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Atomic Accidents

A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters; From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima

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Atomic Accidents

By: James Mahaffey
Narrated by: Tom Weiner
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Summary

From the moment radiation was discovered in the late nineteenth century, nuclear science has had a rich history of innovative scientific exploration and discovery, coupled with mistakes, accidents, and downright disasters.

Mahaffey, a long-time advocate of continued nuclear research and nuclear energy, looks at each incident in turn and analyzes what happened and why, often discovering where scientists went wrong when analyzing past meltdowns.

Every incident has lead to new facets in understanding about the mighty atom—and Mahaffey puts forth what the future should be for this final frontier of science that still holds so much promise.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2014 James Mahaffey (P)2014 Blackstone Audio History History & Philosophy Science Thought-Provoking Inspiring Nuclear Engineering
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This book describes nuclear accidents in a factual and monotonous Wikipedia-like manner. However the most serious accident in Chernobyl is presented at about 2:20 hours before end of this 16 hours audiobook! This is not proportional to the seriousness of Chernobyl and Fukushima (1:45 before end) accidents.

At the time of writing this review Audible iOS chapters are just numbered and do not correspond with real chapters. Therefore finding specific accidents is impossible.

Despite the above I found this audiobook brook interesting.

Factual and Monotonous but interesting

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You need to have a bit of a geeky mind to enjoy this sort of book, but it is very well written, easy to follow and has the right level of technical / scientific detail to make it both factual and very enjoyable to follow. The navigation across the subjects time line is impeccable and the different elements to the history of splitting the atom are broken down into logical subject matters.

Very enjoyable, detailed, informative and accurate.

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I was hooked from the opening until the final spoken word. I was tempted to skip forward; only because the chapters were described and I wanted to cherry-pick my way through this audio book. In the end, I listened all the way through and am glad I did. We live a mere 10 mules from a nuclear-reactor at Hinckley Point and while it differs in design from some of the earlier reactors mentioned, the operating principle is the same....chilling !

Enthralling and frightening at the same time!

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What made the experience of listening to Atomic Accidents the most enjoyable?

Tom Weiner writes about nuclear power and its history and evolution with such clarity. He writes in such a way that is easy to understand but with dumbing the topic down.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Atomic Accidents?

Basically the opening section about the steam engine collisions and the flocks of people who came to see them, and how far we have come since then but yet at the heart of nuclear power we still rely on steam.

What does Tom Weiner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

As I said above , just how clearly he approaches the subject and how easy he makes it sound without dumbing it down.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

"The new clear age"

such a great book.

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Where does Atomic Accidents rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Brilliant topic, excellently researched, though sometimes more background than you'd expect - but overall necessary; this book gives you all the information you could need to make your own mind up about the way the industry (and much wider) is managed.

Compounded by the wrong reading style, needed to be delivered by an entertainment-oriented physics professor - someone with a bit of enthusiasm for the topic and the means to communicate it clearly - though admittedly that's a tall order.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

Would you listen to another book narrated by Tom Weiner?

Tom's narration is a little rigid and monotone, this would be fine in some circumstances, but the topic warrants a little extra interpretation and dynamism to make it sufficiently accessible - it's hard enough to chew some of these facts as it is, particularly when coupled with the meandering nature by which the background is woven into the main topic.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It's not that kind of book - of course. But there are certainly parts which explain the human aspects of the topic.

Any additional comments?

A fantastic mine of information for those interested in all kinds of the related disciplines, not to mention human nature and a brilliant insight into big-pharma / corporations / just selfish individuals - who'll sell you anything any way they can, and are always one step ahead of the authorities.

There's a lot of background here and you often have to be paying close attention to see the relevance, but the information is very well researched and very interesting. You'll struggle to find the same degree of detail elsewhere.

Could have been a superficial read, turns out to be a one of a kind.

Great Content, Tons of Background, Meandering

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