Though the rise of science and scientific thinking were the intellectual spurs for the Industrial Revolution, without which we would not have a modern world, industrialization would not have ignited without hydrocarbons to fuel it. Even today, oil, coal and natural gas are our energy mainstays because they are easily utilized. Even in their simplest forms, they need only be burned to produce useful energy. But while hydrocarbons are the dencist and most abundant form of energy on Earth, they are not the most powerful. That title goes to Uranium which, when refined to Uranium-235, can produce energy output, in the form of nuclear fission, magnitudes larger than hydrocarbons. In this, Uranium represents both our possible salvation and our potential demise.
Mr. Zoellner's excellent history of Uranium invites the reader back into the late middle ages where prospectors for silver discovered Uranium in Europe. Ignorant to the rock's potential, it was denigrated as ad luck and disregarded for centuries until the discovery of the atom, its form, its function, and its potential, allowed 20th century scientists to conceive of nuclear fission. While highlighting Uranium's key figures, scientists and prospectors, Mr. Zoellner educates us on the process that makes Uranium so potent. For making up .72 percent of Uranium is U-235, a heavy atom which, when it breaks apart, emits neutrons that are capable of penetrating and destabilizing other atoms of U-235, causing a chain reaction that, if properly controlled, leads to self-sustaining nuclear fission. Given that Uranium occurs naturally in nature, one might expect to find nuclear fission wherever one finds Uranium, but except for one or two ancient cases, uranium does not have enough U-235 inside it to reach criticality. Which is where modern science steps in with its centrifuges, refining the metal down into bricks of enriched uranium which have, so far, been put to two uses: the powering of peaceful, nuclear reactors or, as has happened twice in human history, the fuelling of bombs capable of annihilating entire cities.
This is a thorough history. Mr. Zoellner spends a great deal of time on the Manhattan Project which was the first, widespread effort to sound out the awesome power of Uranium. But unlike many historians who are too entrenched in an American-centric world to include in their materials anything beyond the borders of the United States, Mr. Zoellner travels to Africa, Australia and Europe in a heartfelt effort to grasp what uranium has meant to the world and what it will mean to its future. In doing so, he details Stalinist Russia's horrific campaign to mine Uranium with sacrificial slave labor. But while the history and the science educate, at the core of this piece is the idea that Uranium may be the one great hope for humanity's ever-increasing energy requirements. Mr. Zoellner does his best to stay neutral in the question, but his numerous interviews make it clear that many experts believe that Uranium is the future. For though the use of U-235 as nuclear fuel creates harmful radioactive waste, it does not produce green-house emissions. More over, it produces a staggering amount of energy, blowing hydrocarbons out of the water. A single ton of Uranium generates as much energy as 20,000 tons of coal.
We're all looking for a solution to a broken energy system. The world's population is growing which means the world's energy requirements are growing as well. The more hydrocarbons we use, the more we pollute the planet, the hotter we make the environment, the more species we kill, the closer we get to oblivion. Uranium may not be a solution, but it may buy us enough time to bridge the gap between hydrocarbons and space-based solar, or whatever the future, clean energy will be. But will disasters like the one in Japan doom uranium and doom us in the process? Maybe. Only time will tell.
This is a wonderful book, history, science, environmentalism, exploitation of populations... It's all here, superbly knitted together. Congratulations, Mr. Zoellner. This is first-rate. (5/5 Stars)
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