Anti-nuke expose based on the secret files of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. It tells the inside story of the most ambitious, expensive, and risky venture ever undertaken by the federal government; the effort to create a commercial nuclear power industry. Meticulously documented report that probes the internal workings of a powerful government agency as never before. With the sober precision of a legal brief, it tells a harrowing story with urgent implications, for six dozen nuclear power stations, the relics of the A.E.C.'s impetuous nuclear program, are still operating today all around the United States.

A history of the origins and development of the American atomic bomb program during WWII. Begins with the scientific developments of the pre-war years. Details the role of the U.S. government in conducting a secret, nationwide enterprise that took science from the laboratory and into combat with an entirely new type of weapon. Concludes with a discussion of the immediate postwar period, the debate over the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, and the founding of the Atomic Energy Commission. Chapters: the Einstein letter; physics background, 1919-1939; early government support; the atomic bomb and American strategy; and the Manhattan district in peacetime. Illustrated.