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Nuclear Energy, the Environment, and Debating the Costs of Progress – Energy History

energyhistory.yale.edu · 1,570 words · saved by 1 readers

Almost since its inception, nuclear technology has raised challenging questions about the goals, costs, and the very nature of progress. Would nuclear technologies lead to a world of cheap energy that freed humans from the demands of physical labor—or to a world of dystopic, technocratic rule and environmental ruin? The documents in this module provide a window into American ideas about nuclear energy, progress, and nature in the early years of the “Atomic Age.” Americans first encountered nuclear energy a generation before World War II. European scientists such as Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen and Marie Curie had experimented with radioactivity and X-rays since the 1890s; Curie won two Nobel prizes for her explorations of radiation. Radium-infused paints hit the American market in the late 1910s and became key features on everything from watch dials to childrens’ toys, their glow-in-the-dark fluorescence representing the arrival of modernity. That the young women who applied radium paint to

Overview Library items Additional Reading Author Bio Timeline Overview Jim Feldman Almost since its inception, nuclear technology has raised challenging questions about the goals, costs, and the very nature of progress. Would nuclear technologies lead to a world of cheap energy that freed humans from the demands of physical labor—or to a world of dystopic, technocratic rule and environmental ruin? The documents in this module provide a window into American ideas about nuclear energy, progress, and nature in the early years of the “Atomic Age.” Americans first encountered nuclear energy a gener

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