I finished reading this book about Admiral Hyman Rickover, father of naval nuclear propulsion, and about the deadly reactor accident that took the lives of the only three people to die this way in the U.S. The author is Todd Tucker.
Up until reading this book I had read only anecdotally about the nuclear accident at the facility near Idaho Falls, Idaho, on Jan 3, 1961. This book goes into occasionally gruesome details to explain what most likely happened, contrary to the often claimed murder/suicide.
A large part of this book is devoted to Adm. Hyman Rickover, and his criticisms of just about everything, including nuclear power. He managed to get the U.S. Navy submarine fleet under nuclear power. Despite his shortcomings and habit of irritating people, he truly was an amazing man.
I recommend Atomic America as a history and biography of events and people in nuclear power.
Another book I finished recently is The Great Transition by L. Brown, et. al. It is about the transition from fossil fuels to renewable fuels like solar and wind. This isn’t the first book of his that I’ve read. In all fairness I have to say this book is one-sided. They talk about the advantages of renewables, but fail to mention their drawbacks. They discuss nuclear power, and I’m afraid it doesn’t sound optimistic. They point out the long construction times, excessive cost overruns, and unpopularity of nuclear power. Environmentalists, NIMBYs, and spent fuel disposal issues, too. It doesn’t look like nuclear power has a future.
