The Nuclear Lion What Every Citizen Should Know About Nuclear Power
. . . human kind cannot bear very much reality. T. S. ELIOT, Four Quartets When I was a little child, I lived in an old and somewhat rickety house by the sea. When the winter wind blew, the house would shake and tremble, and cold drafts would whistle thro
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The Nuclear Lion What Every Citizen Should Know About Nuclear Power and Nuclear War John Jagger
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Catalog1ng-1n-Pub11cat1on Data
Jagger, John. The nuclear 11on : what every c1t1zen should know about nuclear power and nuclear war I John Jagger. p.
CM.
Includes b1b11ograph1cal referencs and 1ndex. ISBN 978-0-306-43771-7 ISBN 978-1-4899-2784-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-2784-2 1. Nuclear energy--Popular works. 2. Nuclear warfare--Popular works. I. T1tle.
TK9146.J2B 1991 363.17'99--dc20
91-2095
CIP
ISBN 978-0-306-43771-7
© 1991 John Jagger Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1991 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991
All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
This book is dedicated to Thomas, Yvonne, Nancy, and Alexander . . . and to all children, everywhere.
~ Preface
. . . human kind cannot bear very much reality. T. S. ELIOT, Four Quartets
When I was a little child, I lived in an old and somewhat rickety house by the sea. When the winter wind blew, the house would shake and tremble, and cold drafts would whistle through cracks in the walls. You might have thought that lying in bed in a dark room on such cold, windy nights would have frightened me. But it had just the opposite effect: having known this environment since birth, I actually found the shaking of the house, the whistling of the wind, and the crashing of the sea to be comforting, and I was lulled to sleep by these familiar sounds. They signaled to me that all was right with the world and that the forces of nature were operating in the normal way. But I did have a problem. On the dimly lit landing of the staircase leading up to my bedroom, there was a large and dark picture of a male lion, sitting as such lions do with his massive paws in front of him and his head erect, turned slightly to the right, and staring straight out at you with yellow blazing eyes. I had great difficulty getting past that lion. Someone would have to hold my hand and take me up to bed, past the dreaded picture. Later, the lion entered my dreams, and I had nightmares in which I would casually look out the window at night and be startled by the sight of a lion roaming the beach down vii
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Preface
where the waves broke on the sand. I would awaken in a cold sweat. The things that I lived with every day and "understood" or "felt in my bones" did not alarm me. The crashing of the surf is a restful sound to those who live by the sea. It has nothing to do with potential dangers, for even as a child I respected the power of the sea. I knew how gale-whipped waves could break up a stout seawall or smash a boat to smithereens. But I did not generally fear the sea. Not fearing it, I could appreciate its beauty and admire its strength. Like men who gain their livelihood fr
