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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 so much has been produced 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 the main ingredient of 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 it is warehoused around the world-the United States alone possesses about forty-seven metric tons-but it has almost no practical use outside its role in nuclear weaponry. How did the product of scientific curiosity become such a dangerous burden? In his 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 also the people involved.… (more)
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An explanation of the chemical behavior of lanthanides and actinides occurs in a couple places. I rather suspect the second discussion, at the bottom of p. 149, got garbled by an editor who knows no science. Which electrons matter for chemistry, the outside ones or the inside ones? On p. 73, it seems it's the inside electrons that don't play chemistry. This seems correct. It gets turned backwards on p. 149.
Another blooper on p. 160 has U-238 absorbing a neutron, which creates U-239 "along with the emission of two neutrons". The next sentence starts with U-237. How about "followed by the emission of two neutrons" and then "The resulting U-237"...
I was impressed that Bernstein did pretty well getting across electron orbitals. This is a great book for folks to be introduced to these ideas, the foundations of modern science. I hope these little errors don't discourage any budding scientists!
I was disappointed that there was so little about the toxicity of Plutonium. There was some talk here on the subject. but just a few pages. How dangerous is Plutonium? There are essentially two risks: bombs, and pollution. Bernstein does a good job covering the bombs & the possible use of different mixes of isotopes of Plutonium. It's an easier subject, for sure, than the statistics of cancer etc.
Bernstein is a physicist, and this book really concentrates on the physics of Plutonium. It's surely a great starting point and foundation for further research. I suspect, though, that there aren't too many accessible next steps! We need more books like this, that move the discussion further. How does Plutonium move through biological tissue? How does Plutonium move with ground water, or in the atmosphere?
Bernstein tells us that there is currently about 1900 tons of the stuff that has been created since the birth of nuclear technology, increasing at about 70 tons per year. This is a serious global risk that we need to manage carefully. Folks can start learning what this means from Bernstein's book.