Poison in the well [[electronic resource] ] : radioactive waste in the oceans at the dawn of the nuclear age / / Jacob Darwin Hamblin

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910782101403321
• Autore: Hamblin Jacob Darwin
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New Brunswick, N.J., : Rutgers University Press, c2008
• ISBN: 1-281-39720-2; 9786611397203; 0-8135-4423-8
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (326 p.)
• Disciplina: 363.72/8909162
• Soggetti: Radioactive waste disposal in the ocean
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-299) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Threshold Illusions -- Chapter 2. Radiation Anxieties -- Chapter 3. The Other Atomic Scientists -- Chapter 4. Forging an International Consensus -- Chapter 5. No Atomic Graveyards -- Chapter 6. The Environment as Cold War Terrain -- Chapter 7. Purely for Political Reasons -- Chapter 8. Confronting Environmentalism -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: In the early 1990's, Russian President Boris Yeltsin revealed that for the previous thirty years the Soviet Union had dumped vast amounts of dangerous radioactive waste into rivers and seas in blatant violation of international agreements. The disclosure caused outrage throughout the Western world, particularly since officials from the Soviet Union had denounced environmental pollution by the United States and Britain throughout the cold war. Poison in the Well provides a balanced look at the policy decisions, scientific conflicts, public relations strategies, and the myriad mishaps and subsequent cover-ups that were born out of the dilemma of where to house deadly nuclear materials. Why did scientists and politicians choose the sea for waste disposal? How did negotiations about the uses of the sea change the way scientists, government officials, and ultimately the lay public envisioned the oceans? Jacob Darwin Hamblin traces the development of the issue in Western countries from the end of World War II to the blossoming of ; the environmental movement in the early 1970's. This is an important book for students and scholars in the history of science who want to explore a striking case study of the conflicts that so often occur at the intersection of science, politics, and international diplomacy.