Nuclear Chemistry

Nuclear Chemistry has been an engaging and interesting class that has allowed me to learn about cold war policies and weaponry and their impacts on human life. This course worked perfectly alongside my narratives of conflict one. Narratives of conflict focused on different wars throughout human history and the impacts and narratives of soldiers and citizens from both sides. These two courses had central themes of the impacts war has on human life, and I enjoyed learning how war functions and what solutions we can choose to avoid war altogether. The first few weeks of Nuclear chemistry we learned about the rudimentary particles of an atom and how these factor into nuclear reactions. The framework for this course followed a book called Full Body Burden, an autobiography of a young girl's life living in Rocky Flats, Colorado. Rocky Flats was one of the United States Cold War Nuclear Production Plants. Workers there manufactured plutonium cores for nuclear weapons. Environmental laws were disregarded and the health impacts of leaked radiation were downplayed and not made public. One major thing I have learned from this course is the importance of self-guided research and inquisition. Many of the topics we studied were local cases of radioactive mishaps that were just covered up. This was very shocking and has led me to be more curious and inquisitive about new things and my surroundings. As a field trip for this class we visited present-day Rocky Flats, which is now a wildlife refuge. This was an extremely sobering experience. After studying all the blatant disregard for safety in the area, the dangers of the leaked radiation, and the safety measures that should be taken after radioactive spills, and then walking through the same land where all these things happened and seeing no signage or warnings was chilling. People ran by us on their daily runs and had no clue the impacts spending their days in this location could have on their lives. This course has made me realize that the only way to learn and understand the processes of the world is to seek out the knowledge yourself.