Excellent read | Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element

More History than Science | Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element | Jeremy Bernstein

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	• Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element Jeremy Bernstein Joseph Henry Press, 2007 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Not As Easy As I Thought!

When plutonium was first manufactured at Berkeley there was so little of it that it was not visible to the naked eye. Now it is warehoused around the world, the U.S. alone possesses about 47 metric tons, and it has almost no practical use outside its role in nuclear weaponry.

I thought basic atomic weapons were made simply by smashing sub-critical masses of U-235 or Plutonium together with conventional explosives. Reportedly, the "little Boy" bomb used over Nagasaki consisted simply of an anti-aircraft barrel containing an 80% enriched U-235 projectile that was fired into a hollow cylinder. Turns out that it isn't that simple - thank goodness. The "trick" is to quickly achieve supercriticality without firing too quickly and creating a "fizzle." (Sounds like North Korea's 400-500 equivalent TNT tons 2006 test.) Greater blasts require neutron mirrors and triggers, careful consideration of other elements' neutron absorption, etc.

Worse yet, a successful plutonium bomb cannot be created along this design unless plutonium purity of at least one in a billion is obtained because it emits fission neutrons at a rate 35X that of U-235.

"Plutonium" also reports that in 1962 a bomb using reactor-grade plutonium (about 6% enriched, vs. 85% for weapons-grade) was successfully tested underground in Nevada. It wasn't a high-yield weapon, but still in the Hiroshima/Nagasaki range. So any nation with a reactor would have the material to make a nuclear bomb?

Why the prominent "49" on the cover - represents pluonium's atomic number - 94, reversed. The "bad news" about "Plutonium" is that it is, to say the least, difficult reading, and contains too much early, early history of atomic research.

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Excellent read

I am a fan of high end engineering and science topics. Nuclear engineering and achievements are one of those topics I enjoy learning about. The author focuses on the historical discovery, and race to find and learn about Plutonium, and its applications/hazards.

The end of the book has an excellent while brief take on Hanford and Rocky Flats locations and proliferation concerns. A whole nother book about those topics should be done just due to the stockpiles of plutonium around the word, and the impacts it continues to have.

The debunking of "Reactor grade" and "Weapons grade" plutonium in the book is also a excellent item that brings up serious proliferation concerns.

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More History than Science

I have read many of the books on the Manhatten project but I really like this one because it focused in on one part plutonium. If you really want the whole story read The Making of the Atomic Bomb.
Second it gave you a history of each of the scientists involved in the discoveries.
I never really realized how important it is to the scientific community that they stay well published. I found it hard to believe that scientists in Germany war like Heisenburg didn't think that the bomb dropped on Nagasaki was made out of plutonium or that the US would even make reactors for its production. It was a good thing that the allies kept all the information out of the technical journals.
I liked learning about all the scientists and where they had come from and what part no matter how small yet was very important to understanding the development of this element.
It was somewhat of a technical read but I took many physics and chemistry classes in college so the terms were not unfamiliar to me even in that section near the end where he is explaining the lantanides and actinides radii and valance electrons. It made sense why each of these groups were so similar chemically.
I will say that plutonium has some weird properties and states. Also I found it interesting that the bomb was not as easy to make as I had read earlier. I was surprised after what Klaus Fuchs told the Russians all the details in that report near the end and it still took the Russians 4 years to create the bomb. I also didn't know that we stopped sharing the secrets with the British when the war ended. The more I learn about this story the more interesting it gets.
I would recommend this to any science savy person who wants to know more about the history of the scienctists who worked on creating Plutonium.

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fun to read, but lots of commas in writing style

This was a thorough compendium on a single element. It was a fun read. Learned a few things about how Mendeleyev`s thought process in prepping the periodic table. Was a bit taken off by the writing style, sometimes confused when reading some of the long sentences, punctuated with many and many commas. Well researched and annotated.

When plutonium was first manufactured at Berkeley in the spring of 1941, there was so little of it that it was not visible to the naked eye. It took a year to accumulate enough so that one could actually see it. Now there is so much that we don?t know what to do to get rid of it. We have created a monster.

The history of plutonium is as strange as the element itself. When scientists began looking for it, they did so simply in the spirit of inquiry, not certain whether there were still spots to fill on the periodic table. But the discovery of fission made it clear that this still-hypothetical element would be more than just a scientific curiosity?it could be a powerful nuclear weapon.

As it turned out, it is good for almost nothing else. Plutonium?s nuclear potential put it at the heart of the World War II arms race?the Russians found out about it through espionage, the Germans through independent research, and everybody wanted some. Now, nearly everyone has some?the United States alone has about 47 metric tons?but it has almost no uses besides warmongering. How did the product of scientific curiosity become such a dangerous burden?

In his new history of this complex and dangerous element, noted physicist Jeremy Bernstein describes the steps that were taken to transform plutonium from a laboratory novelty into the nuclear weapon that destroyed Nagasaki. This is the first book to weave together the many strands of plutonium?s story, explaining not only the science but the people involved.

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