A review by vallevia
Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power by James Mahaffey

challenging informative inspiring slow-paced

4.0

The book's age starts showing quite a bit near the end. There's something eerie about reading about the world's worst nuclear disasters from a 2009 perspective. Today, we know about Fukushima, but that disaster was just a theoretical scenario back when this book was written. The book talks about the possibility of terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants, and here we are in 2023 with war waging over one of the world's biggest NPPs. It's a bit scary to think that something way worse could happen in the future, and I'll look back on this review and think how weird it was to not know about such an important event in nuclear history. 

Publication date aside, this book was fascinating. It's a good starting point for diving into the immense nuclear science world. It does a good job addressing concerns about nuclear energy without dismissing them. Whether nuclear power should be developed more despite the risks is a valid discussion to have. I don't think this book's main focus is to convince us of anything. But it does a good job at providing convincing arguments for both sides.