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atomic age

n. The era, starting in the 1950s, during which nuclear energy was developed, and in which it was thought that all energy would be provided by such sources.

Wikipedia
Atomic Age

The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear ("atomic") bomb, Trinity, on July 16, 1945, during World War II. Although nuclear chain reactions had been hypothesized in 1933 and the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction ( Chicago Pile-1) had taken place in December 1942, the Trinity test and the ensuing bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II represented the first large-scale use of nuclear technology and ushered in profound changes in sociopolitical thinking and the course of technology development. Atomic power was seen to be the epitome of progress and modernity.

In 1973, the United States Atomic Energy Commission predicted that, by the turn of the 21st century, one thousand reactors would be producing electricity for homes and businesses across the USA. However, the "nuclear dream" fell far short of what was promised because nuclear technology produced a range of social problems, from the nuclear arms race to nuclear meltdowns, and the unresolved difficulties of bomb plant cleanup and civilian plant waste disposal and decommissioning. Since 1973, reactor orders declined sharply as electricity demand fell and construction costs rose. Many orders and partially completed plants were cancelled.

By the late 1970s, nuclear power had suffered a remarkable international destabilization, as it was faced with economic difficulties and widespread public opposition, coming to a head with the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, both of which adversely affected the nuclear power industry for many decades.

Atomic Age (comics)

Atomic Age is a four-issue comic-book miniseries, cover-dated November 1990 to February 1991, published by the Marvel Comics creator-owned imprint Epic Comics. It was created by writer Frank Lovece and penciler Mike Okamoto, and inked by Al Williamson.

The series was among the items featured in the Bowling Green State University exhibition "The Atomic Age Opens: Selections from the Popular Culture Library." Collaborator Al Williamson won the 1991 Eisner Award for Best Inker for his work on that and other series that awards-year, with Okamoto winning the Russ Manning Award for most promising newcomer.

Atomic Age (design)

Atomic Age in design refers to the period roughly corresponding to 1940–1960, when concerns about nuclear war dominated Western society during the Cold War. Architecture, industrial design, commercial design (including advertising), interior design, and fine arts were all influenced by the themes of atomic science, as well as the Space Age, which coincided with that period. Atomic Age design became popular and instantly recognizable, with a use of atomic motifs and space age symbols. Retrofuturism is a current resurgence of interest in Atomic Age design.

Usage examples of "atomic age".

That had now been switched to a newer, neoclassical building, one that imperfectly aped the architectural stylisms of the ancient pre-Atomic age.

If we are to rely on dispersion as a defense in the Atomic Age, then we must spread ourselves out so thin that the enemy cannot possibly destroy us with one bingo barrage, so thin that we will be too expensive and too difficult to destroy.

So the first real hero of the atomic age, if not the first personage on the scene, was Ernest Rutherford.

A dozen centuries of independent progress had brought its people back about to the level of Earth at the dawn of the atomic age.

He led the German tribe in one of the wars of the twentieth century, just about the time the Atomic Age started and true history began.

When the Atomic Age opened up a lot of people predicted that space flight was just around the corner.

But in the atomic age, a rocket could be launched by a child that pushed the right button.

They were used during the early wars of the twentieth century, before the Atomic Age.

I think people will want to be told what to expect in the coming atomic age.

Together these areas represented the centered power of the planet in the first years of the Atomic Age.

The atomic age was still in the future, the only radioactivity in this world was natural background radiation.