Review of "Nerves," by Lester Del Rey

 Review of

Nerves, by Lester Del Rey ISBN 0345301935

Five out of five stars

In 1956 he predicted 1986

 This book is what I consider Lester Del Rey’s best story. While he engages in a great deal of poetic license regarding the basics of nuclear physics, the fundamental story is very real. The premise is that a major accident takes place at a nuclear reactor. The reactor is used to produce energy as well as nuclear material used commercially. It is a massive facility and there is a growing anti-nuclear movement in the country. While it is not anti-nuclear, the goal of the movement is to have nuclear plants located in extremely remote areas so that any catastrophic accident will at most lead to deaths at the plant itself.

 The manager of the plant receives a request to produce a nuclear material that can be used as a pesticide, so he delegates a portion of the plant to produce it. He believes that if they can be shown to be saving major crops, people will believe in nuclear power. The process goes wildly wrong and there is a potentially catastrophic explosion if it isn’t dampened.

 What makes this story so compelling is that it is told from the perspective of the plant physician, the man that has to treat the injured and irradiated. In a nod to the future, one of the other physicians is female and she is extremely calm and competent when things are falling apart. Given the major nuclear disaster that took place at Chernobyl in 1986, Del Rey proved to be prescient. He also predicted the anti-nuclear movement that existed before Chernobyl.

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