Not As Much Of A Hit Piece As One Might Expect. If you see that a self-proclaimed “environmentalist” is writing a book about nuclear energy and specifically the Diablo Canyon Power Plant along Central California’s coast, many would likely assume this is going to be little more than a thinly veiled hit piece about how evil the plant is and how it should never have been extended.
And one would be WRONG in that assumption… mostly.
Tuhus-Dubrow instead actually does a reasonably balanced-ish (if still clearly tilted slightly (your mileage may vary on how “slightly”) towards the anti-nuclear position) approach of looking at the totality of everything about nuclear power in the 21st century, showing its evolutions from its earliest incarnations in the middle of the previous century when many thought nuclear power could usher in a Pre-War version of the world from Fallout (briefly seen in the opening sequence of Fallout 4, for example) into its most modern – and promising yet highly contested – forms, using the Diablo Canyon facility as the basis of much of the overall narrative.
Along the way she makes it a point to talk to many on both sides of the issue and give the requisite brief biographies of each of the key players to the narrative she is constructing, as well as discuss in varying detail the whole of the nuclear power saga – everything from its well known incidents to its lesser known incidents to how *exactly* spent nuclear fuel is stored (mostly, she never details the process involved at facilities such as South Carolina’s Savannah River Plant, where I’ve worked a couple of times in a couple of different software engineering roles) and most everything in between. She discusses the various pro- and anti- groups that have formed over the years and actively interviews several leaders on both sides.
But it is during these interviews in particular that Tuhus-Dubrow develops a new term she clearly means and uses as a pejorative throughout much of the text, specifically to describe many – if not all – on the pro-nuclear energy side: “nuclearists”.
Still, even this wasn’t truly significant enough to necessitate the star deduction. Instead, that comes from the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at just 11% or so of the Advance Review Copy of the book I read nearly four months before publication.
Ultimately, no matter your position on nuclear energy and even if you, like I, have actively worked in the field for any length of time, you’re going to learn something from reading this book. So give it a read, and make sure to write your own review about your own experience with it. And then go read the fictional Viral Apocalypse series by Michael McBride, showing one way Diablo Canyon could actually someday help cause the Apocalypse. 😉
Very much recommended.
This review of Atomic Dreams by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow was originally written on December 28, 2024.
