
Atoms and Ashes
A Global History of Nuclear Disasters
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Narrated by:
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Leighton Pugh
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By:
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Serhii Plokhy
About this listen
A chilling account of seventy years of nuclear catastrophes, by the author of the “definitive” (Economist) Cold War history, Nuclear Folly.
Nuclear energy was embraced across the globe at the height of the nuclear industry in the 1960s and 1970s; today, there are 440 nuclear reactors operating throughout the world, with nuclear power providing ten percent of world electricity. Yet as the world seeks to reduce carbon emissions to combat climate change, the question arises: Just how safe is nuclear energy?
Atoms and Ashes recounts the dramatic history of nuclear accidents that have dogged the industry in its military and civil incarnations since the 1950s. Through the stories of six terrifying major incidents—Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima—Cold War expert Serhii Plokhy explores the risks of nuclear power, both for military and peaceful purposes, while offering a vivid account of how individuals and governments make decisions under extraordinary circumstances. Atoms and Ashes provides a crucial perspective on the most dangerous nuclear disasters of the past in order to safeguard our future.
©2022 Serhii Polkhy (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Fascinating Insider Story
- By Terry Masters on 12-07-17
By: Daniel Ellsberg
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Atomic Accidents
- A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters; From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima
- By: James Mahaffey
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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A NUCLEAR POINT OF VIEW
- By chetyarbrough.blog on 01-05-15
By: James Mahaffey
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Atomic Awakening
- A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power
- By: James Mahaffey
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The American public's introduction to nuclear technology was manifested in destruction and death. With Hiroshima and the Cold War still ringing in our ears, our perception of all things nuclear is seen through the lens of weapons development. Nuclear power is full of mind-bending theories, deep secrets, and the misdirection of public consciousness - some deliberate, some accidental. The result of this fixation on bombs and fallout is that the development of a non-polluting, renewable energy source stands frozen in time.
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Great book. Atrocious robot narration.
- By Ted on 07-11-19
By: James Mahaffey
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Command and Control
- Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
- By: Eric Schlosser
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind.
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A miracle that we escaped the Cold War alive....
- By A reader on 02-16-14
By: Eric Schlosser
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The Button
- The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump
- By: William J. Perry, Tom Z. Collina
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Written in an accessible and authoritative voice, The Button reveals the shocking tales and sobering facts of nuclear executive authority throughout the atomic age, delivering a powerful condemnation against ever leaving explosive power this devastating under any one person's thumb.
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Garbage political tripe
- By Bryan Beaty on 03-15-21
By: William J. Perry, and others
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The Russo-Ukrainian War
- The Return of History
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Despite repeated warnings from the White House, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shocked the world. Why did Putin start the war—and why has it unfolded in previously unimaginable ways? Ukrainians have resisted a superior military; the West has united, while Russia grows increasingly isolated. Serhii Plokhy, a leading historian of Ukraine and the Cold War, offers a definitive account of this conflict, its origins, course, and the already apparent and possible future consequences.
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Plokhy delivers as always!
- By Kristinka on 05-20-23
By: Serhii Plokhy
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The Apocalypse Factory
- Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age
- By: Steve Olson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce and weaponize the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs.
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Lacking in many aspects
- By ATM on 08-27-20
By: Steve Olson
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Not One Inch
- America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate
- By: M.E. Sarotte
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on over a hundred interviews and on secret records of White House-Kremlin contacts, Not One Inch shows how the United States successfully overcame Russian resistance in the 1990s to expand NATO to more than 900 million people. But it also reveals how Washington's hardball tactics transformed the era between the Cold War and the present day, undermining what could have become a lasting partnership.
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America's NATO problem
- By Jeffrey D on 03-24-22
By: M.E. Sarotte
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A Thousand Pounds of Dynamite
- By: Adam Higginbotham
- Narrated by: Adam Higginbotham
- Length: 2 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The bomb appeared early one morning in an upstairs office of Harvey’s Wagon Wheel Casino near Lake Tahoe, an enigmatic box covered in a bewildering array of switches. A neatly typed letter explained that the box contained 1,000 pounds of dynamite. It was the largest improvised explosive device in American history - and its creator promised to explain how to remove it safely if the casino delivered $3 million by helicopter to a remote landing site in the mountains.
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Great
- By Red Plammer on 10-24-16
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Chernobyl Roulette
- War in the Nuclear Disaster Zone
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: David Furr
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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A harrowing account of Russia’s occupation of the Chernobyl and Zaporizhia nuclear power plants and the dangers of nuclear power colliding with warfare.
By: Serhii Plokhy
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The Cold War
- A World History
- By: Odd Arne Westad
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 22 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Cold War, Odd Arne Westad offers a new perspective on a century when a superpower rivalry and an ideological war transformed every corner of our globe. We traditionally think of the Cold War as a post-World War II diplomatic and military conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. But in this major new work, Westad argues that the conflict must be understood as a global ideological confrontation with roots in the industrial revolution and with continuing implications for the world today.
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A lenghy treatise on the Cold War
- By Donald Hill on 11-21-17
By: Odd Arne Westad
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Homelands
- A Personal History of Europe
- By: Timothy Garton Ash
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Timothy Garton Ash, Europe's "historian of the present," has been "breathing Europe" for the last half century. In Homelands he embarks on a journey in time and space around the postwar continent, drawing on his own notes from many great events, giving vivid firsthand accounts of its leading actors, revisiting the places where its history was made, and recalling its triumphs and tragedies through their imprint on the present.
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Europe
- By Holden on 08-17-24
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Meltdown
- Nuclear Disaster and the Human Cost of Going Critical
- By: Joel Levy
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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From the pioneers of Los Alamos who got up close and personal with the cores of atomic bombs, to the hapless engineers in Soviet fuel-processing plants who unwittingly mixed up a disaster in a bucket, and from the terrifying impact of a tsunami at Fukushima to the mystery of the recent Russian incident, Meltdown explores the past and future of this extraordinary and potentially lethal source of infinite power
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A less well written version of another book
- By Amazon Customer on 01-10-22
By: Joel Levy
This book has the right balance between science, history and even dramatic elements that most readers should appreciate. The narration by Leighton Pugh is very calming and comfortable.
I am pleased to recommend this book.
Excellent Deep Dive Into Nuclear Accidents of the Nuclear Age
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Edge of your seat history
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that just really like this book
Great book
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Read by someone with a British accent which was a little annoying at times, but that’s coming from and American.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Fantastic
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Great read
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behind the scenes info
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The PBS show on the Novarka lead effort to buy up to one hundred years of shelter for the Chernobyl site is a fine accompaniment to this serious work by the fine author.
Chernobyl has been sheltered but the long term storage issue is apparently going to land in our descendent’s lap.
We are all downwinders.
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This was a pretty sensational and biased book.
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not bad, but missing some stuff
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