The history of nuclear energy research from the height of the Cold War into space colonization of the future is detailed through one man’s career in the new book “Life at the Center of the Energy Crisis: A Technologist’s Search for a Black Swan,” published by World Scientific.
A memoir of nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering professor emeritus George H. Miley, the book chronicles the 79-year-old Miley’s careerlong quest for something new and paradigm-altering in the burgeoning energy industry.
“Simply put, a Black Swan is an unexpected event which has immense direction-changing implications,” Miley writes in the book’s preface. “That is, most of my research has been aimed at finding new phenomena which would have a dramatic impact on new energy sources and their applications.”
The narrative begins as a young Miley, bright-eyed and eager, sets off to study chemical engineering and physics at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University), and follows him through adventures with nuclear submarines, lasers, nuclear fusion, hydrogen fuel cells, nuclear batteries, power plant safety, teaching, starting a company and more.
“As an individual researcher I saw the immediate problem, for example, high gas process, but I chose topics to work on that often were aimed at long-term improvements to energy sources,” Miley wrote.
While somewhat chronologically organized, Miley divides his chapters into areas of research rather than historical eras. A timeline in the book’s appendix helps the reader see when in the course of Miley’s career, and more broadly in the history of energy development, certain technologies or branches of research came into play.
Miley’s storytelling gives a sense of sitting in his office listening to his account of the people and events that shaped the energy landscape, or of being a student in his classroom as he explains the principles of fusion and fission or the structure of fuel cells. Miley includes pictures and graphics to set the historical tone and illustrate scientific concepts, both of which add to his colorful narrative.
Readers with an interest in the principles or the history of nuclear energy, or of its future in a post-Cold War era – could space colonization be made possible by fusion-propelled spacecraft? – will find much to interest them in this book. Alumni and students of the Illinois NPRE program would especially appreciate the insights and reminisces of the man who spent 50 years in the department and served as program chair, helping to develop the program and hiring many of the faculty members in the department today.
While Miley has yet to find his elusive black swan, his work has furthered energy research on a number of fronts. And though now retired from full-time work, he is determined to continue his quest. As he says in the book’s optimistic final pages, “Much of the fun comes with the search.”
