Atomic Age

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The Ford Nucleon concept car

The Atomic Age was a phrase used for a time in the 1950s in which it was believed that all power sources in the future would be atomic in nature. The atomic bomb ("A-bomb") would render all conventional explosives obsolete and nuclear power plants would do the same for power sources such as coal and oil. There was a general feeling that everything would use a nuclear power source of some sort. This even included cars, leading Ford to display the Ford Nucleon concept car to the public in 1958.

In the 1960s, the term was less common, but the concept remained. In the Thunderbirds TV series, a set of vehicles was presented that were imagined to be completely nuclear, as shown in cutaways presented in their comic-books. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, there was even an atomic ballpoint pen. Normally reputable experts^{[citation needed]} predicted that thanks to the giant nuclear power stations of the near future electricity would soon become much cheaper and that electricity meters would be removed, because power would be "too cheap to meter".

Lew Kowarski, a former director of CERN, even recalled such references as Atomic cocktail waitresses.

The term was initially used in a positive, futuristic sense, but by the 1960s the threats posed by nuclear weapons had begun to edge out nuclear power as the dominant motif of the atom. In the late 1970s, nuclear power was faced with economic difficulties and widespread public unease, coming to a head in the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, and the Chernobyl reactor explosion in 1986, both of which effectively killed the nuclear power industry for decades thereafter.

As such, the label of the Atomic Age now connotes either a sense of nostalgia or naïveté, depending on whom you ask, although it still continues to be used by some futurists and some science fiction fans to describe the present age.

As of 2007, a resurgence of the Atomic Age appears to be underway, as some environmentalists are suggesting that using nuclear power can be a solution to global warming, and China is vastly expanding its nuclear power program. ^[1]

1 Major events of the Atomic Age
2 Trivia
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Major events of the Atomic Age

11 October 1939--The Einstein-Szilard letter, suggesting that the United States construct an atomic bomb, is delivered to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

September, 1942--General Leslie Groves takes charge of the Manhattan Project.

2 December 1942--The first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction takes place in Chicago, United States, at the Chicago pile - 1.

16 July 1945--The first atomic bomb is tested near Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States.

6 August 1945--The atomic bomb is first deployed as a military weapon (by the United States) in the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.

5 July 1946--The bikini swimsuit, named after Bikini Atoll, where an atomic bomb test had taken place a few days earlier, is introduced at a fashion show in Paris.

1 November 1952--The first hydrogen bomb, largely designed by Edward Teller, is tested at Eniwetok Atoll.

21 January 1954--The first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), is launched into the Thames River near New London, Connecticut, United States.

27 June 1954--The first nuclear power plant begins operation near Obninsk, USSR.

1957 to 1959--The Soviet Union and the United States both begin deployment of ICBMs.

23 September 1962--The Jetsons animated TV series begins on ABC, attempting to humorously depict life in the fully developed Atomic Age of 2062.

12 October 1962 to 28 October 1962--The Cuban Missile Crisis brings Earth to the brink of nuclear war.

10 October 1963--The Partial Test Ban Treaty goes into effect, banning above ground nuclear testing.

28 March 1979--The Three Mile Island accident occurs at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, dampening the enthusiasm of many in the United States for nuclear power.

1982--The documentary film The Atomic Cafe, detailing society's attitudes toward the atomic bomb in the early Atomic Age, debuts to widespread acclaim.

26 April 1986--The Chernobyl disaster occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, USSR, reducing the enthusiasm for nuclear power among many people in the world.

17 December 1989--The animated cartoon series The Simpsons debuts on television on the Fox Network, providing a humorous look at the Atomic Age, since the main protagonist, Homer Simpson, is employed as an operator at a nuclear power plant.

31 July 1991--As the Cold War ends, the Start I treaty is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union, reducing the deployed nuclear warheads of each side to no more than 6,000 each.

2006--Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace and other environmentalists such as Stewart Brand ^[2] suggest the deployment of more advanced nuclear power technology for electric power generation, such as supposedly "inherently-safe" pebble bed reactors, to combat global warming.

21 November 2006--Implementation of the ITER fusion power reactor project near Cadarache, France is begun. Construction is to be completed in 2016 with the hope that the research conducted there will allow the introduction of practical commercial fusion power plants by 2050.

[edit] Trivia

Nostalgia stores that specialize in selling modern furniture or artifacts from the 1950s often have the words Atomic Age as part of the name of or advertising for the store.

[edit] References

^ [1]--The current expansion of nuclear power in China is detailed in the February 2007 report Nuclear Power in China
^ [2] --Article about Stewart Brand today in February 27, 2007 New York Times