Atomic accidents : a history of nuclear meltdowns and disasters; from the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima From the dozens of American bombs that went missing during the Cold War to the misuse and misunderstanding of Rickovers nuclear submarine model to full scale meltdowns at Windscale Three Mile Island Chernobyl and Fukushima Mahaffey brings new insight into these catastrophes and reveals where scientists and engineers went wrong From the moment radiation was discovered in the late nineteenth century nuclear science has had a rich history of innovative scientific exploration and discovery coupled with mistakes accidents and downright disasters. Mahaffey a long time advocate of continued nuclear research and nuclear energy looks at each incident in turn and analyzes what happened and why often discovering where scientists went wrong when analyzing past meltdowns.