The Promise of atomic power
The Promise of atomic power
By one of the tragic accidents of history, The discovery that enormous energy is released when a uranium atom is split by a neutron came in 1939, just before the outbreak of the greatest war in history. It was at once used to create the horrendous succession of bombs which ended that war and have now made another war almost unthinkable. But it is the bomb that brings death and destruction, not the atom. In better times and in wiser hands the energy of the atom can do far more good than the harm the bomb has done. Today there is great hope that a better time is at hand and that the atom will become a benefactor of humanity.