Books: Plutonium, by Jeremy Bernstein

Books: Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element, by Jeremy Bernstein
Joseph Henry Press, 2007
171 pages, plus 8 pages of b&w photos, Notes, Index
Library: 546.434 BER

Description
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 47 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 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 also the people involved.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1. Preamble
2. The History of Uranium
3. The Periodfic Table
4. Frau Rontgen's Hand
5. Close Calls
6. Fissions
7. Transuranics
8. Plutonium Goes to War
9. Los Alamos
10. Electrons
11. Now What?
Notes
Credits
Index

Photos
-The perfect solids
-Frau Rontgen's hand in x-rays
-The Noldacks in their laboratoy
-Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner
-Fritz Strassmann
-Robert J. Oppenheimer, Enrico FErmi and Ernest Orlando Lawrence
-Mandred, Baron von Ardenne
-Glenn T. Seaborg with a geiger counter
-William 'Williw' Zachariasen
-Cyril Stanley Smith
-Ted Magel
-Hanford site with the Columbia River, Washington
-Rocky Flats, Colorado
-Map showing stored locations of plutonium in Russia