Poison in the Well: Radioactive Waste in the Oceans at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age (Hardcover)

~ Jacob D. Hamblin (Author)
Key Phrases: atomic graveyards, atomic energy officials, dumping nations, United States, Soviet Union, Irish Sea (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

In the early 1990s, Russian President Boris Yeltsin revealed that for the previous thirty years the Soviet Union had dumped vast amounts of dangerous radioactive waste into rivers and seas in blatant violation of international agreements. The disclosure caused outrage throughout the Western world, particularly since officials from the Soviet Union had denounced environmental pollution by the United States and Britain throughout the cold war while undertaking their own radioactive dumping in secret.

It may be instructive to link environmental pollution to the Soviet Union's corruption and failed political ideology, but as Jacob Hamblin writes in Poison in the Well, there is much to learn from the processes that shaped these same issues in the West. The United States and Britain were the first countries to begin sealing radioactive waste into large metal drums and disposing of them in oceans. These countries' policy decisions, scientific conflicts, public relations strategies, not to mention mishaps and subsequent cover-ups, defy convenient generalizations about secrecy and openness in the East and West during the cold war era. Why did scientists and politicians choose the sea for waste disposal? How did negotiations about the uses of the sea change the way scientists, government officials, and ultimately the lay public envisioned the oceans? This book traces the development of the issue from the end of World War II to the blossoming of the environmental movement in the early 1970s. The salient difficulty was that the by-products of the nuclear age were deadly and would remain so for indefinite periods of time. Many controversial solutions were proposed over the years, and indeed the problem has yet to be solved: even today's scientists and politicians clash over plans to house the nation's most dangerous materials in Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

"Hamblin's examination of radioactive waste dumping in Europe and America is an important and valuable study, particularly for those interested in the role of science, technology, and environment in modern life."
Ronald Rainger, Professor of History, Texas Tech University

"A fascinating account of the role of health physicists and marine scientists in the international politics and public relations of dumping radioactive waste at sea."
John Krige, author of American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe

"Poison in the Well tells how British and American nuclear scientists have handled radioactive wastes since World War II, despite uncertainty about long-term genetic and somatic effects, creating a legacy that will last for thousands of years. Interdisciplinary turf battles, government secrecy, and technological hubris all play a role in this well-constructed narrative."
Robert W. Seidel, Professor of History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

In the early 1990s, Russian President Boris Yeltsin revealed that for the previous thirty years the Soviet Union had dumped vast amounts of dangerous radioactive waste into rivers and seas in blatant violation of international agreements. The disclosure caused outrage throughout the Western world, particularly since officials from the Soviet Union had denounced environmental pollution by the United States and Britain throughout the cold war.

Poison in the Well provides a balanced look at the policy decisions, scientific conflicts, public relations strategies, and the myriad mishaps and subsequent cover-ups that were born out of the dilemma of where to house deadly nuclear materials. Why did scientists and politicians choose the sea for waste disposal? How did negotiations about the uses of the sea change the way scientists, government officials, and ultimately the lay public envisioned the oceans? Jacob Darwin Hamblin traces the development of the issue in Western countries from the end of World War II to the blossoming of the environmental movement in the early 1970s.

This is an important book for students and scholars in the history of science who want to explore a striking case study of the conflicts that so often occur at the intersection of science, politics, and international diplomacy.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 326 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (January 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813542200
• ISBN-13: 978-0813542201
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,304,204 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God Help Us All, July 17, 2008

By	s.k. wakley "aging citizen" (Colorado) - See all my reviews

Having grown up in the span of time covered in this book,(and not paying much attention), I found myself often aghast at the waste disposal practices and the decisions made by the corporate "they" who determine our fate. Green devotees will be appalled to learn the global history of cavalier dumping of toxic waste into our waterways. This is not a sensational expose, but rather a well researched, extremely well-written illumination of what was going on with regard to radioactive waste in the beginning years of our modern nuclear age. It should be required reading for all environmental studies.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Game Over, June 12, 2008

By	cvairag (Allan Hancock College) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Unequivocally, the most depressing book on Amazon. The most damning critique of industrialization. How anyone could have been stupid enough to dump tons of nuclear waste into the Baltic and waterways emptying into the Atlantic has got to be the terminal rhetorical question we will never live to answer. I feel sick simply looking at this heavily documented tome. Yes. This mess really did happen. Who can help us?