemies, who for more than half a century, held the fate of the world in their hands.
This textbook is the first comprehensive and systematic account of the science, technology and policy issues associated with nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Throughout their account of the evolution of nuclear policy, from its origin to the early Trump presidency, the authors interweave clear technical expositions of the science and technology that underpin and constrain it. The book begins by tracing the early work in atomic physics, the discovery of fission, and the developments that led to the Manhattan Project and the delivery of atomic bombs against Japan that ended World War II. It follows the initial failed attempts at nuclear disarmament, the onset of the Cold War nuclear arms competition, and the development of light water reactors to harness nuclear energy for electric power generation. The authors thoroughly unpack the problem of nuclear proliferation, examining the strategy and incentives for states that have and have not pursued nuclear weapons, and providing an overview of the nuclear arsenals of the current nuclear weapon states. They trace the technical, political and strategic evolution of deterrence, arms control and disarmament policies from the first attempts for an Outer Space Treaty in 1957 through the new START treaty of 2009. At critical junctures in the narrative, the authors explain the relevant nuclear science and technology including nuclear fission and criticality; nuclear materials and enrichment; nuclear detonation and nuclear weapons effects; nuclear weapons stockpile constraints, stewardship and surveillance; nuclear fusion and thermonuclear weapons; technologies for monitoring, verification and proliferation; and nuclear forensics. They conclude with an assessment of contemporary issues ranging from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action reached to halt Iran’s nuclear weapons development program, to the threat of nuclear terrorism, the perceived nuclear weapons policies of Russia and China, and the US efforts to provide disincentives for its allies to acquire their own nuclear weapons by maintaining credible security guarantees.
The development of atomic bombs under the auspices of the U.S. Army’s Manhattan Project during World War II is considered to be the outstanding news story of the twentieth century. In this book, a physicist and expert on the history of the Project presents a comprehensive overview of this momentous achievement. The first three chapters cover the history of nuclear physics from the discovery of radioactivity to the discovery of fission, and would be ideal for instructors of a sophomore-level “Modern Physics” course. Student-level exercises at the ends of the chapters are accompanied by answers. Chapter 7 covers the physics of first-generation fission weapons at a similar level, again accompanied by exercises and answers. For the interested layman and for non-science students and instructors, the book includes extensive qualitative material on the history, organization, implementation, and results of the Manhattan Project and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing missions. The reader also learns about the legacy of the Project as reflected in the current world stockpiles of nuclear weapons. This second edition contains important revisions and additions, including a new chapter on the German atomic bomb program and new sections on British and Canadian contributions to the Manhattan project and on feed materials. Several other sections have been expanded; reader feedback has been helpful in introducing minor corrections and improved explanations; and, last but not least, the second edition includes a detailed index.
Our thinking is inhabited by images-images of sometimes curious and overwhelming power. The mushroom cloud, weird rays that can transform the flesh, the twilight world following a nuclear war, the white city of the future, the brilliant but mad scientist who plots to destroy the world-all these images and more relate to nuclear energy, but that is not their only common bond. Decades before the first atom bomb exploded, a web of symbols with surprising linkages was fully formed in the public mind. The strange kinship of these symbols can be traced back, not only to medieval symbolism, but still deeper into experiences common to all of us. This is a disturbing book: it shows that much of what we believe about nuclear energy is not based on facts, but on a complex tangle of imagery suffused with emotions and rooted in the distant past. Nuclear Fear is the first work to explore all the symbolism attached to nuclear bombs, and to civilian nuclear energy as well, employing the powerful tools of history as well as findings from psychology, sociology, and even anthropology. The story runs from the turn of the century to the present day, following the scientists and journalists, the filmmakers and novelists, the officials and politicians of many nations who shaped the way people think about nuclear devices. The author, a historian who also holds a Ph.D. in physics, has been able to separate genuine scientific knowledge about nuclear energy and radiation from the luxuriant mythology that obscures them. In revealing the history of nuclear imagery, Weart conveys the hopeful message that once we understand how this imagery has secretly influenced history and our own thinking, we can move on to a clearer view of the choices that confront our civilization. Table of Contents: Preface Part One: Years of Fantasy, 1902-1938 1. Radioactive Hopes White Cities of the Future Missionaries for Science The Meaning of Transmutation 2. Radioactive Fears Scientific Doomsdays The Dangerous Scientist Scientists and Weapons Debating the Scientist's Role 3. Radium: Elixir or Poison? The Elixir of Life Rays of Life Death Rays Radium as Medicine and Poison 4. The Secret, the Master, and the Monster Smashing Atoms The Fearful Master Monsters and Victims Real Scientists The Situation before Fission Part Two: Confronting Reality, 1939-1952 5. Where Earth and Heaven Meet Imaginary Bomb-Reactors Real Reactors and Safety Questions Planned Massacres "The Second Coming" 6. The News from Hiroshima Cliché Experts Hiroshima Itself Security through Control by Scientists? Security through Control over Scientists? 7. National Defenses Civil Defenses Bombs as a Psychological Weapon The Airmen Part Three: New Hopes and Horrors, 1953-1963 8. Atoms for Peace A Positive Alternative Atomic Propaganda Abroad Atomic Propaganda at Home 9. Good and Bad Atoms Magical Atoms Real Reactors The Core of Mistrust Tainted Authorities 10. The New Blasphemy Bombs as a Violation of Nature Radioactive Monsters Blaming Authorities 11. Death Dust Crusaders against Contamination A Few Facts Clean or Filthy Bombs? 12. The Imagination of Survival Visions of the End Survivors as Savages The Victory of the Victim The Great Thermonuclear Strategy Debate The World as Hiroshima 13. The Politics of Survival The Movement Attacking the Warriors Running for Shelter Cuban Catharsis Reasons for Silence Part Four: Suspect Technology, 1956-1986 14. Fail/Safe Unwanted Explosions: Bombs Unwanted Explosions: Reactors Advertising the Maximum Accident 15. Reactor Poisons and Promises Pollution from Reactors The Public Loses Interest The Nuplex versus the China Syndrome 16. The Debate Explodes The Fight against Antimissiles Sounding the Radiation Alarm Reactors: A Surrogate for Bombs? Environmentalists Step In 17. Energy Choices Alternative Energy Sources Real Reactor Risks "It's Political" The Reactor Wars 18. Civilization or Liberation? The Logic of Authority and Its Enemies Nature versus Culture Modes of Expression The Public's Image of Nuclear Power 19. The War Fear Revival: An Unfinished Chapter Part Five The Search for Renewal 20. The Modern Arcanum Despair and Denial Help from Heaven? Objects in the Skies Mushroom and Mandala 21. Artistic Transmutations The Interior Holocaust Rebirth from Despair Toward the Four-Gated City Conclusion A Personal Note Sources and Methodology Notes Index Reviews of this book: Nuclear Fear is a rich, layered journey back through our 'atomic history' to the primal memories of monstrous mutants and mad scientists. It is a deeply serious book but written in an accessible style that reveals the culture in which this fear emerges only to be suppressed and emerge again. --Ellen Goodman, Boston Globe Reviews of this book: A historical portrait of the quintessential modern nightmare...Weart shows in meticulous and fascinating detail how [the] ancient images of alchemy-fire, sexuality, Armageddon, gold, eternity and all the rest-immediately clustered around the new science of atomic physics...There is no question that the image of nuclear power reflects a complex and deeply disturbing portrait of what it means to be human. --Stephan Salisbury, Philadelphia Inquirer Reviews of this book: A detailed, probing study of American hopes, dreams and insecurities in the twentieth-century. Weart has a poet's acumen for sensing human feelings ... Nuclear Fear remains captivating as history...and original as an anthropological study of how nuclear power, like alchemy in medieval times, offers a convenient symbol for deeply-rooted human feelings. --Los Angeles Times Reviews of this book: Weart's tale boldly sweeps from the futuristic White City of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the discovery of radioactivity in 1896 through Hiroshima and Star Wars... (An] admirable call for synthesis of art and science in a true transmutation that takes us beyond nuclear fear. --H. Bruce Franklin, Science
The development of nuclear weapons during the Manhattan Project is one of the most significant scientific events of the twentieth century. This book, prepared by a gifted teacher of physics, explores the challenges that faced the members of the Manhattan project. In doing so it gives a clear introduction to fission weapons at the level of an upper-level undergraduate physics student. Details of nuclear reactions, their energy release, the fission process, how critical masses can be estimated, how fissile materials are produced, and what factors complicate bomb design are covered. An extensive list of references and a number of problems for self-study are included. Links are given to several spreadsheets with which users can run many of the calculations for themselves.
The author, a distinguished physicist and nuclear weapons developer, has participated at almost every stage of the development of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, their delivery systems, and the efforts at arms control. This book chronicles York's involvement, beginning with his work on the Hiroshima bomb and ending with his service as Jimmy Carter's negotiator at the Comprehensive Test Ban talks in Geneva. His odyssey from Hiroshima to Geneva has been a journey from the conviction that military might and national security were synonymous to the understanding that technology alone will never generate peace and survival. York also provides vignettes of leading participants in the development of the nuclear weapons dilemma. ISBN 0-465-04338-0: $22.95.