Overview

A chilling account of seventy years of nuclear catastrophes, by the author of the definitive (Economist) Cold War history, Nuclear Folly. Nuclear energy was embraced across the globe at the height of the nuclear industry in the 1960s and 1970s; today, there are 440 nuclear reactors operating throughout the world, with nuclear power providing ten percent of world electricity. Yet as the world seeks to reduce carbon emissions to combat climate change, the question arises: Just how safe is nuclear energy? Atoms and Ashes recounts the dramatic history of nuclear accidents that have dogged the industry in its military and civil incarnations since the 1950s. Through the stories of six terrifying major incidents―Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima―Cold War expert Serhii Plokhy explores the risks of nuclear power, both for military and peaceful purposes, while offering a vivid account of how individuals and governments make decisions under extraordinary circumstances. Atoms and Ashes provides a crucial perspective on the most dangerous nuclear disasters of the past, in order to safeguard our future.

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[An] enthralling study of the atomic age and its perils.... meticulously researched history ... [and] also a timely read. -- Financial Times (London) [A] frightening new history of nuclear disasters across the world....With catastrophic climate change bearing down on us, nuclear power has been promoted by some as an obvious solution, but this sobering history urges us to look hard at that bargain for what it is. -- New York Times Book Review Absolutely stunning. Atoms and Ashes is a formidable achievement...Plokhy has written a six-part historical thriller that is essential reading for both our politicians and the ordinary citizen. -- Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

"[An] enthralling study of the atomic age and its perils.... meticulously researched history ... [and] also a timely read. -- ""Financial Times (London)"" [A] frightening new history of nuclear disasters across the world....With catastrophic climate change bearing down on us, nuclear power has been promoted by some as an obvious solution, but this sobering history urges us to look hard at that bargain for what it is. -- ""New York Times Book Review"" Absolutely stunning. Atoms and Ashes is a formidable achievement...Plokhy has written a six-part historical thriller that is essential reading for both our politicians and the ordinary citizen. -- ""Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning author"""

Author Information

Serhii Plokhy, Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, is a leading authority on the history of the Cold War. He lives in Burlington, Massachusetts. Leighton Pugh trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after studying modern languages at Queen's College, Oxford. He has narrated audiobooks for Penguin, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Random House, Hachette, and Quercus. His radio work includes the plays Murder by the Book and Scenes from Provincial Life for BBC Radio 4 and the voice of Heinrich von Kleist in the BBC Radio 3 documentary The Tragical Adventure of Heinrich von Kleist. From 2010-2011 he was in four productions at the National Theatre, including The Habit of Art and A Woman Killed with Kindness.

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