• picture
  • picture
  • picture
  • picture
Public Radio's Environmental News Magazine (follow us on Google News)

Almanac/Atomic Power

Air Date: Week of

This week, we have facts about Oak Ridge National Laboratory which celebrates its 60th anniversary.



Transcript

CURWOOD: Welcome back to Living on Earth. I’m Steve Curwood.

[MUSIC: Yo la Tengo “Danelectro 3” Danelectro Matador Records 2000]

CURWOOD: Fifty-eight years ago this week, the Enola Gay dropped a single bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. There were more than 100,000 casualties in this devastating demonstration of nuclear fission. Oak Ridge National Laboratory in eastern Tennessee supplied the bomb with Uranium-235, and this year Oak Ridge celebrates its 60th anniversary.

Today, atomic power’s emission-free energy still has the potential to cause great harm. But much has changed for Oak Ridge, originally built as a monocrop Uranium farm.

A year after the atom bomb, scientists troubled by military control of nuclear power lobbied for civilian control and won. While many reactors got tied up in debates and budget problems, Oak Ridge focused its energy on harnessing nuclear energy for good: It delivered isotopes to doctors for medical tests and treatments, pioneered bone marrow transplants, studying effects of and treatment for radiation sickness.

And in the late 60’s, scientists at Oak Ridge began studying the effect of fossil fuel and power plant emission, correctly postulating acid rain and global warming as negative impacts on the environment.

And for this week, that’s the Living on Earth Almanac.

 

 

Living on Earth wants to hear from you!

Living on Earth
62 Calef Highway, Suite 212
Lee, NH 03861
Telephone: 617-287-4121
E-mail: comments@loe.org

Newsletter [Click here]

Donate to Living on Earth!
Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please donate now to preserve an independent environmental voice.

Newsletter
Living on Earth offers a weekly delivery of the show's rundown to your mailbox. Sign up for our newsletter today!

Sailors For The Sea: Be the change you want to sea.

The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment: Committed to protecting and improving the health of the global environment.

Contribute to Living on Earth and receive, as our gift to you, an archival print of one of Mark Seth Lender's extraordinary wildlife photographs. Follow the link to see Mark's current collection of photographs.

Buy a signed copy of Mark Seth Lender's book Smeagull the Seagull & support Living on Earth