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An affair of spies : a novel / by Balson, Ronald H.,author.;
"From the winner of the National Jewish Book Award-Ronald H. Balson's An Affair of Spies tells of a spy mission to rescue a defector from Germany and prevent the Nazis from creating an atomic bomb. Nathan Silverman grew up in Berlin in the 1920s, the son of a homemaker and a theoretical physicist. His idyllic childhood was soon marred by increasing levels of bigotry against his family and the rest of the Jewish community, and after his uncle is arrested on Kristallnacht, he leaves Germany for New York City with only his mother's wedding ring to sell for survival. While attending an evening course at Columbia in 1941, Nathan notices a recruitment poster on a university wall and decides to enlist in the military and help fight the Nazi regime. To his surprise, he is quickly selected for a special assignment; he is trained as a spy, and ordered to report to the Manhattan Project. There he learns that the Allies are racing to develop a nuclear weapon before the Nazis, and a German theoretical physicist is hoping to defect. The physicist was a friend of his father's, and Nathan's mission is to return to Berlin via France and smuggle him out of Europe. Nathan will be accompanied by Dr. Allison Fisher, a brilliant young scientist who can speak French; he travels to her lab at the University of Chicago for a crash course in nuclear physics, then they embark on their adventure. Nathan and Allison soon develop feelings for one another, but as their relationship deepens they move ever closer to their dangerous goal. Will they be able to escape Europe with the defector and start a new life together, or will they fail their mission and become two more casualties of war? An Affair of Spies is an action-packed tale of heroism and love in the face of unspeakable evil. Author Ronald H. Balson has applied his unmatched talent for evocative and painstakingly authentic storytelling to the high-stakes world of espionage and created his most thrilling novel yet"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Historical fiction.; Spy fiction.; Novels.; Manhattan Project (U.S.); Attempted defection; Physicists; Spies; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Atomic dreams : the new nuclear evangelists and the fight for the future of energy / by Tuhus-Dubrow, Rebecca,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.The inside story of how nuclear energy -- long considered scary, controversial, and even apocalyptic -- has become the hot topic of the climate debate, and perhaps a vital power source of the future. On June 21, 2016, Pacific Gas & Electric Company announced a plan to shutter California's last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, in 2025. The plan was hailed by environmental groups and politicians around the country. Then, in 2022, the state's Democratic establishment suddenly reversed the decision, and in 2024 the Biden-Harris administration awarded the plant $1.1 billion in credits to extend its life. What happened in between? In Atomic Dreams, journalist and lifelong environmentalist Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow unearths the surprising answers -- and the deep-seated conflicts behind them. She follows the fascinating and lively cast of characters who are immersed in the fight over Diablo Canyon and nuclear energy, among them a world-renowned climate scientist, a fashion model turned "nuclear influencer," and two radically opposed groups of mothers, both fiercely advocating for the kind of planet they want their children to inherit. And she chronicles how nuclear power has morphed from the stuff of cinematic nightmares -- associated with world-ending weapons and terrifying meltdowns -- to a rare issue with strong bipartisan support. Tuhus-Dubrow takes readers to nuclear plants and research facilities, to the halls of Congress and into the streets with activists as she explores the big questions wrapped up in the nuclear debate: questions about risk and responsibility, about nature and technology, about whether humans should be humble caretakers of the Earth or audacious innovators. She explores how these issues affect real people's lives, and personally grapples with the viability of this controversial energy source. Can the power of the atom be freed from its historical baggage and reinvented? Could something that once threatened to doom us now hold the potential to save us?
Subjects: Diablo Canyon Nuclear Powerplant (Calif.); Nuclear energy.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Manual for survival : a Chernobyl guide to the future / by Brown, Kate(Kathryn L.),author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A chilling exposé of the international effort to minimize the health and environmental consequences of nuclear radiation in the wake of Chernobyl. Governments and journalists tell us that though Chernobyl was "the worst nuclear disaster in history," a reassuringly small number of people died (44), and nature recovered. Yet, drawing on a decade of fine-grained archival research and interviews in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, Kate Brown uncovers a much more disturbing story--one in which radioactive isotypes caused hundreds of thousands of casualties. Scores of Soviet scientists, bureaucrats, and civilians documented stunning increases in cases of birth defects, child mortality, cancers, and a multitude of prosaic diseases, which they linked to Chernobyl. Worried that this evidence would blow the lid on the effects of massive radiation release from weapons testing during the Cold War, international scientists and diplomats tried to bury or discredit it. A haunting revelation of how political exigencies shape responses to disaster, Manual for Survival makes clear the irreversible impact on every living thing not just from Chernobyl, but from eight decades of radiation from nuclear energy and weaponry."--
Subjects: Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobylʹ, Ukraine, 1986; Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobylʹ, Ukraine, 1986; Ionizing radiation; Radioactive pollution;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The devil's fortress / by Brown, Dale,1956-author.;
After saving the US from a Russian nuclear attack in the bestselling 'Weapons of Opportunity', Nick Flynn returns in what could be his most dangerous mission yet. Former US Air Force officer Nick Flynn joined the clandestine Quartet Directorate to continue its long-standing mission: to act decisively against serious threats to the free world. And with the backing of Russia's authoritarian president, no threat is more deadly than that of Pavel Voronin and his mercenary Raven Syndicate. Twice they have almost succeeded in bringing the United States to its knees, only to be stopped at the last moment by Flynn and his team of highly trained operatives. But Flynn knows it's only a matter of time before one of Voronin's plans to cripple the US bears lethal fruit. And so, taking the Russian oligarch permanently off the board is now his number one priority. Operating undetected deep in hostile territory and fighting their way through Voronin's extraordinarily tough defenses will require every ounce of skill, dedication, and daring that Flynn and his small force can muster. The slightest error could be fatal for all of them -- and, ultimately, for millions of Americans. With the clock ticking, and dangers mounting on all sides, it's up to Flynn and the others to finish Voronin before it's too late. In this all-or-nothing battle, victory is the only acceptable outcome -- no matter how high the cost!
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; Assassins; Undercover operations;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Final option / by Cussler, Clive,author.; Morrison, Boyd,1967-author.;
When the CIA realizes the identities of three American spies in Brazil have been compromised, they turn to Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon to rescue the agents. What seems a routine operation turns out to be a trap designed by Juan Cabrillo's greatest enemy, a man driven by hate to seek the ultimate revenge. At the heart of the plot is a state-of-the-art ship that is identical to the Oregon: same weaponry, same technology, same ability to evade capture. The only thing it doesn't have is Cabrillo and his talented crew. But will they be enough to go up against the one ship that rivals their own? The crew of the Oregon must piece together a series of disturbing events, including the mysterious sinking of a nuclear attack submarine and the possible discovery of a WWII-era weapon that was thought to be lost in the jungles of Brazil, in the ultimate game of cat and mouse.
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Cabrillo, Juan (Fictitious character); Ship captains; Rescues; Revenge;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Children of radium : a buried inheritance / by Dunthorne, Joe,author.;
Includes bibliographic key to online citations and index."In the tradition of When Time Stopped and The Hare with Amber Eyes, this extraordinary family memoir investigates the dark legacy of the author's great-grandfather, a talented German-Jewish chemist specializing in radioactive household products who wound up developing chemical weapons and gas mask filters for the Nazis. When novelist and poet Joe Dunthorne began researching his family history, he expected to write the account of their heroic escape from Nazi Germany in 1935. Instead, what he found in his great-grandfather's voluminous, unpublished, partially translated memoir was a much darker, more complicated story. "I confess to my descendants who will read these lines that I made a grave error. I betrayed myself, my most sacred principles," he wrote. "I cannot shake off the great debt on my conscience." Siegfried Merzbacher was a German-Jewish chemist living in Oranienburg, a small town north of Berlin, where he developed various household items, including a radioactive toothpaste called Doramad. But then he was asked by the government to work on products with a strong military connection -- first he made and tested gas-mask filters, and then he was invited to establish a chemical weapons laboratory. Between 1933 and 1935, he was a Jewish chemist making chemical weapons for the Nazis. While he and his nuclear family escaped safely to Turkey before the war, Siegfried never got over his complicity, particularly after learning that members of his extended family were murdered in Auschwitz. Armed only with his great-grandfather's rambling, 2,000-page deathbed memoir and a handful of archival clues, Dunthorne traveled to Munich, Ammendorf, Berlin, Ankara, and Oranienburg -- a place where hundreds of unexploded bombs remain hidden in the irradiated soil -- to reckon with the remarkable, unsettling legacy of his family's past"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Family histories.; Personal narratives.; Merzbacher, Siegfried, 1883-1971; Merzbacher, Siegfried, 1883-1971.; Chemical weapons; Chemists; Gases, Asphyxiating and poisonous; Jews;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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This is how they tell me the world ends : the cyber-weapons arms race / by Perlroth, Nicole,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From The New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth, the untold story of the cyberweapons market--the most secretive, invisible, government-backed market on earth--and a terrifying first look at a new kind of global warfare. Zero day: a software bug that allows a hacker to break into your devices and move around undetected. One of the most coveted tools in a spy's arsenal, a zero day has the power to silently spy on your iPhone, dismantle the safety controls at a chemical plant, alter an election, and shut down the electric grid (just ask Ukraine). For decades, under cover of classification levels and non-disclosure agreements, the United States government became the world's dominant hoarder of zero days. U.S. government agents paid top dollar-first thousands, and later millions of dollars- to hackers willing to sell their lock-picking code and their silence. Then the United States lost control of its hoard and the market. Now those zero days are in the hands of hostile nations and mercenaries who do not care if your vote goes missing, your clean water is contaminated, or our nuclear plants melt down. Filled with spies, hackers, arms dealers, and a few unsung heroes, written like a thriller and a reference, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends is an astonishing feat of journalism. Based on years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, The New York Times reporter Nicole Perlroth lifts the curtain on a market in shadow, revealing the urgent threat faced by us all if we cannot bring the global cyber arms race to heel"--
Subjects: Cyberterrorism.; Cyberterrorism; Cyberspace operations (Military science); Data protection; Intellectual property infringement.; Computer crimes.; Computer security.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Russian Woodpecker. by Gracia, Chad,film director.; Kino Lorber (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Originally produced by Kino Lorber in 2015.A thrilling, award-winning investigation into whether the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown was an inside job. Director Chad Gracia follows the unforgettably eccentric artist Fedor Alexandrovich, who reveals to the world an enormous secret Soviet weapon that stands in the shadow of Chernobyl, which Kremlinologists in the 1980s thought might be a giant mind-control device. But what Fedor discovers is much more sinister. Secret police start appearing and one of the crew members is shot by a sniper, as revolution, paranoia and terror engulf the crew. This Sundance Grand Jury winner and darling of critics worldwide pushes the boundaries of the documentary form while telling a crucial story about the deadly dance between Ukraine and Russia.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Science.; Balts (Indo-European people).; Foreign study.; Environmental sciences.; Documentary films.; Current affairs.; History.;
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The second sun / by Deutermann, P. T.(Peter T.),1941-author.;
"A taut, suspenseful historical thriller set in the months of WWII: Did Japan also have an atomic weapon, and did America bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki to pre-empt an attack on its fleet? A masterful historical thriller set during the waning months of World War II, The Second Sun poses a provocative question: Did Japan test an atomic weapon, and did America know about it in advance of its own decision to drop two nuclear bombs? March 1945: After a career of commanding destroyers in the Pacific theater of WWII, Captain Wolfe Bowen is based in Washington, DC, working for the Chief of Naval Operations. Bowen receives an urgent call from the commander of the naval shipyard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire: A German U-boat has been captured and brought to port. But what grabs Bowen's attention is the presence of two Japanese civilians on board, along with the massive size of the U-boat itself. What these civilians know about the cargo of the U-boat, as well as its destination, begins a race against time that will change the course of history. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies, Harry Truman ascends to office with no prior knowledge of the Manhattan Project. Bowen is assigned a dangerous mission: Discover whether Japan has the technology to produce an atomic weapon, and find out how close the desperate enemy is to deploying it. Working with a small team-including Captain Villem Amherst Van Rensselaer, part of the inner circle on the Manhattan Project, and Lieutenant Commander Janet Waring, a naval intelligence officer and skilled translator of Japanese-Bowen must report back to President Truman with the information that will transform the war-and the world. Brilliantly imagined and deeply informed by P. T. Deutermann's long history as a navy captain, as well as his family's service in the Pacific theater, The Second Sun is a compelling novel timed for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; War fiction.; Novels.; Manhattan Project (U.S.); World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The end is always near : apocalyptic moments, from the Bronze Age collapse to nuclear near misses / by Carlin, Dan,1965-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Do tough times create tougher people? Can humanity handle the power of its weapons without destroying itself? Will human technology or capabilities ever peak or regress? No one knows the answers to such questions, but no one asks them in a more interesting way than Dan Carlin. In The End is Always Near, Dan Carlin looks at questions and historical events that force us to consider what sounds like fantasy; that we might suffer the same fate that all previous eras did. Will our world ever become a ruin for future archaeologists to dig up and explore? The questions themselves are both philosophical and like something out of The Twilight Zone. Combining his trademark mix of storytelling, history and weirdness Dan Carlin connects the past and future in fascinating and colorful ways. At the same time the questions he asks us to consider involve the most important issue imaginable: human survival. From the collapse of the Bronze Age to the challenges of the nuclear era the issue has hung over humanity like a persistent Sword of Damocles. Inspired by his podcast, The End is Always Near challenges the way we look at the past and ourselves. In this absorbing compendium, Carlin embarks on a whole new set of stories and major cliffhangers that will keep readers enthralled. Idiosyncratic and erudite, offbeat yet profound, The End is Always Near examines issues that are rarely presented, and makes the past immediately relevant to our very turbulent present.
Subjects: Trivia and miscellanea.; Catastrophical, The; Catastrophical, The.; Civilization; Imaginary histories.; World history; World history.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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