Rudy Bednar

Mrs. Morgan
Eng 120
Apr 15 2016
Annotated bibliography
Nuclear Technology: A Worthy Investment for Energy and Peaceful
Application
R. Chidambaram and C. Ganguly. Plutonium and Thorium in the Indian
nuclear programme.
Current Science, vol. 70 no. 1, 10 January 1996.
A technical article explaining of Indias three stage nuclear
reactor programme.
India has one of the largest thorium reserves, which could be used to
fissile uranium 233
that can be used in thermal reactors to produce energy. An expected
20,000 MWe to
be produced in the coarse of 25 years. This article is detailed and
informative of the
modern day progress of thorium based nuclear technology.
Robert Hargraves and Ralph Moir. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors: An old
idea in nuclear
power gets re-examined American Scientist Vol. 98, No. 4 (July-August
2010), pp. 304313
A look back to 1965 when an experimental thorium based
nuclear reactor was in
operation for 5 years, before being terminated. The article goes on to
say how the

much more abundant thorium element can be used as a fuel source in

place of the
scares and hard to make Uranium 235 of current industrial use. A well
written article
but it fails to indicate or speculate why the thorium reactor was shut
down.
Lisa Zyga, Scientist says nuclear weapons may be best bet for saving Earth
from asteroids.
PhysOrg.com June 28, 2010.
This article is a well written secondary source of information on
how physicist
David Dearborn believes nuclear weapons are the most practical and
cost effective
option for deflecting or destroying asteroids that are on a collision
coarse with earth.
The article is a good source of information explaining how nuclear
weapons could be
used for peaceful purposes.
Alexander Bolonkin, Underground Explosion Nuclear Energy, New York,
March, 2013.
The author talks about using underground nuclear detonations to
create huge
underground cavities where nuclear reactors can be used to produce
electricity. If a
plant melt down ever happens; the radiation will be contained deep
under ground. He
also talks about past US and Soviet peaceful nuclear programs,
Operation Plowshare,
and Nuclear Explosions for the Economy. This informative article goes
deep into the

scientific studies of under ground nuclear explosions and how they can
have beneficial
applications.
Solem, Johndale C. Nuclear explosive propulsion for interplanetary travel,
British Interplanetary
Society, Journal, vol. 46, no. 1, p. 21-26.
The author explains; because of the negative effects of galactic
cosmic radiation,
solar flares, zero gravity and psychological stress, creates a strong
need to develop
nuclear powered high-thrust spacecraft for rapid transport of
astronauts between
planets. He goes on to say that the space craft could use a light
weight sail that would
be propelled by a series of nuclear explosions. This would make space
interplanetary
space flight more economic and feasible. An interesting article
explaining how nuclear
technology can be used for space travel.
Brian Dodson, NASA team pushing towards thermal nuclear propulsion
systems, Gizmag.com
January 21 2013
The author explains how NASA is re considering feasible nuclear
rocketry. He
tells about the nuclear rocket experiments that have been going on
since the 1960s. He
goes into detail how the rocket uses plutonium 238 as the nuclear fuel
and heating
hydrogen which is used as the propellant. The article is an interesting
example of how it

might be feasible to use nuclear technology for space travel.