Spirit of America Bookstore

    Atomic  U.S.A.    
• Page One •

general links & books atomic fiction atomic cinema Atomic U.S.A. Timeline XXIst Century events Los Alamos & the Manhattan Project other secret locations J. Robert Oppenheimer Page Julius & Ethel Rosenberg image gallery on Page 2: top of page Trinity Test Site in NM Hiroshima & Nagasaki Pacific Island Tests the hydrogen bomb civil defense, daily life & aftermath atomic energy / nuclear disasters

“The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.”
— Carl Sagan [1934-96]

General  Links  &  Books

Wikipedia's list of anti-nuclear advocates in the U.S.
A-bomb WWW Museum in Japan
Atomic Photographers Guild [est. 1991]
National Atomic Testing Museum [est. 2005], 755 E. Flamingo Road in Las Vegas, Nevada
National Museum of Nuclear Science & History [est. 1969, opened 2009] in Albuquerque, New Mexico

details of 'Divine Strake' simulated atomic bomb test in Nevada set for 23 June 2006
protest group Western Shoshone Defense Project

Military / Weapons / Nuclear books catalog at Amazon

	"One World or None: A Report To The Public On The Full Meaning of The Atomic Bomb" [1946 New York Times bestseller] Edited by Dexter Masters & Katherine Way Original edition includes Foreword by Niels Bohr, Introduction by Arthur H. Compton, articles & essays by Gen. H.H. 'Hap' Arnold, Hans Bethe, E.U. Condon, Albert Einstein, Irving Langmuir, Walter Lippmann, Philip Morrison, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Louis N. Ridenour, Frederick Seitz, Harlow Shapley, Leo Szilard, Harold C. Urey, Eugene P. Wigner, and Gale Young; recent editions include a New Preface by Richard Rhodes McGraw-Hill Book Co. pb [1946] out of print/used The New Press 7½x5½ hardcover [9/2007] for $20.27 The New Press 7½x5½ hardcover [9/2007] out of print/used
	"A World Destroyed: Hiroshima & The Origins of The Arms Race" [1975] by Martin J. Sherwin Stanford Univ Press 8¾x5½ pb [8/2003] for $16.47 Stanford Univ Press 8¼x5½ pb [11/87] out of print/used
	"Atomic Soldiers: American Victims of Nuclear Experiments" [1979] by Howard L. Rosenberg, Introduction by Jack Anderson (the TV deal on the movie tie-in 1980 bookcover did not get made) Beacon Press 7½x5 pb [6/81] out of print/used Beacon Press pb [5/80] out of print/used Beacon Press pb [12/79] out of print/used
	"G.I. Guinea Pigs: How the Pentagon Exposed Our Troops to Dangers More Deadly Than War - Agent Orange and Atomic Radiation" [1980] by Michael Uhl & Tod Ensign Putnam Publng Group 8x5½ pb [11/80] out of print/used Playboy Press 8¼x5¾ hardcover [11/80] out of print/used Playboy Press 8¼x5¾ hardcover [11/80] out of print/used
	"Nuclear Power: Both Sides - The Best Arguments For and Against The Most Contro-versial Technology" [1982] Edited by Michio Kaku & Jennifer Trainer contributors include Hans A. Bethe, Ralph Nader W.W. Norton & Co. 9x6 pb [9/83] for $23.15 W.W. Norton & Co. hardcover [1982] out of print/many used
	"Countdown Zero: G.I. Victims of Atomic Testing" [1982] by Thomas H. Saffer & Orville E. Kelly, Introduction by Stewart L. Udall Penguin Books 7x5 pb [7/83] out of print/used Penguin Adult 8¾x5½ pb [5/82] out of print/used
	"The Wizards of Armageddon: The Untold Story of The Men Who Have Devised The Plans & Shaped The Policies On How To Use The Bomb" [1983] by Fred M. Kaplan A study of U.S. nuclear policy as devised & reshaped by a group of civilians at RAND Corp. [est. 1948] in Santa Monica, California Stanford Univ Press 9x6 pb [10/91] for $25.95 S&S 9¼x6 hardcover [1/83] out of print/used
	"The Deadly Connection: Nuclear War & US Intervention" [1983] from American Friends Service Committee {Quakers} Transcripts from the conference initiated by the A.F.S.C. New England Regional Office, held at M.I.T. December 4 & 5, 1982; includes articles and speeches by Norman Becker, Phil Berryman, Kassahun Checole, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Randall Forsberg, Jack O'Dell, Charles Planas New Society Publrs 8¼x5¾ pb [10/85] out of print/used A.F.S.C. 9x6 pb [1983] out of print/used A.F.S.C. pb [1983] out of print/scarce
	"Talking To Children About Nuclear War" [1984] by William Van Ornum & Mary Wicker Van Ornum Wipf & Stock Publng 9x6 pb [4/2002] for $18.00 Continuum Intl. Publng 8¾x6 pb [4/84] out of print/used Continuum Intl. Publng 9½x6½ hardcover [4/84] out of print/used
	"To Win A Nuclear War: The Pentagon's Secret War Plans" [1987] by Michio Kaku & Daniel Axelrod, Foreword by Ramsey Clark South End Press 8½x5½ pb [7/99] out of print/used South End Press 8½x5½ pb [7/99] out of print/used Black Rose Books, Canada 8¾x5½ hardcover [10/87] for $48.99
	"The Struggle Against The Bomb, Volume One: One World or None - A History of The World Nuclear Disarmament Movement Through 1953" [1993] by Lawrence S. Wittner Stanford Univ Press 12½x9¾ pb [1995] out of print/used Stanford Univ Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [9/93] for $80.75
	"The Struggle Against the Bomb, Volume 2: Resisting the Bomb - A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 1954-1970" [1997] by Lawrence S. Wittner Stanford Univ Press 9x6 pb [12/97] out of print/used Stanford Univ Press 9x6 hardcover [12/97] out of print/used
	"Breakdown: How The Secret of The Atomic Bomb Was Stolen" [1999] by Richard Melzer, PhD Sunstone Press 8½x5¼ pb [12/99] for $16.95
	"Nuclear Weapons" [2001] by William Lambers self-published 8¼x6¼ 3rd edition pb [5/2002] for $10.17 book & study guide & CD-ROM package self-published set [5/2003] for $24.95
	"Atomic Archive: History, Science, Consequences" CD-ROM [2002] by Chris Griffith A.J. Software & Multimedia CD-ROM [4/2002] for $19.77 official website
	"The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex" [2002, rev 2004] by Dr. Helen Caldicott New Press 8¼x5½ pb [4/2004] for $7.18 New Press 8¼x6¼ pb [4/2002] out of print/many used
	"The Struggle Against the Bomb, Volume 2: Toward Nuclear Abolition: A History of The World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 1971 to the Present" [2003] by Lawrence S. Wittner Stanford Univ Press 9x6 pb [8/2003] for $35.10 Stanford Univ Press 9½x6 hardcover [8/2003] for $82.00
	"The Bomb: A Life" [2005] by Gerard J. DeGroot Harvard Univ Press 9½x6½ hardcover [3/2005] for $18.45
	"Living Through The Cold War: Living Under The Threat of Nuclear War" [YA 2005] by Derek C. Maus Greenhaven Press hardcover [3/2005] for $35.75
	"The Survival Hot List: Conquering The Seven Deadly Trends" [2006] by Joseph A. Bagnall iUniverse 9x6 pb [1/2006] for $13.95 author's website
	"Spying On The Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence From Nazi Germany To Iran & North Korea" [2006] by Jeffrey T. Richelson W.W. Norton 9½x6½ hardcover [3/2006] for $22.02
	"The Atomic Bazaar: Dispatches From The Underground World of Nuclear Trafficking" [2007] by William Langewiesche FS&G 8x5½ pb [4/2008] for $8.83 FS&G 8¼x5¾ hardcover [5/2007] for $12.42
	"Arsenals of Folly: The Making of The Nuclear Arms Race" [2007] by Richard Rhodes Knopf 10x5¾ hardcover [10/2007] for $19.11
	"Hell's Fire: A Documentary History of The American Atomic Thermo-nuclear Weapons Projects, From Hiroshima To The Cold War & The War On Terror" [2008] Edited by Lenny Flank Red & Black Publrs 9x5¾ pb [3/2008] for $16.19
	"A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels In The World of Atomic Weaponry" [2008] by Nathan Hodge & Sharon Weinberger Bloomsbury 9¼x6½ hardcover [6/2008] for $16.49
	"The Nuclear Express: A Political History of The Bomb & Its Proliferation" [2009] by Thomas C. Reed & Danny B. Stillman Zenith Press 9x6¼ hardcover [1/2009] for $19.80
	"The Bomb: A New History" [2009] by Stephen M. Younger HarperCollins/Ecco 7¾x5¼ pb [1/2010] for $10/19 HarperCollins/Ecco 8x5½ hardcover [1/2009] for $17.81
	"The Dragon's Tail: Americans Face The Atomic Age" [2009] by Robert A. Jacobs Univ Massachusetts Press 9¼x6 pb [2/2010] for $22.50 Univ Massachusetts Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [12/2009] out of print/used
	"Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and The National Security State" [2010] by Garry Wills Wills's alarming account of the unprecedented growth of the executive branch's power is reviewed as both an "unfocused jeremiad" and as "a meticulously researched, readable, and well-timed treatise on the state of the U.S. government" – which probably qualifies the book as 'thought-provoking' at the very least Kindle Edition from Penguin Group USA [1/2011] for $12.99 Penguin Books 7¾x5 pb [1/2011] for $13.85 Penguin Press 9x6¼ hardcover [1/2010] out of print/100+ used
	"A Spy's Guide To Santa Fe and Albuquerque" [2011] by former C.I.A. agent E.B. Held Reveals details of the plot to assassinate Leon Trotsky, Ted Hall's delivery of atom bomb secrets to Russia's K.G.B., the case of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, and the allegations against Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Dr. Wen Ho Lee Kindle Edition from Univ NM Press [5/2011] for $9.99 Univ NM Press 8½x5½ pb [1/2011] for $15.64
	"Nuclear Iran: The Birth of An Atomic State" [2012] by David Patrikarakos Kindle Edition from I.B. Tauris [8/2012] for $14.29 I.B. Tauris 8¾x5¾ hardcover [11/2012] for $24.61
	"The Nuclear Age In Popular Media: A Transnational History, 1945-1965" [2012] Edited by Dick van Lente Kindle Edition from Palgrave Macmillan [11/2012] for $72.00 {sic} Palgrave Macmillan 8¾x5½ hardcover [11/2012] for $81.38 {sic}
	"The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of The Atomic Era" [2014] by Craig Nelson - author's official website The first complete history of the Atomic Age, from the discovery of X-rays in the 1890s to the continuing XXIst Century disaster at Fukushima Kindle Edition from Scribner/Simon & Schuster Digital Sales [3/2014] for $14.99 Scribner 8¾x5¾ pb [12/2014] for $15.45 Scribner 9x6 hardcover [3/2014] for $29.99
	"Rocket States: Atomic Weaponry and The Cultural Imagination" [2014] by Fabienne Collignon featuring references to and-or excerpts of Batman, Stephen King, Norman Mailer, Thomas Pynchon, Ronald Reagan, Nikola Tesla, James Webb, and Tom Wolfe Kindle Edition from Bloomsbury Academic [7/2014] for $35.99 {sic} Bloomsbury Academic 9x6 pb [1/2016] for $39.95 Bloomsbury Academic 9¼x6¼ hardcover [7/2014] for $110.00 {sic}
	"Nuclear Iran" [2014] by Jeremy Bernstein Kindle Edition from Harvard Univ Press [10/2014] for $9.99 Harvard Univ Press 9x6 hardcover [10/2014] for $17.46
	"Almighty: Courage, Resistance, and Existential Peril In The Nuclear Age" [2016] by Dan Zak Kindle Edition from Blue Rider Press/Penguin Group [7/2016] for $13.99 Blue Rider Press 9¼x6½ hardcover [7/2016] for $17.70
	"The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women" [2017]   by Kate Moore Soon after the Curies discovered radium, industry made use of its seemingly-magical properties; clock- and watch-makers hired young women to paint radium onto the dials of their products for a glow-in-the-dark effect, telling their employees that there was no danger whatsoever. But by the 1920s and 1930s the young 'radium girls' became sick with cancer and other fatal ailments. Featuring the Westclox factory in Ottawa, Illinois - parts of the town are radioactive still. Kindle Edition from Sourcebooks [4/2017] for $17.00 Sourcebooks 9x6 hardcover [4/2017] for $18.35 73-page Kindle Edition excerpt from Sourcebooks [4/2017] for FREE {sic}

http://www.amazon.com/First-Atomic-Age-Scientists-Radiations/dp/1137307218/
http://www.amazon.com/Plutonium-History-Worlds-Dangerous-Element/dp/0309102960/
http://www.amazon.com/Uranium-Energy-Rock-Shaped-World-ebook/dp/B001RWQVOO/
Barry M. Blechman and Stephen S. Kaplan's "Force Without War: U.S. Armed Forces As A Political Instrument" [1979]

Atomic  Fiction
list of Nuclear Holocaust Fiction & Films at Wikipedia

	"The Accident: A Novel" [1955] by Dexter Masters In April 1946, Canadian physicist Louis A. Slotin was working in a laboratory at Los Alamos and accidentally triggered a burst of hard radiation; he died nine days later. Masters's novel describes the events around fictional Louis Saxl and a similar event. Penguin Books 7½x5 pb [8/85] out of print/used Faber & Faber 7¾x5 pb [1987] out of print/used Alfred A. Knopf 8x5¾ hardcover [1955] out of print/used
	"On The Beach" [1957 novel] by Nevil Shute Set in a future 1964, the northern hemisphere is wiped out by nuclear war, the radiation will soon also poison the southern hemisphere. An American submarine finds temporary safe haven in Australia; the captain mourns his lost family and meets a local beauty barely a month before the predicted end of civilization. Ballantine Books mass pb [9/83] for $6.99 House of Stratus 8x5¼ pb [10/2002] for $10.36 Amereon House 8¼x5¾ hardcover [6/86] for $26.95 book entry at Wikipedia made into a movie in 1959 starring Gregory Peck see further details on the Atomic Film Festival Page
	"Level 7: A Horrifying, Prophetic Document of The Future" [classic 1959 novel] by Mordecai Roshwald, edited by David Seed The diary of Officer X-127, who is assigned to stand guard at the electronic controls of an intercontinental missile system installed four thousand feet underground. Univ WI Press 9x6 pb [5/2004] for $11.53 Signet mass pb [1/59] out of print/used
	"Alas, Babylon" [1959 classic] by Pat Frank Still in print after 50 years, there are even SparkNotes Guides; deals with the effects of nuclear war on a small town in Florida HarperPerennial 8x5¼ pb [7/2005] for $10.18 HarperPerennial 8x5½ pb [4/99] out of print/used Bantam Books mass pb [7/82] out of print/used Bantam Books hardcover [1981] out of print/used
	"Down To A Sunless Sea: A Novel" [1979] by David Graham With the end of oil, America becomes a third-world country; the pilot of a British airliner taking off from New York learns that Israel has nuked Egypt, Lebanon & Syria, setting off nuclear retaliation around the globe • book entry at Wikipedia S&S pb [6/2007] for $20.65 Fawcett mass pb [7/86] out of print/used Robert Hale, Ltd, hardcover [10/79] out of print/used
	"The Bomb" [1995 YA novel] by Theodore Taylor Vivid descriptions of Micronesian culture, thru the eyes of a native youth. Bikini Island is liberated from the Japanese Army in 1944, and then the islanders are forced to evacuate so that America can set off nuclear tests, and some of the natives revolt. HarperTrophy YA mass pb [8/97] for $5.99 Sagebrush 7x4¼ hardcover [10/99] for $14.15 Harcourt Children's 8½x5¾ hardcover [10/95] out of print/used
	"Downwinders: An Atomic Tale" [2001 novel] by Curtis & Dianne Nelson Oberhansly Three Utahans discover classified documents about operations at the Nevada Test Site in the Fifties, and risk their lives to transport the incriminating information to victims of A-test fallout. Black Ledge Press 9¼x6 pb [4/2001] for $14.95 official booksite
	"Oh Pure and Radiant Heart" [2005 novel] by Lydia Millet A shy librarian in Santa Fe, New Mexico discovers that three atomic scientists watching the Trinity Test in 1945 – Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard & Enrico Fermi – have transported sixty years into the future, where they must re-examine their legacy. Harvest 7¾x5¼ pb [7/2006] for $10.20 Soft Skull Press 9½x6½ hardcover [6/2005] for $19.00 publisher bookpage • author website
	"An Atomic Romance: A Novel" [2005] by Bobbie Ann Mason Set against the backdrop of a Kentucky uranium enrichment plant Random House 9½x6½ hardcover [8/2005] for $15.72 Blackstone audio CD [9/2005] for $18.87
	"Shadow of The Bomb: A Snap Malek Mystery" [2006] by Robert Goldsborough Chicago newspaper reporter Snap Malek gets wind of an important and very secret project led by physicist Enrico Fermi underneath a football stadium on the University of Chicago campus; he attempts to arrange an exclusive story, but that is made difficult by several violent deaths . . . Kindle Edition from Echelon Press [3/2009] for $4.99 Echelon Press 8x5 pb [9/2006] out of print/used
	"The Road" [2006] by Cormac McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize For Fiction; a father & son journey toward the sea across the desolate landscape remaining after an unnamed cataclysm destroys civilization on Earth Vintage movie tie-in mass pb [11/2008] for $7.99 Vintage 8x5 pb [3/2007] for $10.17 Knopf 9¾x5¾ hardcover [9/2006] for $16.47 book entry at Wikipedia made into a 2009 feature film starring Viggo Mortensen & Guy Pearce see further details on the Atomic Film Festival Page
	"Radium Halos: A Novel About The Radium Dial Painters" [2009] by Shelley Stout Historical fiction based on true events; a 65-year-old mental patient who worked at the radium dial factory when she was 16 tells her story through flashbacks. Kindle Edition from Librifiles.com [6/2009] for $2.99 CreateSpace 8½x5½ pb [10/2009] for $12.99
	"Critical Reaction: A Novel" [2013] by Todd M. Johnson Inspired by a real case; after surviving a thunderous explosion at the shuttered Hanford Nuclear Facility in Washington State, an employee asks for help from a friend who is an inexperienced lawyer; they then seek help from the young lawyer's estranged father, an experienced trial lawyer who has grown jaded and weary of his profession; the deeper he digs, the stranger - and more dangerous - the case becomes. • official site Kindle Edition from Bethany House [11/2013] for $9.99 Bethany House Publrs 8¼x5½ pb [11/2013] for $11.97

Atomic  Cinema

"Atomic Bomb Cinema: The Apocalyptic Imagination On Film" [2001] by Jerome F. Shapiro Routledge 9x5¼ pb [11/2001] for $29.95 Routledge library 9¼x6¼ hardcover [11/2001] for $106.00

"Atomic Testing: Declassified" [2007] St. Clair Vision b&w/color DVD set [6/2007] 3 disks - out of prodn/used 37 short features including "A is For Atom"; "A New Look At The H-Bomb"; "About Fallout"; "The Atom & Biological Science"; "The Atom Strikes!"; "Atomic Alert"; "Atomic Weapons Tests: Trinity Through Buster-Jangle"; "Bombproof"; "Challenge of Ideas"; "The Day Called X"; "Developing and Producing The B-61"; "Duck and Cover"; "Fallout: When and How To Protect Yourself Against It"; "Flash of Darkness"; "The House In The Middle"; "Information Program Within Public Shelters"; "Let's Face It"; "The Medical Aspects of Nuclear Radiation"; "Military Effects Studies On Operation Castle"; "News Magazine of The Screen: Atomic Energy"; "Occupying A Public Shelter"; "Operation Crossroads"; "Operation Cue" [1955]; "Operation Cue" [1964]; "Operation Hardtack: Part 1 - Basic Effects"; "Operation Hardtack: Part 2 - High Altitude Tests"; "Operation Doorstep"; "Operation Upshot-Knothole"; "Our Cities Must Fight"; "Radiological Defense"; "Survival Under Atomic Attack"; "Tale of Two Cities"; "Target You"; "This Is Not A Test"; "Town of Times"; "Warning Red"; "What You Should Know About Biological Warfare"; "You Can Beat The A-Bomb"; plus bonus items including radio programs and photo & poster galleries "Atomic Testing Two-Disk Set" [2007] contains 21 short films selected from the larger package above St. Clair Vision b&w/color DVD set [9/2007] 2 disks for $13.99

for more Atomic Cinema (propaganda, documentaries, dramatizations, animated films, etc.) visit
Spirit of America's Atomic Film Festival Page

Atomic  U.S.A.  History  Timeline XVIIIth & XIXth Century 1789: German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth of Berlin, Germany discovered the element uranium {atomic number 92}, named after the recently-discovered seventh planet. 1895 Nov 8: German physicist Wilhelm Rφntgen [1845-1923] produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today known as X-rays or Rφntgen rays. 1898 April 12: Polish physicist and chemist Marie Sklodowska-Curie [1867-1934] of Paris, France published her first paper on radioactivity, with the help of Prof. Gabriel Lippmann. 1898 July: Marie Curie and her husband Pierre published a paper announcing the discovery of the radioactive element polonium {atomic number 84}. 1898 Dec 26: Marie Curie and her husband Pierre published a paper announcing the discovery of a second new radioactive element {atomic number 88}, which they named radium. XXth Century thru World War II 1934: Enrico Fermi and a team of scientists at the University of Rome reported that they had discovered element 94, at first called hesperium. 1940 Dec 14: The element plutonium {atomic number 94} was first produced and isolated at U.C. Berkeley; the matter was kept secret because plutonium's radioactive nature made a nuclear fission weapon theoretically possible. 1943 March 9: The U.S. military gave residents of Hanford, Washingtom 30-day condemnation notices to remove them from the site of a planned plutonium production facility for the Manhattan Project; today, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is the largest nuclear contamination site in the United States. 1945 July 16: The first atomic explosion in history occurred at Trinity Test Site at White Sands Missile Range [est. 1942] in New Mexico. 1945 Aug 6: The U.S. dropped a 20-kiloton atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (killing an estimated 140,000 people). 1945 Aug 9: The U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan (killing an estimated 74,000 people). XXth Century after World War II 1945 Aug 21: American physicist Harry Daghlian accidentally triggered a nuclear radiation event in a lab at Los Alamos, New Mexico; he died 25 days later. 1946 May 21: Canadian physicist Louis A. Slotin accidentally triggered a nuclear radiation event in a lab at Los Alamos, New Mexico; he died nine days later. 1946 July 1: Operation Crossroads Alpha above-ground atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. 1946 July 25: Operation Crossroads Baker underwater atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. 1950 Jan 31: President Truman announced that he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb. 1951 Jan 27: Atomic testing began in the Nevada desert as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats. 1951 March 6: The trial of accused atomic spies Julius & Ethel Rosenberg began. 1951 March 29: The Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage charges, as was co-defendent Morton Sobell. 1951 April 5: Convicted atomic spies Julius & Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death by Judge Irving Kaufman for espionage (they were executed in June 1953); co-defendent Morton Sobell was sentenced to 30 years in prison (he was released in 1969). 1952 April 22: The first nuclear explosion shown live on network television, as a 31-kiloton bomb was dropped to the Nevada desert from a U.S.A.F. B-50 Superfortress. 1952 Nov 1: U.S. Operation Ivy Mike exploded the first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands of the South Pacific. 1953 March 17: Atomic test blast at Yucca Flat, Nevada  •  watch raw footage [11:13] online at YouTube with General Wm. M. 'Bill' Hoge. 1953 June 19: The Rosenbergs were executed at sundown in the electric chair at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York. 1954 Jan 21: Launch of the first nuclear submarine U.S.S. Nautilus in Groton, Connecticut. 1954 March-April: Operation Castle in the South Pacific - 7 detonations 1956 May-July: Operation Redwing in the South Pacific - 17 detonations 1956 May 21: The U.S. exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean. 1957 April 29: Dedication of the first military nuclear power plant, the SM-1 at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. 1957 July 29: Founding of the International Atomic Energy Agency. 1957 Sept 19: First U.S. underground nuclear test occurred in the Nevada desert. 1957 Dec 2: Start-up of America's first full-scale commercial nuclear power facility at the 60-megawatt Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania; operation ended in 1982. 1958 Jan 31: A U.S.A.F. B-47 bomber in Morocco caught fire during a practice takeoff; the jet fuel burned for seven hours, melting the aircraft and its H-bomb payload into a heap of radioactive slag. 1958 April-August: Operation Hardtack I in the South Pacific - 35 detonations. 1958 Nov 4: A U.S.A.F. B-47 bomber at Dyess AFB (Abilene, Texas) caught fire during takeoff; only one nuclear bomb casing on board exploded, with some minor tritium contamination at the site. Late 1958: The Mark 28 (or B28) hydrogen bomb was ordered retired, due to potential for detonation in an accident; the last units were retired in 1991, but are still in existence. 1959 March 11: A U.S.A.F. B-47 bomber in Georgia jettisoned an unarmed nuclear bomb casing above a rural area; the conventional explosives in the device destroyed a residence, produced a 55-foot crater, and injured several people. 1959 July: Santa Susana Field Laboratory reactor core breach incident, near Los Angeles, California. 1959 Oct 15: A U.S.A.F. B-52 bomber from Mississippi collided with a KC-135 tanker during refueling over Kentucky; eight men died, both aircraft crash landed, and the two damaged nuclear bombs were recovered and dismantled. 1960 Feb 13: France exploded its first atomic bomb, in the Sahara Desert. 1961 Jan: National Reactor Testing Station meltdown in Idaho Falls, Idaho. 1961 Jan 24: A U.S.A.F. B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons suffered structural failure and attempted to land at Seymour Johnson AFB in North Carolina; the havoc of disintegration loosened the two bombs, one parachuted to safety, the other smacked into a swamp; stories vary, but the tail was recovered at 22 feet, and work crews quit at 55 feet due to uncontollable ground water flooding; the government bought the land to prevent any nearby development. 1962 June 30: Bluestone atomic test at Christmas Island in the South Pacific. 1963 April 10: The nuclear-powered submarine U.S.S. Thresher sank during deep-sea-diving tests off Cape Cod, Massachusetts; 129 officers & crew & civilians lost their lives. 1965 Aug: The acetylene torch of a worker cut a high-pressure hydraulic line in a Titan II missile silo near Searcy, Arkansas resulting in a fire and depletion of oxygen; 53 people died, mostly civilian repairmen. 1966 Jan 17: U.S.A.F. B-52 bomber carrying four unarmed Mark 28 H-bombs collided with a KC-135 tanker plane during refueling and both planes blew up over the coastal town of Palomares, Spain; seven airmen died, two bombs exploded on land, third bomb recovered on land next day; fourth H-bomb recovered from bottom of ocean four months later. 1966 Oct: Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generator meltdown in Michigan. 1968 Jan 21: U.S.A.F. B-52 bomber carrying four unarmed Mark 28 H-bombs crash-landed on sea-ice near Thule AFB in Greenland, detonating conventional explosives inside the bombs. 1968 April 26: The U.S. exploded a one-megaton nuclear device called 'Boxcar' beneath the Nevada desert. 1968 May 22: Nuclear-powered submarine U.S.S. Scorpion sank in the Atlantic with 99 men aboard. 1968 July 1: Signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by U.S.A, Britain, Soviet Union and nearly 60 other countries. 1968 Aug 24: France exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific, making them the world's fifth thermonuclear power. 1970 March 5: The Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons went into effect after 43 nations ratified it. 1978 Aug 24: A Titan II missile in its silo outside Rock, Kansas began leaking propellant; one U.S.A.F. sergeant was killed, an airman died later from lung injuries sustained in the spill. 1979 March: Three Mile Island Nuclear Generator, Pennsylvania meltdown. 1979 July 16: Biggest nuclear radiation accident in U.S. history (bigger than Three Mile Island) when 100 million gallons of nuclear waste spilled at Church Rock, New Mexico on the Navajo Reservation and flowed down the Rio Puerco river (and was largely ignored by all media). { Wikipedia } 1979 Nov 9: A technician loaded a test tape into the computer system at N.O.R.A.D., but failed to flag it as test mode. False reports were sent to command centers around the world. P.A.C.A.F. followed procedure and ordered nuclear-armed planes into the air, while S.A.C. did not; both were certain that direct reports proved the information from N.O.R.A.D. to be false. 1980 Sept 19: A 6-pound tool rolled off a platform and punctured the Stage I fuel tank of a Titan II missile in its silo near Damascus, Arkansas causing the missile to collapse; the entire missile exploded a few hours later, killing a U.S.A.F. airman, injuring 21 employees, and destroying the silo; the on-board nuclear warhead was thrown 200 yards but did not detonate. 1982: Shutdown of America's first commercial nuclear power facility at Shippingport, Pennsyl-vania after 25 years of use. 1982 July: The U.S. Air Force began deactivation of the aging Titan II I.C.B.M. system, originally scheduled for 1971. The last silo was deactivated in May 1987, and the last missile was scrapped in 2008. 1984 Sept: Browns Ferry Nuclear Generator, Alabama shutdown. 1986 April: Chernobyl Nuclear Generator meltdown in Russia. 1987 Dec: Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generator, New York shutdown. 1996 Feb: Waterford Nuclear Generator, Connecticut shutdown. XXIst Century 2006: The Air Force shipped Minuteman III missile nose cone assemblies to Taiwan, where they sat for two years before the Air Force discovered the error. 2007 Aug 29-30: Six nuclear-armed AGM-129 cruise missiles were loaded onto U.S.A.F. B-52 bombers at Minot AFB in North Dakota and flown to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana; they were not supposed to contain their nuclear cores, which were effectively missing for 36 hours. 2008 May 23: A fire in a Minuteman III missile silo at Warren AFB in Wyoming went undetected for five days. The Investigation Board Report [dated Nov 2008] determined that faulty installation of modifications to a backup power battery charger (with other factors) was the primary cause. 2009 Aug: an inspection by the Air Force Audit Agency of storage facilities at Malmstrom AFB near Great Falls, Montana found that nuclear weapons components were incorrectly tracked or recorded; the failure was assigned to the Air Materiel Command, not to the resident Missile Wing. 2010 Nov 20: A hardware failure at Warren AFB in Wyoming prevented communication with 50 Minuteman III missile silos; backup systems took over immediately, but the problem persisted for almost an hour. 2011 March 11: Earthquake and tsunami flooded two Japanese nuclear power plants – with two large explosions and leakage of radiation into the sea and into the air – at Fukushima I Nuclear Generator (built in 1971 at Okama). That location is still a mess as-of late 2016. 2012 July 28: An 82-year-old nun and two helpers breached security at the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Sister Megan Rice was sentenced in February 2014 to 35 months in federal prison on charges of misdemeanor trespassing, felony destruction of property, and (much more serious) acts of sabotage – for spray-painting biblical verses on the outside walls of the building! (Cost for removal estimated at $1,000.) The true offense was revealing the atrocious security at Oak Ridge: when guards discovered the breach, the peaceful invaders were singing protest songs and offered to 'break bread' with their captors. 2013 Aug: The 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom AFB near Great Falls, Montana failed its safety and security inspections; a subsequent investigation into drug use found that officers had cheated on proficiency tests. The following year, nine officers were relieved of their commands, and the commanding officer resigned. 2014 Feb 14: Radiation leakage was discovered outside the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant {WIPP} deep geological repository for nuclear waste licensed/certified in New Mexico. Operations were immediately shut down; 17 employees showed radiation contamination and a pile of drums containing nuclear waste were found in a corroded condition; careful recovery work began in May but is still incomplete in late 2016. 2015 May 9: A transformer fire at the Indian Point Energy Center nuclear energy plant in Buchanan, New York leaked thousands of gallons of fuel oil into the Hudson River; one of the three nuclear units was shut down as a precaution, nuclear material was not involved, the event was an environmental incident. 2017 May 9: The roof of one of the tunnels used to store nuclear material at the Hanford Site in Washington State collapsed, no radiation was released. The hole was quickly filled in with 53 truckloads of soil. 2017 July 13: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is recertified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and remains in full compliance with applicable E.P.A. regulations for transuranic radioactive waste disposal. (Recovery took three years and five months.)

Los  Alamos,  New  Mexico
&  The  Manhattan  Project

Atomic U.S.A. - Los Alamos, New Mexico & The Manhattan Project Page
top of page • links • key players • books

Manhattan Project entry at Wikipedia
{official} Interactive History of the Manhattan Project
G.E. Nordell's Travel Links for Los Alamos, NM area
Los Alamos [NM] Historical Society & Museum

physicist Richard P. Feynman [1918-88] Page at Maison d'Κtre Philosophy Bookstore

Spirit of America Bookstore's J. Robert Oppenheimer [1904-67] Page

	"At Work In The Fields of The Bomb" [1987] Photographs and Text by Robert Del Tredici HarperCollins Perennial 11x8½ pb [11/87] out of print/50+ used HarperCollins 11x8½ hardcover [11/87] out of print/many used
	"On The Home Front: The Cold War Legacy of The Hanford Nuclear Site" [orig 1992, rev 2007] by Michele Stenehjem Gerber, Introduction by John M. Findlay Bison Books 9x6 3rd edition pb [7/2007] for $15.56
	"Atomic Harvest: Hanford and The Lethal Toll of America's Nuclear Arsenal" [1993] by Michael D'Antonio, Foreword by Stewart Udall Crown Books 9x6¼ hardcover [10/93] out of print/40+ used
	"The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of The Women Who Helped Win World War II" [2013] by Denise Kiernan The town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee was created from nothing in 1942, grew to 75,000 residents by the end of World War II, and yet did not appear on any maps until 1949. Journalist author Kiernan interviewed 80- and 90-year-old women who worked to enrich uranium for atomic bombs without knowing the purpose of their very secret war efforts. Kindle Edition from S&S/Touchstone [3/2013] for $11.04 Touchstone 9x6¼ hardcover [3/2013] for $15.88

http://www.amazon.com/City-Behind-Fence-Tennessee-1942-1946/dp/0870493094/
http://www.amazon.com/Oak-Ridge-TN-Images-America/dp/0738541702/
http://www.amazon.com/At-Work-Atomic-City-Tennessee/dp/1572333243/

Julius  &  Ethel  Rosenberg

In 1950, Sgt. David Greenglass, a former machinist at Los Alamos, confessed to having passed secret information to Russian agents. Though he initially denied any involvement by his sister, Ethel Rosenberg, he claimed that her husband, Julius, had convinced Ethel to recruit Greenglass while on a visit in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1944 and that Julius had also passed secrets. The trial of the Rosenbergs began on 6 March 1951; they were convicted on March 29th and were sentenced to death on April 5th. After many appeals, the couple were executed at sundown on 19 June 1953 in the electric chair at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York. The Rosenbergs' two sons Robert & Michael (aged 10 and 16), were adopted by songwriter Abel Meeropol and his wife, and the boys assumed the Meeropol surname.

details of the Rosenberg atomic secrets spy case were cut to its own page in Fall 2015: click here

Image  Gallery

jump directly to >> Page Two

˜                   ˜

here on the Atomic U.S.A. Pages at Spirit of America Bookstore

on Page 1: top of page • general links & books • Los Alamos / Manhattan Project • timeline • image gallery

on Page 2: top of page • Trinity Test Site in NM • Japan + Hiroshima + Nagasaki •
Pacific Island tests • hydrogen bomb • civil defense, daily life & aftermath • nuclear disasters

Spirit of America's Los Alamos, New Mexico & The Manhattan Project Page

Spirit of America's Atomic Film Festival Page

˜                   ˜

Online sales in association with  

top of this page      back to Spirit of America Bookstore homepage