Reviews for The Curve of Binding Energy

The average rating for The Curve of Binding Energy based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-05-08 00:00:00 Barry Jones McPhee is an excellent writer. I realized this when I couldn't put this one down -- a book on U-235, Plutonium-240 and the nuclear fuel cycle. Written in 1973, when the AEC was still pursuing "peaceful uses" of nuclear energy, this book comes before the advent of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy, Chernobyl, Three-Mile Island, and God help us, 9-11. Yet, the story of Ted Taylor's life's work from building the smallest atomic bomb in the 1940s to becoming an advocate for nuclear materials safeguards later in his life is chilling in its prophecies. I came to realize as I read that much of Taylor's advocacy work for nuclear materials safeguards, and McPhee's documentation of it through this book, may well have prevented terrorists -- then and now -- from obtaining the nuclear materials necessary for a dirty bomb. Obviously, it may be a more important work than anyone initially realized. Now, if we could only employ Taylor's brains and McPhee's pen to figure out how to regulate pressure cookers and fertilizer.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-11-03 00:00:00 Charles Boyle McPhee's writing at it's best, and investigative journalism like I've never seen him do before. As usual, he captivatingly writes about a topic that would usually be found in a dull textbook. Although this book was written about a national security issue in and about the early 1970s, much of it still rings true today. He explains, with some detail, how to build an atomic bomb in a time when the internet was still 25 years in the future and when the threat of a terrorist possessing an atomic weapon was already a grave threat. Although some of the security issues dealing with nuclear power and the weapons-grade fuel it generates have surely been solved, the inherent national security and energy issues inherent in nuclear power he discusses are still incredibly timely and sobering. Anyone who likes John McPhee or has the slightest interest in physics, its history, or terrorism and national security must read this book. I've read it twice now.