Megawatts and Megatons; The Future of Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons

Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2002. First Printing [Stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. xvii, [1], 412, [2] pages. Note to the Paperback Edition. An Optional Review of Units and Dimensions. Illustrations. Notes. For Further Reading. Index. Richard Lawrence Garwin (born April 19, 1928) is an American physicist, widely known to be the author of the first hydrogen bomb design. After graduating from the University of Chicago, Garwin joined the physics faculty there and spent summers as a consultant to Los Alamos National Laboratory working on nuclear weapons. Garwin was the author of the actual design used in the first hydrogen bomb in 1952. He was assigned the job by Edward Teller, with the instructions that he was to make it as conservative a design as possible in order to prove the concept. He also worked on the development of the first spy satellites, for which he was named one of the ten founders of national reconnaissance. He was the catalyst for the discovery and publication of the Cooley-Tukey FFT algorithm, today. He worked on gravitational waves. He has been granted 47 patents and has published over 500 papers. In December 1952, he joined IBM's Watson laboratory, where he worked continuously until 1993. He is currently IBM Fellow Emeritus at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center. Garwin served on the U.S. President's Science Advisory Committee from 1962-65 and 1969-72. He has been a member of the JASON Defense Advisory Group since 1966. He chaired the Arms Control and Nonproliferation Advisory Board of the U.S. Department of State. He served on the Defense Science Board. He also served on the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States in 1998. In Megawatts and Megatons, world-renowned physicists Richard L. Garwin and Georges Charpak offer an accessible, eminently well-informed primer on two of the most important issues of our time: nuclear weapons and nuclear power. They begin by explaining clearly and concisely how nuclear fission and fusion work in both warheads and reactors, and how they can impact human health. Making a strong and eloquent argument in favor of arms control, Garwin and Charpak outline specific strategies for achieving this goal worldwide. But they also demonstrate how nuclear power can provide an assured, economically feasible, and environmentally responsible source of energy-in a way that avoids the hazards of weapons proliferation. Numerous figures enliven the text, including cartoons by Sempé.