Supplying the Nuclear Arsenal

American Production Reactors, 1942-1992

Rodney P. Carlisle (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

298 Seiten

2020
Johns Hopkins University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4214-3590-9 (ISBN)

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Originally published in 1996. Although the history of commercial-power nuclear reactors is well known, the story of the government reactors that produce weapons-grade plutonium and tritium has been shrouded in secrecy. Supplying the Nuclear Arsenal looks at the origin and development of these production reactors, Rodney Carlisle and Joan Zenzen describe a fifty-year government effort no less complex, expensive, and technologically demanding than the Polaris or Apollo programs—yet one about which most Americans know virtually nothing.

Carlisle and Zenzen describe the evolution of the early reactors, the atomic weapons establishment that surrounded them, and the sometimes bitter struggles between business and political constituencies for their share of "nuclear pork." They show how, since the 1980s, aging production reactors have increased the risk of radioactive contamination of the atmosphere and water table. And they describe how the Department of Energy mounted a massive effort to find the right design for a new generation of reactors, only to abandon that effort with the end of the Cold War. Today, all American production reactors remain closed.

Due to short half-life, the nation's supply of tritium, crucial to modern weapons, is rapidly dwindling. As countries like Iraq and North Korea threaten to join the nuclear club, the authors contend, the United States needs to revitalize tritium production capacity in order to maintain a viable nuclear deterrent. Meanwhile, as slowly decaying artifacts of the Cold War, the closed production reactors at Hanford, Washington, and Savannah River, South Carolina, loom ominously over the landscape.

Rodney P. Carlisle Rodney Carlisle is a professor emeritus of history at Rutgers University. He was a founding member of History Associates. He is also the author of Where the Fleet Begins: A History of the David Taylor Research Center, 1899–1987 and the editor of Encyclopedia of the Atomic Age. Joan M. Zenzen is a staff historian at History Associates, Inc.

List of Illustrations
List of Tables and Figures
Preface
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
Introduction
1. Inventing Atomic Piles
2. Building Reactors at Hanford
3. Contracting Atoms
4. Flexible Design at Savannah River
5. The Arms Race Arsenal
6. Designing a Reactor for Peace and War
7. Surviving Detente
8. Lobbying for Nuclear Pork
9. Managing Nuclear Options
Conclusion: Supplying the Cold War Arsenal
Appendix: Production Reactor Families
Notes
Bibliographic Essay
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	03.10.2019
Co-Autor	Joan M. Zenzen
Zusatzinfo	12 Illustrations, black and white
Verlagsort	Baltimore, MD
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	408 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Technikgeschichte
ISBN-10	1-4214-3590-X / 142143590X
ISBN-13	978-1-4214-3590-9 / 9781421435909
Zustand	Neuware