Start with high-confidence nuclear physics books, then narrow by subgenre or adjacent topics.
Nuclear Choices for the Twenty-first Century
Richard Wolfson, Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress
Principles of Nuclear Rocket Propulsion
William J. Emrich Jr.
The Curve of Binding Energy
John McPhee
Almighty
Dan Zak
Radiation Detection and Measurement
Glenn F. Knoll
Nuclear Physics
John Lilley
One Two Three . . . Infinity
George Gamow
The Manhattan Project
Cynthia C. Kelly
The Radioactive Boy Scout
Ken Silverstein
Atoms and Ashes
Serhii Plokhy, Leighton Pugh
The Power of Nuclear
Marco Visscher
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Holter Graham, Richard Rhodes
Superheavy
Kit Chapman
Fundamentals of Radiation Materials Science
GARY S. WAS
Midnight in Chernobyl
Adam Higginbotham
Destroyer of Worlds
Frank Close
Idaho Falls
William McKeown
The First War of Physics
Jim Baggott, Mark Ashby
Atomic Awakening
James Mahaffey
Genius in the Shadows
William Lanouette
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky
Garrett M. Graff
