Kirjahaku

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.

Powder and Propellants is the story of the U.S. Navy's premier facility for research, development, testing, and evaluation of ""energetic materials,"" the chemical compounds used in gun and rocket propellants as well as in aircraft cockpit ejection seats. Initially charged to improve the penetrating power of warheads against steel armor, Indian Head became the proving grounds for testing guns, propellant powder, shells, mounts, and armor, notably the manufacture and testing of Jet Assist Takeoff (JATO), Zuni, Talos, and Polaris rockets and missiles. First published in 1990 as a private publication for the navy, Powder and Propellants is now available again as a revised and expanded second edition, with a new chapter on the institution's last decade. Those interested in military history, technology, and government institutional history will find this book invaluable.

Rough Waters traces the evolution of the role of the U.S. merchant ship flag,and the U.S. merchant fleet itself. Rodney Carlisle looks at conduct andcommerce at sea from the earliest days of the country, when battles at seawere fought over honor and the flag, to the current American-owned merchantfleet sailing under flags of convenience via foreign registries. Carlisleexamines the world-wide use, legality, and continued acceptance of thispractice, as well as measures to off-set its ill effects.Looking at the interwar period of 1919–1939, Carlisle examines how thepractice of foreign registry of American-owned vessels began on a large scale,led by Standard Oil with tankers under the flag of the Free City of Danzig andfollowed by Panama. The work spells out how the United States helped furtherthe practice of registry in Panama and Liberia after World War II. Rough Watersconcludes with a look at how the practice of foreign registry shapespresent-day commerce and labor relations.