Nuclear Energy

 

    Kean covers many topics throughout his book, but one of the most interesting is nuclear energy and how it relates to the world. Kean really first dives into nuclear energy when he talks about the development of fission bombs in the 1940's. He quickly covers the Manhattan project before moving onto talking about cobalt bombs, which in a manner of speaking salt the Earth so that the target will not only be destroyed but will also be impossible to survive in for at least a human lifetime and does not even mention how long the land would take to recover fully. Kean mentions that as far as the public knows no cobalt bomb has ever been in development which really makes me curios as to if any country has secretly developed one but never brought it to light. Kean eventually dives into alpha partials and how scientists used them to bombard molecules of plutonium which leads into alpha decay, and the discovery of americium. Overall Kean's exploration of the topic of nuclear energy is very interesting and relates heavily to many of the current fears that have to do with nuclear weapons.