可借阅:*
图书馆 | 资料类型 | 排架号 | 子计数 | 书架位置 | 状态 | 图书预约 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
正在检索... Science | Book | 363.1799 AC182M | 1 | Stacks | 正在检索... 未知 | 正在检索... 不可借阅 |
链接这些题名
已订购
摘要
摘要
p> Just as huge nuclear explosions result from small spheres of plutonium, the story of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver, Colorado is much larger than itself. It is about the Church family, who came West seeking gold in 1861, stayed to raise cattle, watched the federal government take a large piece of its land for the weapons plant in 1951--and now is busily developing real estate in the booming suburbs next to the contaminated plant site. It is about the government and private corporations that produced the deadliest devices in history for thirty-seven years, concealed problems behind the wall of national security secrecy, and came close to a Chernobyl-scale disaster during a 1969 fire. It is about plant managers who cut corners to maintain weapons production, workers who saw themselves as loyal Cold War soldiers, and citizen activists who challenged the plant's very existence. And it is about a community that profited from thousands of jobs and contracts but now faces long-term environmental and health risks.
"Making a Real Killing" examines the way Americans participated in building a nuclear weapons arsenal capable of destroying the human species. To read it is to learn some sobering lessons, including the fact that the democratic process lagged decades behind technological developments.
"As Americans reckon with the legacy of the Cold War, "Making a Real Killing" deserves a place at the center of our attention. Len Ackland's integrity and hard work remind us how crucial energetic journalism is for a successful democracy."--Patricia Nelson Limerick
评论 (2)
Kirkus评论
A hard-edged history of a center of Cold War death-dealing technology. Ackland, a former editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and now a professor of journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder, offers a history of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility just a few miles south of Boulder. The plant was carved from a vast cattle ranch thanks to the efforts of hawkish Senator Edwin Johnson, who, Ackland writes, "embodied the peculiar relationship Westerners had developed with the federal government," a relationship that mixed a kind of state socialism with myths of rugged individualism. The Rocky Flats facility went on to process staggering quantities of strontium, uranium, and plutonium, materials that periodically posed a threat to public health in the Denver area--especially after catastrophic 1957 and 1969 fires, the second of which foreshadowed the disastrous Chernobyl meltdown 17 years later. Both fires were controlled. Local newspapers generally ignored the first, "muted," Ackland says, "by the aura of national security surrounding the plant." But the second came under more critical scrutiny, and the facility thereafter became a centerpiece of antinuclear activism in the West. More than offering a history of the plant alone, Ackland also serves up a useful summary of American nuclear policy in the Cold War era, noting that in 1948 the military petitioned President Truman for custody of the nation's nuclear-weapons program, including Rocky Flats. Truman refused, saying of the atomic bomb, "You have to understand that this isn--t a military weapon. It is used to wipe out women and children and unarmed people, and not for military uses. So we have got to treat this differently from rifles and cannon and ordinary things like that." The scary workings of Rocky Flats were far from ordinary. So, too, is this fine book of reportage and history. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Choice 评论
Ackland puts his experiences as a history major, investigative news reporter, editor of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and now professor of environmental journalism to good use in this work. Located on a mesa 16 miles northwest of Denver, the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant operated from 1952 to 1989, transforming plutonium into hollow metal cores that served as detonating mechanisms for hydrogen bombs. The plant ultimately processed over 150 tons of weapons-grade plutonium, enough for 70,000 nuclear bombs. But the production process exposed workers to radioactive materials and in 1969, a fire at the plant nearly led to a Chernobyl-like catastrophe for the Denver area. Although now closed, the plant is thoroughly contaminated and still holds more than 14 tons of toxic plutonium. Ackland doubts federal agencies will be able to clean and dismantle what the Energy Department has dubbed the "most dangerous weapons plant in the nation." Seduced by the money the plant brought to the area, politicians, businessmen, and union officials long ignored health and safety issues and declined to ponder the ethics of producing weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, a descendant of the original settlers of Rocky Flats is trying to persuade citizens to purchase his land and build homes near the contaminated plant. All levels. S. G. Rabe; University of Texas at Dallas