Atomic Accidents

by James Mahaffey

Overview

From the moment radiation was discovered in the late nineteenth century, nuclear science has had a rich history of innovative scientific exploration and discovery, coupled with mistakes, accidents, and downright disasters. Mahaffey, a long-time advocate of continued nuclear research and nuclear energy, looks at each incident in turn and analyzes what happened and why, often discovering where scientists went wrong when analyzing past meltdowns.Every incident has lead to new facets in understanding about the mighty atom—and Mahaffey puts forth what the future should be for this final frontier of science that still holds so much promise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605986807
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	02/15/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	395,187
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

James Mahaffey was a senior research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute where he worked under contract for the Defense Nuclear Agency, the National Ground Intelligence Center, the Air Force Air Logistics Center, and Georgia Power Company. He is the author of Atomic Awakening and Atomic Accidents and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Author's Note: A Triumph of Soviet Technology v

Introduction: Bill Crush and the Hazards of Steam Under Pressure ix

Chapter 1 We Discover Fire 1

Chapter 2 World War II, and Danger Beyond Comprehension 34

Chapter 3 A Bit of Trouble in the Great White North 74

Chapter 4 Birthing Pains in Idaho 112

Chapter 5 Making Everything Else Seem Insignificant in the UK 153

Chapter 6 In Nuclear Research, Even the Goof-ups are Fascinating 189

Chapter 7 The Atomic Man and Lessons in Fuel Processing 227

Chapter 8 The Military Almost Never Lost a Nuclear Weapon 286

Chapter 9 The China Syndrome Plays in Harrisburg and Pripyat 325

Chapter 10 Tragedy at Fukushima Daiichi 376

Chapter 11 Caught in the Rickover Trap 404

Bibliography 427

Index 433

Illustration Credits 441

Acknowledgments 442

Editorial Reviews

Mahaffey guides us through more than a century of atomic research, including misadventures with radioactive elixirs and long-forgotten accidents. The compelling tales unravel like slow-motion horror stories.

NATURE

From clueless hunters wandering into caves teeming with radon-222, to fervid dreams of nuclear jets, and reactors bucking like steeds unused to human contact, Mahaffey keeps things appropriately dramatic. Truly valuable.

Newsweek

From clueless hunters wandering into caves teeming with radon-222, to fervid dreams of nuclear jets, and reactors bucking like steeds unused to human contact, Mahaffey keeps things appropriately dramatic. Truly valuable.

Newsweek

★ 01/13/2014
Mahaffey (Atomic Awakening), a former senior research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, employs his extensive knowledge of nuclear engineering to produce a volume that is by turns alarming, thought-provoking, humorous, and always fascinating. He begins his mostly chronological work in the era before nuclear power was even imagined, when the engineering community’s greatest fear was steam engine boiler explosions—a fear that has carried through to the design of nuclear power plants to this day. Between his accounts of early boiler explosions and the big three nuclear disasters of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, Mahaffey covers an array of mishaps and blunders, nearly all attributable to human error. This history reminds us that the first two people “to die accidentally of acute radiation poisoning,” Haroutune Daghlian and Louis Slotin, both died conducting criticality experiments by hand on the same sphere of plutonium. More pointedly, despite the anxiety generated by disasters and media hype, fossil fuel power generation can be directly linked to 4,000 times more deaths than nuclear power, and contributes heavily to global climate change. Mahaffey’s goal is not to alarm or titillate but to underscore that there is a steep learning curve in understanding these disasters and that they are a natural consequence of increasing our knowledge of nuclear engineering. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Mahaffey guides us through more than a century of atomic research, including misadventures with radioactive elixirs (“The radium water worked fine until his jaw came off,” reads a 1932 headline) and long-forgotten accidents at enrichment plants…The compelling tales unravel like slow-motion horror stories, spiraling towards disasters we know are coming.

Mark Peplow - Nature

Persuasive and based on deep research, Atomic Awakening taught me a great deal.”

Past praise for James Mahaffey - Nature

Part detective story, part documentary, part diabolical murder mystery, James Mahaffey’s latest non-fiction thriller, Atomic Accidents details the mistakes associated with all sorts of atomic devices, designs and decisions gone awry. As much a pleasure to read as it is instantly educating, Atomic Accidents is essential reading for anyone curious about the inherent intricacies involved with unstable atomic reactors, how they got that way and what should be done about them. Travel back through time and relive the history of the nuclear timeline with the inimitable Dr. Mahaffey as your competent guide.  Atomic Accidents belongs at the top of your “Books To Read” list if you want to know what really happened way back then, now and what will likely happen in the future. Enjoy.

Nuclear Street

The book aids in the understanding of how atomic science is far from the spawn of a wicked weapons program and how nuclear power will shape the twenty-first century.

Nuclear News

Mahaffey guides us through more than a century of atomic research, including misadventures with radioactive elixirs and long-forgotten accidents along with show-stoppers such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Mahaffey quickly identifies each accident's turning points, and argues for a return to smaller reactors, reasoning that accidents are inevitable, so they had best be small. He extols the virtues of safe designs such as the thorium molten-salt reactor. If these change are made and lessons are leaned, accidents like Fukushima should be behind us. Entertaining and thought-provoking.”

Nature

★ 2014-02-06
Having delivered a delightfully astute history of atomic power in Atomic Awakening (2009), nuclear engineer Mahaffey goes over the same ground with the same combination of expertise and wit, this time describing what happens when things go wrong. The author opens with a disaster that destroyed a power plant, killed 75 and contaminated a wide area. It was a hydroelectric plant; nothing is perfect. Pure uranium and plutonium are well-behaved and barely radioactive. Under the right circumstances, their atoms fission (split), producing immense heat and radiation. However, there would be no nuclear explosion without the addition of complex technology. Fission heat and radiation by themselves can wreak havoc, and beginning with the first reactor in 1942, experts have worked hard to make them safe—though an automobile is more than 1 million times more dangerous to a bystander than a nuclear reactor. Much of this progress arose from painful experiences, which the author happily recounts. Human error and stupidity are not in short supply. Movie heroes never go by the book, but real-life nuclear plant employees should stick to it. Many of the mishaps that fill the book were ordinary industrial accidents: fires, conventional explosions and toxic leaks. No matter. Hundreds have occurred besides the big three (Fukushima, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island), and Mahaffey takes readers on a 400-page thrill ride. Despite this litany of disasters, the author remains fond of nuclear power plants, which have "killed fewer people than the coal industry." However, he shows no mercy toward workers or engineers who have, at times, forgotten their vast capacity for harm. The most comprehensive and certainly one of the most entertaining accounts of atomic accidents.

Kirkus Reviews