1981, ISBN: 9780878553792

Gebundene Ausgabe

New York: Oxford University Press. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. ix, [3], 393, [9] pages. Appendix. Notes. Essay on Sources. Bibliography. Index. Embosse… Mehr…

New York: Oxford University Press. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. ix, [3], 393, [9] pages. Appendix. Notes. Essay on Sources. Bibliography. Index. Embossed stamp cut out of title page. DJ has some wear, soiling, edge tears, and chips. Derived from a Kirkus review: Robert Divine, professor of history at the University of Texas, chronicles the political and scientific confrontations of the years between 1954 and 1960 as the U.S. and Russia wrestled over disarmament and a nuclear test ban. Divine's detailed study taps public and private sources to reveal major confusion, indecision, and duplicity. The president was torn between a desire to limit arms and the fear of Russia. Public opinion vacillated from anxiety to apathy born of frustration and uncertainty. The scientific community itself was divided. The U.S. and the USSR would each make nuclear test ban overtures immediately following their latest round of not-very-clean nuclear tests. Positions finally relaxed but then came the U-2 incident and the crumbling of the Paris summit. Divine writes with admirable clarity and is critical of both sides. Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that developed nuclear weapons tested them. Testing nuclear weapons can yield information about how the weapons work, as well as how the weapons behave under various conditions and how personnel, structures, and equipment behave when subjected to nuclear explosions. Nuclear testing has often been used as an indicator of scientific and military strength, and many tests have been overtly political in their intention; most nuclear weapons states publicly declared their nuclear status by means of a nuclear test. The first nuclear device was detonated as a test by the United States at the Trinity site on July 16, 1945, with a yield approximately equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT. The first thermonuclear weapon technology test of engineer device, codenamed "Ivy Mike", was tested at the Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands on November 1, 1952 (local date), also by the United States. The largest nuclear weapon ever tested was the "Tsar Bomba" of the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemlya on October 30, 1961, with the largest yield ever seen, an estimated 50-58 megatons. In 1963, three (UK, US, Soviet Union) of the four nuclear states and many non-nuclear states signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, pledging to refrain from testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, or in outer space. The treaty permitted underground nuclear testing. France continued atmospheric testing until 1974, and China continued until 1980. Neither has signed the treaty. Atomic and nuclear tests can involve many hazards. Some of these were illustrated in the U.S. Castle Bravo test in 1954. The weapon design tested was a new form of hydrogen bomb, and the scientists underestimated how vigorously some of the weapon materials would react. As a result, the explosionwith a yield of 15 Mtwas over twice what was predicted. Aside from this problem, the weapon also generated a large amount of radioactive nuclear fallout, more than had been anticipated, and a change in the weather pattern caused the fallout to spread in a direction not cleared in advance. The fallout plume spread high levels of radiation for over a hundred miles, contaminating a number of populated islands in nearby atoll formations. Though they were soon evacuated, many of the islands' inhabitants suffered from radiation burns and later from other effects such as increased cancer rate and birth defects, as did the crew of the Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukury Maru. One crewman died from radiation sickness after returning to port, and it was feared that the radioactive fish they had been carrying had made it into the Japanese food supply. Because of concerns about worldwide fallout levels, the Partial Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963. Above are the per capita thyroid doses (in rads) in the continental United States resulting from all exposure routes from all atmospheric nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site from 1951-1962. Castle Bravo was the worst U.S. nuclear accident, but many of its component problemsunpredictably large yields, changing weather patterns, unexpected fallout contamination of populations and the food supplyoccurred during other atmospheric nuclear weapons tests by other countries as well. Concerns over worldwide fallout rates eventually led to the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which limited signatories to underground testing. Not all countries stopped atmospheric testing, but because the United States and the Soviet Union were responsible for roughly 86% of all nuclear tests, their compliance cut the overall level substantially. France continued atmospheric testing until 1974, and China until 1980., Oxford University Press, 2.5, Transaction Publishers, 1981-01-01. Hardcover. Good., Transaction Publishers, 1981-01-01, 2.5<

1981, ISBN: 9780878553792

Transaction Publishers, 1981-01-01. Hardcover. Good., Transaction Publishers, 1981-01-01, 2.5