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Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World |  | Author: Tom Zoellner
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $17.79
as of 11/21/2009 08:50 EST details
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Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 37715
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0670020648
Dewey Decimal Number: 546.431
EAN: 9780670020645
ASIN: 0670020648
Publication Date: March 5, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| • | Hardcover - Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World | | • | Audio Download - Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World (Unabridged) | | • | Paperback - Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World | | • | Audio CD - Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World | | • | Audio CD - Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World | | • | Preloaded Digital Audio Player - Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World [With Earbuds] (Playaway Adult Nonfiction) | | • | Kindle Edition - Uranium | | • | Audio CD - Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World |
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Product Description
The fascinating story of the most powerful source of energy the earth can yield
Uranium is a common element in the earths crust and the only naturally occurring mineral with the power to end all life on the planet. After World War II, it reshaped the global orderwhoever could master uranium could master the world.
Marie Curie gave us hope that uranium would be a miracle panacea, but the Manhattan Project gave us reason to believe that civilization would end with apocalypse. Slave labor camps in Africa and Eastern Europe were built around mine shafts and America would knowingly send more than six hundred uranium miners to their graves in the name of national security.
Fortunes have been made from this yellow dirt; massive energy grids have been run from it. Fear of it panicked the American people into supporting a questionable war with Iraq and its specter threatens to create another conflict in Iran. Now, some are hoping it can help avoid a global warming catastrophe.
In Uranium, Tom Zoellner takes readers around the globe in this intriguing look at the mineral that can sustain life or destroy it.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
 The history of an overburdened nucleus (3.5 stars) September 24, 2009
J. Green (Los Angeles, California)
First of all, this book is *not* a science book. Instead, it is a somewhat meandering history of the use of uranium, particularly as it relates to U-238 and U-235 used in nuclear fission reactions. Initially, uranium was used for little except as an occasional colorant in stained glass, but in 1934 Enrico Fermi discovered the instability of it's atom and the potential use in bombs. Zoellner discusses the history of mining uranium in Joachimsthal (Czeck Republic), Shinkolobwe (Congo), Australia, and Moab (Utah), but much of the book discusses weapon use, starting with the Manhattan Project and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan, and then moving variously to Pakistan's nuclear program and Iraqi and Iranian efforts.
While variously interesting, Zoellner focuses mostly on sensational stories, even discussing a Japanese doomsday cult which sought a nuclear bomb but instead settled for using sarin gas. Even the historical stories seem to lean towards the sensational and feel incomplete (there was no mention of a 1950's proposal to use a nuclear weapon to create a large port in Alaska). And while he critically analyzes the US nuclear build up (including the silly government advice to "avoid panic and you'll come through alright"), there is little information on the parallel build up by the USSR except as it related to the Joachimsthal mine or the currently sloppy security in the former republic of Georgia. Discussions of nuclear electricity and questions of waste disposal are thin, and Homer Simpson rates a mention but Chernobyl gets barely a paragraph.
While I was initially enthusiastic about this book, it soon grew dull and at times it sounds more like a travelogue than a history. I listened to the audio book and by the end was setting the speed faster to finish quicker. The reader does a good job, even reading quotes in various accents. I originally found this annoying - he'd speak with accents in German, Russian, Pakistani, Middle Eastern, Australian, American cowboy, George Bush, etc. - but I must admit that it helped to keep it clearer who he was talking about.
 A great work of journalism about the metal itself August 25, 2009
Zachary Moitoza (Eugene, OR)
Where "Uranium" stands out is in its discussion of mining, geopolitics, and the history of uranium metal. The book starts out with a well written discussion of how uranium-- once seen as worthless dirt useful only for painting-- was later transformed into one of the most valuable materials on the planet. At first for its decay-product radium, and later for its trace element U-235, which can be used for bombs. Most uranium is U-238, but less than 1% is the fissile U-235 that when "enriched" to a higher concentration can be used for bombs or power generation in light water reactors.
After its discussion of the history of the metal, the book focuses on how mining for the metal was ramped up around the world due to its new value. The author travelled to Africa and Australia, and gives first-hand impressions of what mining for the metal is like.
Surprisingly, mining the metal is extremely controversial. In Australia, Tom talks about how environmentalists see mining uranium as damaging aboriginal lands, and promoting nuclear technology that won't fight off global warming. If only the greens felt the same way about coal mining in Australia-- the nation's principle source of power generation. The Author also provides proof-positive evidence that Saddam Hussein was not seeking weapons of mass destruction, and how the notion that uranium mining in Africa could have been used to provide "yellowcake" for Saddam was ludicrous and couldn't have been easily concealed, another highlight of the book.
Sadly, the book is lacking in its discussion of nuclear power technology, and only briefly discusses the "nuclear renaissance" at the very end of the book, and how there is growing interest for this low-carbon technology around the world. There is no mention of breeder reactors or how uranium 238 can be used to fuel generation IV plants that solve the traditional problems associated with nuclear. If someone is interested only in information about the latest in nuclear technology, I would recommend "Prescription for the Planet," by Tom Blees. Nevertheless, this timely book is a fascinating contribution to the history and mining of the metal itself.
More Travelogue than anything serious - misses the real issue August 11, 2009
Joseph Somsel (Silicon Valley, California)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Guess it depends on what you're looking for. Just don't look for too much science in this book. You will find entertaining stories and anecdotes as well as a bunch of travelogues. This is not a serious book - it's journalism in hard cover.
The author is a newspaper reporter and magazine editor writing on the beach in Northern California (literally) but, mercifully, he avoids the knee-jerk environmentalism and turns in a fairly balanced work. He does makes some boners like comparing occupational hazards of early US underground mining for uranium with mining slave labor behind the Iron Curtain. They are comparable neither in moral equivalency nor in quantified loss of life.
As someone with a little background in the subject, he's sloppier in terminology and scientific concepts that I would like and has a weakness for purple prose.
If you're looking for WHY uranium is so significant to the human race, he talks about the Bomb but does a lesser job on the core fact that some of the advocates he quotes only hint at. The discovery of nuclear energy really can be a game changer for the human race. We've only the most clumsy applications so far - I know, I'm a nuclear engineer - but a universe awaits us.
Why don't we have more than 20% of country's electricity come from uranium? Why don't we have nuclear rockets to shuttle us to the Moon and Mars? (They were ready for flight-testing in 1972!) Why aren't we rushing to build pebble reactors to make gasoline from water and coal via nuclear heat?
The book was a quick read and entertaining but again, hardly touches the real issues we must struggle with.
One quibble with the editor and not the author - why can't we have a cover photo with adequate depth of field so that the rock is all in focus? It is set up for eye strain now.
The Rock that changed really the World August 7, 2009
Thomas H. Cozine
What a fantastic read, especially the first several chapters that explain the discovery of uranium,culminating with the bombing of Japan. The Book goes on to cover the post WW two developments of the Atomic age. Very well written in laymens terms.
The Global Story of Uranium August 7, 2009
G. Poirier (Orleans, ON, Canada)
In his quest to paint as complete a picture as possible of this important element, the author begins his story in the Middle Ages and ends it in the present. Although most of the developments that one would expect in such a narrative are covered at least to some degree, i.e., discovery of radioactivity, discovery of fission and the development and use of the atomic bomb, other aspects of uranium figure much more prominently in the book. These include: the prospecting, discovery and mining of uranium, uranium mine locations in the world, the politics involved, the economic and sociological aspects, etc.; nuclear power is also discussed but to a much lesser extent. The author does a good job of explaining some of the scientific aspects of uranium at a level suitable for a general audience. However, those excursions are few and brief. In fact, a few are a bit too brief to be meaningful. The writing style is quite lively, clear, friendly, very accessible and engaging. Very little jargon is used, but when it is the terms are fully and clearly explained. This book can be enjoyed by anyone, but those interested in current affairs will likely appreciate it the most.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
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