TIME BOMB: Understanding the Threat of Nuclear Power

by Corinne & Robert Munroe Browne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 16, 1981

A generally overwrought and unsurprising hazards-of-radioactivity round-up (sections are titled ""Dragon Seeds,"" ""Dragon's Breath,"" etc.)--beginning with the Manhattan project as reported in the purple prose of William Laurence and the effects of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima as witnessed by survivor Shigeko Niimoto. There follow--with sparse documentation and only a sketchy scientific background: the numerous radiation-induced cancers and deaths of servicemen forced to witness nuclear tests in the Fifties and Sixties (for which the government, scandalously, still refuses to take responsibility), and the world-wide increase in radiation levels caused by fallout; the lung cancer deaths of Navajo uranium miners; the deaths of Navy divers doing repair work on the nuclear submarine Nautilus; the Navy's attempt to set up a nuclear reactor at McMurdo base in Antarctica (widespread contamination was the result); the leaky Shippingport, Pa., reactor; Edward Teller's manic advocacy of nuclear weapons and testing; Liver-more labs and the AEC's attempts to suppress unfavorable data; and the experiences of antinuclear activists--radiation oncologist John Gofman, environmental consultant Larry Bogart, one-time nuclear-reactor designer Robert Pollard, pediatrician Helen Caldicott. Less immediate, affecting, or informative than Leslie J. Freeman's Nuclear Witnesses (p. 776).

Pub Date: Nov. 16, 1981

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1981

Categories: NONFICTION