28
Dec
The New World of the Atom
I needed a quick read while brushing my teeth so I chose this book I’ve been carrying around since I was probably in elementary school. I remember picking it up at a library book givaway but it’s one I never got around to reading. It’s hard to tell if it’s trying to get young people interested in the nuclear industry or if it’s just trying to assure people that it’s safe and useful so get used to it.
Information wise it’s good. I didn’t know that radioactive sources were used in paper and steel mills to detect that the sheets are the correct thickness. And I didn’t know that we had used radioactive tagging to determine what plants absorb and in what quantities to determine the optimal fertilizer. Some of it is out dated because I don’t think we put small radioactive quantities into gas and oil pipelines to trigger a switch to redirect slow down the line. Seems like that would be some computer control now. It briefly goes over problems and dangers, usually followed by how quickly and effectively they can be cleaned up.