Nuclear Science

Trashing the Planet is the one book you need to get a common-sense grasp on the contentious issues of environmentalism, where science and politics overlap and well-meaning idealism turns to counterproductive eco-terrorism. Dixy Lee Ray, a marine biologist and former chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, calls for environmentalists to regain a sense of perspective and not let their ardor carry them into the realm of “noble lies.”

My Journey at the Nuclear Brink is a continuation of William J. Perry's efforts to keep the world safe from a nuclear catastrophe. It tells the story of his coming of age in the nuclear era, his role in trying to shape and contain it, and how his thinking has changed about the threat these weapons pose. In a remarkable career, Perry has dealt firsthand with the changing nuclear threat.

Nuclear Energy Between Peace and War: The Story of Destruction in the Middle East or Its Resurrection dives into the intricate world of nuclear energy in the Middle East and North Africa. Written by experienced journalist and activist Issam Khoury, the book explores the dual nature of nuclear energy—its potential for peaceful use versus its risks for military conflict—amidst a region marked by political and sectarian strife.

Newlyweds Kyle and Mandy arrive in the quiet town of Esperville, Oregon, ready to build and sell homes, imagining a bright future together. But Esperville hides a dark secret: the land itself seems to swallow its residents whole. Vanished without a trace. At first, Kyle dismisses the town's disturbing history as local superstition—until a close friend is savagely attacked by a nightmarish creature, and Mandy disappears that same night.

William L. Laurence was fascinated with atomic science and its militarization. When the Manhattan Project drew near to perfecting the atomic bomb, he was recruited to write much of the government's press materials that were distributed on the day that Hiroshima was obliterated. That instantly crowned Laurence as one of the leading journalistic experts on the atomic bomb.

Once home to the United States's largest plutonium production site, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State is laced with 56 million gallons of radioactive waste. The threat of an explosive accident at Hanford is all too real—an event that could be more catastrophic than Chernobyl. The EPA designated Hanford the most toxic place in America; it is also the most expensive environmental clean-up job the world has ever seen, with a $677 billion price tag that keeps growing.

Nikki Haley is widely admired for her forthright manner (“with all due respect, I don’t get confused”), her sensitive approach to tragic events, and her confident representation of America’s interests as our ambassador to the United Nations during times of crisis and consequence. In this book, Haley offers a firsthand perspective on major national and international matters as well as a behind-the-scenes account of her tenure in the Trump administration.

Twice a week, the president pilots his ultraluxury airship Trump Sky Alpha (seats start at $50,000), delivering, as he travels between D.C., New York City, and Mar-a-Lago, a streaming YouTube address to the nation, in which he trumpets his successes and blasts his enemies - until the day his words plunge the world into nuclear war. One year later, with 90 percent of the world's population destroyed, a journalist named Rachel has taken refuge in the Twin Cities Metro Containment Zone.

Mildred Groves, an unusual young woman gifted and cursed with the ability to see the future, goes to work in a top-secret research facility during WWII, only to be tormented by visions of what the mission will mean for humankind.

Reed Futrell is an engineer at a uranium-enrichment plant in heartland America. His father worked at the very same plant before him. Despite his father's death in a tragic accident at the atomic plant years ago, Reed stays on, proud to perform demanding and dangerous work for the benefit of the nation. As for the radioactive "incidents" he has endured, Reed prefers to think about other things, such as Hubble photographs of distant galaxies and Albert Einstein, his dog.

The survivors are trapped. Cut off from the rest of the world and quarantined as the virus spreads to every corner of the country, while the combined forces of the naval fleet set sail for deeper waters and leave the UK to its fate. Facing the aftermath of the battle for the island, the groups are separated as the bonds of friendship and camaraderie are violently severed, and they must survive on their own. Every effort to survive is fraught with peril, and those left behind must battle to find some form of safety, no matter how brief that respite might be.

Two of America's leading scholar-diplomats, Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, have combed sources in several languages, interviewed leading figures, and drawn on their own firsthand experience to bring to life the choices that molded the contemporary world. Zeroing in on the key moments of decision, the might-have-beens, and the human beings working through them, they explore both what happened and what could have happened, to show how one world ended and another took form.

This audiobook provides a fascinating and at times shocking glimpse into the not so distant future of our planet as well as the future of mankind.

The End of Victory recounts the costs of failure in nuclear war through the work of the most secret deliberative body of the National Security Council, the Net Evaluation Subcommittee (NESC). From 1953 onward, US leaders wanted to know as precisely as possible what would happen if they failed in a nuclear war—how many Americans would die and how much of the country would remain. The NESC told Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy what would be the result of the worst failure of American strategy.

The Chernobyl power plant was the hope for energy in the Ukraine. Years after the 1986 meltdown, Ukraine is still feeling the effects of its radiation. The Nuclear Disaster at Chernobyl is part of the Disasters series. These moments in history recall the death and destruction caused by both natural and manmade disasters around the world.

Nuclear power has been and continues to be a mystery to many people. This book tells the story of the journey of an average individual who for over 40 years, because of unintentional turns of events, became an active member of the industry and learned to understand and support this challenging but rewarding technology. With global warming and growing demands for energy world-wide, nuclear power plants in conjunction with renewable energy sources is the most promising way to support our future generations.

The most important place in American nuclear history are the Marshall Islands - an idyllic Pacific paradise that served as the staging ground for more than 60 US nuclear tests. It was here, from 1946 to 1958, that America perfected the weapon that preserved the peace of the post-war years. It was here - with the 1954 Castle Bravo test over Bikini Atoll - that America executed its largest nuclear detonation, a thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima.

For the past two decades, Mohamed ElBaradei has played a key role in the most high-stakes conflicts of our time. Unique in maintaining credibility in the Arab world and the West alike, ElBaradei has emerged as a singularly independent, uncompromised voice. As the director of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, he has contended with the Bush administration's assault on Iraq, the nuclear aspirations of North Korea, and the West's standoff with Iran.

In Rad Future, science influencer Isabelle Boemeke shatters the fear and misinformation surrounding this technology and shows how the actual science tells a different story. It turns out that nuclear-generated electricity—nuclear electricity—is our best option for ensuring the future of the planet. Nuclear can power cities, desalinate water, create carbon-free fertilizer, and heat homes, all with the smallest environmental footprint of any energy source.

When Reagan and Gorbachev sat down in Reykjavik in 1986, George Shultz said that it was “the poker game with the highest stakes ever played”. It was the last time the world had a chance to do away entirely with nuclear weapons. This is the behind-the-scenes story of this remarkable summit conference. An Impossible Dream is the first exploration of recently available archives of both sides - top-secret archives of the Kremlin, the personal papers of Gorbachev, as well as Reagan's archives.