Controlling the Atom

Controlling the Atom
Author: George T. Mazuzan
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 556
Release: 1985-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780520051829

Containing the Atom

Containing the Atom
Author: J. Samuel Walker
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 548
Release: 1992-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780520079137

The late 1960s saw an extraordinary growth in the American nuclear industry: dozens of plants of unprecedented size were ordered throughout the country. Yet at the same time, public concern about the natural environment and suspicion of both government and industry increased dramatically. Containing the Atom is the first scholarly history of nuclear power regulation during those tumultuous years. J. Samuel Walker focuses on the activities of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the agency entrusted with the primary responsibility for the safety of nuclear power, and shows that from the beginning the AEC faced a paradox: it was charged with both promoting and controlling the nuclear power industry. Out of this paradox grew severe tensions, which Walker discusses in detail. His balanced evaluation of the issues and the positions taken by the AEC and others makes this study an invaluable resource for all those interested in the continuing controversies that surround nuclear energy. The late 1960s saw an extraordinary growth in the American nuclear industry: dozens of plants of unprecedented size were ordered throughout the country. Yet at the same time, public concern about the natural environment and suspicion of both government and industry increased dramatically. Containing the Atom is the first scholarly history of nuclear power regulation during those tumultuous years. J. Samuel Walker focuses on the activities of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the agency entrusted with the primary responsibility for the safety of nuclear power, and shows that from the beginning the AEC faced a paradox: it was charged with both promoting and controlling the nuclear power industry. Out of this paradox grew severe tensions, which Walker discusses in detail. His balanced evaluation of the issues and the positions taken by the AEC and others makes this study an invaluable resource for all those interested in the continuing controversies that surround nuclear energy.

Engineering the Atom-Photon Interaction

Engineering the Atom-Photon Interaction
Author: Ana Predojević
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2015-07-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319192310

This book provides a comprehensive view of the contemporary methods for quantum-light engineering. In particular, it addresses different technological branches and therefore allows the reader to quickly identify the best technology - application match. Non-classical light is a versatile tool, proven to be an intrinsic part of various quantum technologies. Its historical significance has made it the subject of many text books written both from theoretical and experimental point of view. This book takes another perspective by giving an insight to modern technologies used to generate and manipulate quantum light.

Boltzmann's Atom

Boltzmann's Atom
Author: David Lindley
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2001
Genre: Atomic theory
ISBN: 0684851865

Ludwig Boltzmann, an Austrian physicist is considered the forgotten genius who set the atomic revolution in motion. However, he was unaware his vision would lead to the greatest chain of scientific discoveries ever made. His story is presented in this combination of expert storytelling with a deep understanding of physics.

Restricted Data

Restricted Data
Author: Alex Wellerstein
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 558
Release: 2021-04-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 022602038X

"Nuclear weapons, since their conception, have been the subject of secrecy. In the months after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American scientific establishment, the American government, and the American public all wrestled with what was called the "problem of secrecy," wondering not only whether secrecy was appropriate and effective as a means of controlling this new technology but also whether it was compatible with the country's core values. Out of a messy context of propaganda, confusion, spy scares, and the grave counsel of competing groups of scientists, what historian Alex Wellerstein calls a "new regime of secrecy" was put into place. It was unlike any other previous or since. Nuclear secrets were given their own unique legal designation in American law ("restricted data"), one that operates differently than all other forms of national security classification and exists to this day. Drawing on massive amounts of declassified files, including records released by the government for the first time at the author's request, Restricted Data is a narrative account of nuclear secrecy and the tensions and uncertainty that built as the Cold War continued. In the US, both science and democracy are pitted against nuclear secrecy, and this makes its history uniquely compelling and timely"--

The Nature of the Atom

The Nature of the Atom
Author: J.E. Kaal
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2022-03-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1838128042

This book is the result of an international research team pursuing the intuitive notion that the atomic nucleus should have structural properties. Starting with a few logical assumptions, they discovered that many properties of the atom and the nucleus can be explained rationally without resorting to quantum mechanics or the limiting dogmas about the nucleus that dominate current physics. Using feedback from known experimental data, they identified several organizational principles that nature appears to use for constructing the elements, sometimes in unexpected ways. There are two assumptions underlying the Structured Atom Model (SAM). First, by replacing the neutron with a proton–electron pair, an electrostatic attractive force is reintroduced into the nucleus. The electrons acting as “glue” between the protons. Second, that “spherical dense packing” gives the nucleus its fractal shape—one of several organizational drivers in the buildup of the nucleus; other drivers being recurring substructures called “endings” and “nuclets.” A SAM nucleus is constructed using these substructures in various combinations. The result is a new periodic table that hints at several missing elements most of which are suspected to be unstable, but probably not all. What emerges is nothing less than a new paradigm for thinking about the nucleus and physics. In SAM, several known nuclear phenomena follow directly from the structural configuration of the nucleus, including nuclear instability, radioactivity/radioactive decay, the asymmetrical breakup of fission products, and the various nuclear decay schemes. In addition, the team discovered an unrecognized store of energy that may very well be responsible for Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR).

The Wretched Atom

The Wretched Atom
Author: Jacob Darwin Hamblin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2021
Genre: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
ISBN: 019752690X

The have-nots -- A thousand years into one -- Forgetting the bad dreams of the past -- Colored and white atoms -- Turf wars and green revolutions -- Water, blood, and the nuclear club -- Nuclear mosques and monuments -- The era of distrust -- Conclusion: The cornucopian illusion.

Stalin and the Bomb

Stalin and the Bomb
Author: David Holloway
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 507
Release: 2008-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300164459

The classic and “utterly engrossing” study of Stalin’s pursuit of a nuclear bomb during the Cold War by the renowned political scientist and historian (Foreign Affairs). For forty years the U.S.-Russian nuclear arms race dominated world politics, yet the Soviet nuclear establishment was shrouded in secrecy. Then, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, David Holloway pulled back the Iron Curtain with his “marvelous, groundbreaking study” Stalin and the Bomb (The New Yorker). How did the Soviet Union build its atomic and hydrogen bombs? What role did espionage play? How did the American atomic monopoly affect Stalin's foreign policy? What was the relationship between Soviet nuclear scientists and the country's political leaders? David Holloway answers these questions by tracing the dramatic story of Soviet nuclear policy from developments in physics in the 1920s to the testing of the hydrogen bomb and the emergence of nuclear deterrence in the mid-1950s. This magisterial history throws light on Soviet policy at the height of the Cold War, illuminates a central element of the Stalinist system, and puts into perspective the tragic legacy of this program―environmental damage, a vast network of institutes and factories, and a huge stockpile of unwanted weapons.

Atomic Structure

Atomic Structure
Author: Colm T. Whelan
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
Total Pages: 88
Release: 2018-05-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1681748800

A knowledge of atomic theory should be an essential part of every physicist's and chemist's toolkit. This book provides an introduction to the basic ideas that govern our understanding of microscopic matter, and the essential features of atomic structure and spectra are presented in a direct and easily accessible manner. Semi-classical ideas are reviewed and an introduction to the quantum mechanics of one and two electron systems and their interaction with external electromagnetic fields is featured. Multielectron atoms are also introduced, and the key methods for calculating their properties reviewed.