In this Book
- Supplying the Nuclear Arsenal: American Production Reactors, 1942-1992
- Book
- 2020
- Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
- Funder: Mellon/NEH / Hopkins Open Publishing: Encore Editions
- Program:
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

summary
Originally published in 1996. Although the history of commercial-power nuclear reactors is well known, the story of the government reactors that produce weapons-grade plutonium and tritium has been shrouded in secrecy. Supplying the Nuclear Arsenal looks at the origin and development of these production reactors, Rodney Carlisle and Joan Zenzen describe a fifty-year government effort no less complex, expensive, and technologically demanding than the Polaris or Apollo programs—yet one about which most Americans know virtually nothing. Carlisle and Zenzen describe the evolution of the early reactors, the atomic weapons establishment that surrounded them, and the sometimes bitter struggles between business and political constituencies for their share of "nuclear pork." They show how, since the 1980s, aging production reactors have increased the risk of radioactive contamination of the atmosphere and water table. And they describe how the Department of Energy mounted a massive effort to find the right design for a new generation of reactors, only to abandon that effort with the end of the Cold War. Today, all American production reactors remain closed.Due to short half-life, the nation's supply of tritium, crucial to modern weapons, is rapidly dwindling. As countries like Iraq and North Korea threaten to join the nuclear club, the authors contend, the United States needs to revitalize tritium production capacity in order to maintain a viable nuclear deterrent. Meanwhile, as slowly decaying artifacts of the Cold War, the closed production reactors at Hanford, Washington, and Savannah River, South Carolina, loom ominously over the landscape.
Table of Contents


- Half Title
- p. i
- Title Page
- p. iii
- List of Illustrations
- p. vii
- List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
- pp. xiii-xiv
- Half Title 1
- p. xv
- Introduction
- pp. 1-7
- 1. Inventing Atomic Piles
- pp. 8-25
- 2. Building Reactors at Hanford
- pp. 26-45
- 3. Contracting Atoms
- pp. 46-66
- 4. Flexible Design at Savannah River
- pp. 67-91
- 5. The Arms Race Arsenal
- pp. 92-106
- 6. Designing a Reactor for Peace and War
- pp. 107-130
- 7. Surviving DĂ©tente
- pp. 131-163
- 8. Lobbying for Nuclear Pork
- pp. 164-194
- 9. Managing Nuclear Options
- pp. 195-218
- Conclusion: Supplying the Cold War Arsenal
- pp. 219-223
- Appendix: Production Reactor Families
- pp. 225-228
- Bibliographic Essay
- pp. 263-268
Additional Information
ISBN
9781421435923
Related ISBN(s)
9780801852077, 9781421435909, 9781421435916
MARC Record
OCLC
1128083708
Pages
298
Launched on MUSE
2019-11-19
Language
English
Open Access
Yes
Creative Commons
CC-BY-NC-ND