Book Review: Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History by Emily Strasser (2023)

Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History by Emily Strasser (Copyright 2023)

Reviewed by Sharon and Ace Hoffman

Half-Life of a Secret is both a history of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and a Strasser family memoir.

In late 1943, George Strasser (the author’s grandfather) was recruited to ORNL as a “Jr. Chemist #2” working on uranium enrichment for Little Boy (the bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945).

When Emily Strasser learned the history of atomic weapons in high school and college, she became curious about her personal connection to that history. She visited Hiroshima and talked with survivors of the atomic bombing. She also studied people outside ORNL who made the Hiroshima bombing possible. For example, she learned that most of the uranium for Little Boy was mined in The Congo under brutal conditions. She learned that non-white Manhattan Project scientists were not allowed to transfer to ORNL.

Congolese miners were given no protection from the radioactive dust and may have received “ … a year of radiation exposure in … just two weeks … ” (page 69). (The radiation exposure limits are not specified, but Strasser cites “Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade (copyright 2012 by Gabrielle Hecht) as the source.)

Strasser recognizes that her family was privileged -- both because of their race (white) and because of her grandfather’s position. Access to jobs at ORNL during WWII was segregated, as were housing and community services -- despite a directive from President Roosevelt that: “ … there would be no discrimination in the defense industries” (page 55).

Beginning in 1952, Strasser’s grandfather supervised isolation of Lithium-6 for Hydrogen bombs at Y-12 using the column-exchange (Colex) process, which requires large amounts of mercury. The scientists at ORNL understood the dangers of working with mercury, but “… hydrogen bombs need lithium, and lithium required mercury” (page 193).

Because mercury is a dense, liquid metal, it: “ … strained pumps and valves, burst through pipes … collected in storm sewers and drain lines” (page 194). Strasser learned from a doctor she interviewed that her grandfather felt guilty about the mercury leaks that occurred under his supervision.

Throughout its operations, ORNL contaminated the surrounding area with toxic chemicals and radioactive materials. Strasser remembers seeing deer near her grandmother’s lake house as a child, and later learned that deer killed there were routinely tested for radiation. She met with activists working to protect people and the environment, and to get compensation for people who have suffered health consequences as a result of working at, or living near, ORNL.

Looking at her grandfather’s health records, Strasser wonders if his immune system might have been affected by his exposure to radiation and toxic chemicals at ORNL. She also considers whether her grandfather’s extended treatment for colds and flu might have been used to disguise his mental health issues. George Strasser retired from ORNL in 1974 with total, permanent disability, and his family assumes that his colleagues covered for him until his pension was assured.

Strasser’s mother is a founding member of Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament, and her mother met her grandfather just once, in 1983. When her fellow activists pressed him about the morality of nuclear bombs, George Strasser told them that “… no country should possess nuclear weapons …” (page 264) and that the U.S. should disarm – unilaterally, if necessary.

Half-Life of a Secret isn’t a traditional book about nuclear weapons or nuclear pollution. It explores the individual histories that are intertwined with the history of atomic weapons. It can be a tough read, but provides a personal perspective that is hard to find in the secretive world of nuclear weapons production.

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Ace Hoffman, Carlsbad, California USA

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Ace Hoffman
Carlsbad, California USA
Author, The Code Killers:
An Expose of the Nuclear Industry
Free download: acehoffman.org
Blog: acehoffman.blogspot.com
YouTube: youtube.com/user/AceHoffman
Email: ace [at] acehoffman.org
Founder & Owner, The Animated Software Company

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Book Review: Nuclear Is Not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change

Copyright: 2024 by M.V. Ramana

Reviewed by Sharon and Ace Hoffman

Physicist M.V. Ramana has studied nuclear power policies worldwide. Currently Ramana is a professor of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia. Previous positions include researcher at the Princeton Program on Science and Global Security and at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development, Bangalore, India. Accolades include a Guggenheim Fellowship and the American Physical Society’s Leo Szilard Award.

Ramana's most recent book, Nuclear Is Not the Solution, shows why nuclear power cannot combat climate change and has no place in the planet’s energy portfolio: It costs too much, takes too long to build, encourages weapons proliferation, and contaminates the environment.

People who promote nuclear power often start with the lie that it is clean energy. Ramana refutes this by describing the environmental destruction nuclear power actually causes, starting with mining uranium ore and continuing through each phase, including the unsolvable problem it leaves: “… we can neither unmake radioactive wastes once they are created nor bury them in a manner that we can be absolutely sure they will never come back out.” (page 61).

He describes the powerful economic and political forces that promote nuclear power, and exposes the false promises of “small-modular reactors” (“SMRs”) and other supposedly “advanced” designs such as liquid sodium reactors. These designs do not address the underlying problems with nuclear power – and they've all already been tried – unsuccessfully – in the past.

It takes nearly a decade to build a typical nuclear power plant, whereas utility-scale wind or solar can be built in under two years. When planning, permitting and financing are included, the disparity is even larger. Climate solutions cannot wait.

Nuclear Is Not the Solution makes obvious what nuclear proponents try to ignore: “… today the most cost-effective and quickest way of reducing air pollution is to replace coal and natural gas with renewable sources of power.” (page 45).

Nuclear energy in the United States costs $168/kWh (2021 data), while wind-generated energy costs $38/kWh and utility-scale solar energy costs $34/kWh. Renewable energy prices are declining while the cost of nuclear power continues to increase.

Why do governments continue to pour money into nuclear power? One reason is the connection between nuclear power and nuclear weapons, including guaranteed jobs for nuclear plant operators when they leave the military.

Politicians and government agencies are also influenced by corporations and by wealthy individuals who have a stake in nuclear projects. The potential profit equation is simple: government subsidies, guaranteed customers, and indemnity from risk. All governments severely limit potential payouts from nuclear accidents (in the U.S. this is done through the Price-Anderson Act).

In addition to economics, Nuclear Is Not the Solution covers the inevitability of future nuclear accidents: “Accidents, almost by definition, are chaotic, occurring due to reasons that engineers fail to consider …”. (page 39) As a Fukushima protester’s sign says: “They say that the probability of a reactor meltdown is one in a million years / In my lifetime, three meltdowns.” (page 26)

As in his previous books and articles, Ramana's writing is clear and concise. He also provides numerous references to back up his conclusions about nuclear power.

If you only read one book on nuclear energy – or even if you've read hundreds of books on the subject, THIS is one of the best, both to read, and to recommend to anyone you know who wants to learn the truth about nuclear power.

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Also by M. V. Ramana (and also excellent!):
The Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy In India (2012)

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Book review: Worst Case Scenario by T. J. Newman (reviewed by Sharon and Ace Hoffman)

“Worst Case Scenario” by T. J. Newman (Copyright 2024)

Reviewed by Sharon and Ace Hoffman, December 24, 2024

NOTE: This review was posted prior to learning that Russia had downed yet another civilian airliner -- Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer ERJ-190AR (4K-AZ65). Known previous civilian planes shot down by Russia are Korean Air 007 & Malasian Airlines MH17.

Worst Case Scenario is a gripping fictional story about a commercial airline crash. Airline crashes happen with infrequent regularity, but in Worst Case Scenario, much of the debris from the crash impacts a nuclear power station with three operating reactors, three overcrowded spent-fuel pools, and on-site nuclear-waste dry-storage casks.

Unfortunately, such an event is very credible: There are over 45,000 commercial flights per day in the United States and over 90 operating reactors. In November 1972, hijackers considered crashing the plane they had taken over into nuclear facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The author is a former flight-attendant, and asked some of the pilots she flew with a question: “What’s your biggest fear as a pilot?” One replied: “My biggest fear is a commercial jet slamming into a nuclear power plant.” When Newman responded that such a scenario seemed impossible after 9-11, the pilot answered: “And that’s exactly what they want you to believe.” Indeed: The nuclear establishment has always treated low-probability incidents such as large earthquakes and airplane strikes as if they are impossible, rather than merely unlikely.

In the immediate aftermath of the fictional airplane crash, the station manager tells a shocked U.S. President that if a spent-fuel pool loses its water, the resulting fire would make one think: “Chernobyl was a campfire.” He explains that losing water in one spent-fuel pool would inevitably lead to cascading fires and explosions at all three spent-fuel pools, and all three reactors would soon also melt down, producing “an uncontrollable spread of invisible, toxic, cancer-causing radioactive particulates...”.

Newman’s story takes place on the banks of the Mississippi River. There are currently five operating commercial nuclear reactors located along the Mississippi River. A Worst Case Scenario at any of them would contaminate every city downstream and downwind of the event.

Newman emphasizes the complacent attitudes people have about nuclear power. A fictional scientist from the Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) had tried to convince regulators and the nuclear industry to pay attention to “low-probability, high-consequence” events but was ignored. (NEST is a real agency (https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nuclear-emergency-support-team-nest).) When the NEST scientist questions the station manager about the tight packing of nuclear fuel rods in the spent fuel pools, the manager explains that there’s no more space at the site for more dry casks. As real-life regulators keep extending licenses for nuclear power plants to 80 and even 100 years or more, this is a realistic situation.

Newman explores additional consequences of the accident. A first-grade teacher looks at her students and thinks about how much more vulnerable their growing bodies are to radiation than her own.

The risks from cascading failures is an important theme of the book. The emergency generators at the nuclear station crank up as soon as offsite power is lost, but nobody knows if the connection to the power grid can be repaired, or additional fuel brought to the site in time to avoid catastrophic problems when fuel runs out.

At Fukushima in 2011, flooding destroyed the emergency generators, which led to all three meltdowns. At Three Mile Island (TMI) a valve which should have closed automatically remained stuck in the open position, but the control panel indicated that the valve was closed. Another indicator light was hidden by a maintenance tag, causing the operators to miss important data. Given the confusing information, reactor operators mistakenly followed Naval reactor training which did not apply to the situation at TMI.

A potential nuclear disaster is one of two major story lines in Newman's book, which also focuses on the personal relationships between the characters. A collection of heroic actions and unlikely coincidences help avert an even worse catastrophe. But anyone reading the book can realize that it won't always work out that way.

After 9-11 the NRC and the nuclear industry were desperate to avoid explaining what would have happened if the planes had attacked the reactors at Indian Point, or if the plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania had instead crashed into TMI (possibly the hijacker's actual intention). Worst Case Scenario does a great job of showing that official information about nuclear safety is intentionally misleading. In an early scene the station manager admits to himself that: “… everyone who worked in nuclear power knew: The ‘tests’ the government had run in the wake of September 11 … were at best incomplete and at worst suspect. ... used small planes traveling only up to three hundred miles per hour.”

If an airplane (or a missile, tsunami, hurricane, tornado, or asteroid, or…) were to strike a nuclear power facility, it would, indeed, be a "Worst Case Scenario." Fortunately, so far, the book is still fiction.

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Notes:

For a unique perspective explaining why the TMI operators failed to recognize what was happening see: https://www.ans.org/news/article-1556/tmi-operators-did-what-they-were-trained-to-do/.

The possibility of an airplane crashing into a commercial nuclear power plant is nothing new and was well-known long before 9-11 -- although of course the nuclear industry and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have always downplayed the possibility of such an incident – whether accidental or intentional.

One thing that’s seldom discussed, but is emphasized in “Worst Case Scenario” is that if an airplane hit the spent fuel it could actually be WORSE, than if an airplane hit a reactor. There are several reasons this is true including the domes protecting the reactor. In addition, there's much more radioactivity in the waste than in the reactor. (That's why, first and foremost, we have to stop making more nuclear waste.)

The closest the world has come to a plane crashing into a nuclear power plant occurred on November 11, 1972 when a hijacker threatened to crash a plane into the nuclear facilities at Oak Ridge, specifically the High Flux Isotope Reactor. (The non-fiction book about this incident is “Odyssey of Terror” by Ed Blair with William R. Haas.)

Sooner or late an airplane will crash into a wind turbine, and the wind turbine will be blamed for causing the crash…but when an airplane crashes into a nuclear waste dump, the pilot will be blamed, or air traffic control, or the aircraft manufacturer...anyone except the reactor company which is responsible for putting a hazard in harms way and not protecting it properly from the inevitable.

Pictured: Still image from a 2005 animation, "One Bad Day at San Onofre" by Ace Hoffman. An airplane is about to strike the north dome, a terrorist is about to come into view, attacking from the south to lob mortars at the plant, an asteroid has destroyed the south dome and that reactor is on fire and melting down. An earthquake, tsunami and tornado are also arriving...and the operators probably got nervous and are pushing the wrong buttons.