Nuclear Generations

The first third of the last century saw arguably the fastest pace of scientific achievement in the history of the world, certainly the world of Physics. It began with mirabilis annus, the ‘miracle year’ of 1905, when Einstein published four seminal works, including his Special Theory of Relativity and his famous equating of energy with mass via E = mc2. It included the 1932 discovery by Chadwick of the final building block of the atom, the neutron. The period culminated with a discovery late in 1938 that would have a profound effect on the entire nuclear fission. This discovery would lead to the atomic bomb.This historical novel tells the story of the Manhattan Project, the US effort to build that bomb. It does so through the life experiences of Will Townsend, a young grad student who in 1935 began graduate studies in Nuclear Physics at the University of California in Berkeley under the tutelage of Ernest Lawrence and J. Robert Oppenheimer. Over the next ten years Will participates in the major events leading to Hiroshima. In the course of his journey he interacts with nearly a hundred historical figures as they perform their roles in the atomic story.Will is present when the Italian Navigator (Enrico Fermi) lands in the New World by starting the first nuclear chain reaction in Chicago. He watches the Graphite Reactor go critical in Oak Ridge less than a year later and begin to produce useful amounts of the new man-made element plutonium. He sees the “B” reactor at Hanford start a year after that, and stands by helplessly as an unknown phenomenon shuts it down within hours. He is there when FDR and Winston Churchill sign the Quebec Agreement formalizing the cooperation of their two countries on nuclear matters. And he hears ‘Oppie’ utter the famous words, I am become death, the destroyer of worlds, immediately following the Trinity test in New Mexico, the first nuclear explosion.Will Townsend courts Greta Hahn, a fellow grad student at UC Berkeley. Greta is the daughter of Otto Hahn who, by co-discovering atomic fission, became a founding-member of the first ‘nuclear generation’. Greta studies the biological effects of nuclear radiation at Cal, making her a member of the second nuclear generation. When Will and Greta marry and their son Mike is born in 1941, he becomes, potentially, a member of the third ‘nuclear generation’ should he later chose to work in that field.While the novel enlivens the key events of the rush to get the Bomb before Germany, and elucidates nuclear topics in a way the average reader can readily understand, it is foremost a morality tale. It is the story of a man who loves his wife, his family, his science, his country, but also a man who is fully human. His weakness for the fair sex, particularly damsels in distress, sometimes leads him to actions that conflict with his core values. He becomes so obsessed with guilt over his personal failings that initially he fails to see the moral implications of the Manhattan Project. When he finally does grapple with them, he is conflicted as to what his response should be.As the end of World War II and the reality of the Bomb near, Will’s journey takes him into the highest reaches of power in the US. Here he meets some true American heroes and one despicable character whose actions ultimately determine how he will respond to his qualms about the Bomb. That response, which his co-conspirator Robert Serber dubbed Duo Chi, would one day impact still another ‘nuclear generation’: Bush ‘41 in 1989, and Bush ‘43 in 2009. It also has chilling repercussions for all of mankind.

A native of Denver, Dennis Floyd attended the Colorado School of Mines in Golden where he earned undergraduate, MS, and PhD degrees in the field of Metallurgical Engineering. His knowledge of nuclear weapons technology stems from a 19-year career at the former Rocky Flats Plant near Denver where he first performed and later managed metallurgical research and development. Dr. Floyd later co-founded a company that still recycles nuclear weapons materials in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He also founded a company that helped decontaminate and decommission the former Rocky Flats Plant.