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The Atomic Complex. A Worldwide Political History of Nuclear Energy (1980)

Author	Bertrand Goldschmidt
Date	1980
Classification	6.01.0.40/76 (HISTORY / DEVELOPMENT NUCLEAR ENERGY)
Front

Foreword

Mankind's understanding and conquest of the tremendous forces in the atomic 
structure of matter began shortly before World War II. These forces resulted from 
a purely scientific discovery, that of fission in the nucleus of the uranium atom.
Never has a discovery proved itself so rapidly and completely in the fulfillment of 
its early promises: the weapon, the submarine engine, and the power station. Never 
has a discovery been so technically, politically, and psychologically complex; never 
has the resulting technological progress suffered so many discontinuities; and never 
has a discovery had so many international implications and consequences.
At a single stroke, the age-old dream of the alchemist became reality: uranium could 
be transmuted into plutonium, a new element with potential power far exceeding 
that of the gold that the philosopher's stone was supposed to produce.
But the dream could become a nightmare. The same long series of industrial 
developments and realizations could lead in two directions: the one toward a new 
energy source able to meet the needs of the industrial world from now on, and then, 
from the turn of the century, to help overcome the problems of underdevelopment; the 
other toward a devastating weapon- the weapon that brought the last world conflict 
to an end-and toward the thousand-times more powerful weapons since conceived.
The shadow of a major disaster hovers over every landmark along this road of 
multiple technical successes. Mankind, having mastered the secret of atomic fire, 
has not succeeded in banning atomic weapons.

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