Book excerpt: "Nuclear weapons brought a dramatic end to World War II, and that same powerful force has served to prevent a major confrontation between the world's superpowers in the four decades that followed. The keystone in America's nuclear weapons arsenal during those Cold War years has been the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina, which produced plutonium and tritium for the military services, and also radioisotopes which have performed imaginative tasks in space, in medicine--notably cancer therapy--and also in industrial applications. The Savannah River facility was designed and build under urgent pressures in the early 1950s by the Du Pont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, which continued to operate the plant until 1989, under a series of contract extensions. The history of Du Pont's involvement at Savannah River is told in faithful detail by William P. Beddington in "History of Du Pont at the Savannah River Plant, "published under the auspices of the Du Pont Company in order that the true story be known."--Jacket.