My name is Mark. I'm a Ph.D. student in theoretical mathematics, but that's not what this blog is about. I'm also, by hobby, an amateur historian of the history of atomic energy, which is what this blog is about.
I started researching this purely to amuse myself. But, after a while, when I found myself cold-calling strangers to ask them to reminisce about 60-year-old atomic energy projects, I decided it was time to share what I'd found with anyone else who might be interested. That became a series of articles posted on the alternatehistory.com message boards, and now I'm continuing it here. I'm going to begin by reposting some of the old articles, updated where possible with new material I've found since writing the originals.
I don't have any actual experience or training in this field - I just read a lot - so I'm sure I'll make mistakes. If you spot one, please let me know and I'll correct it. This blog is aimed primarily at fellow "armchair experts" level, i.e., people like myself, who are interested and moderately well-read but don't have professional knowledge.
One final note: I welcome comments, but please keep them civil. Nuclear energy is a field where everything is political and rouses strong passions, both for and against. In the interests of complete honesty, let me share my own biases: I am strongly pro-nuclear, but not blindly. I think it's our best bet, by a very large margin, to deal with the issues that face us in terms of climate change and resource exhaustion. However, I recognize that there are legitimate reasons to disagree with that view. So I'm not going to delete your comments for being anti-nuclear. But I will delete comments calling people industry pawns - or calling people antiscientific luddites.
