Summary of Steve LeVine's The Powerhouse

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 Jeff Chamberlain, the head of the Argonne Lab, was extremely worried about Wan. He was a Chinese materials scientist and the head of the Department of Energy in Beijing, and he wanted to steal Chamberlain’s team’s breakthrough lithium-ion battery technology and bring it back to China.

#2 The Chinese were making huge advancements in electric car technology, and were planning on having a large-scale production of them by 2020.

#3 The global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 had scared Americans, who were determined to create a new economy on a solid foundation rather than on financial, real estate, or dot-com bubbles. Europeans were also fearful of being left behind, and Asia’s export-driven economies wanted in on the action as well.

#4 China was dominating the market for lithium-ion batteries, but many countries were trying to catch up.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669351375

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Steve LeVine's The Powerhouse

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Jeff Chamberlain, the head of the Argonne Lab, was extremely worried about Wan. He was a Chinese materials scientist and the head of the Department of Energy in Beijing, and he wanted to steal Chamberlain’s team’s breakthrough lithium-ion battery technology and bring it back to China.

#2

The Chinese were making huge advancements in electric car technology, and were planning on having a large-scale production of them by 2020.

#3

The global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 had scared Americans, who were determined to create a new economy on a solid foundation rather than on financial, real estate, or dot-com bubbles. Europeans were also fearful of being left behind, and Asia’s export-driven economies wanted in on the action as well.

#4

China was dominating the market for lithium-ion batteries, but many countries were trying to catch up.

#5

The Department of Energy’s seventeen national laboratories are where many of the government’s scientific research takes place. Argonne, in Chicago, was one of the most respected because it had been set up by Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi.

#6

After World War II, the Manhattan Project sent many people to work at Stagg Field near Chicago. One of these people was Dieter Gruen, who had been dispatched to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to help with the production of uranium-235 for the bomb makers at Los Alamos.

#7

The government bought additional surrounding farmland. Argonne now covered 4,100 acres. To fill it in, workers planted about a million pine seedlings, which thrived and created a massive home for the growing herd of deer.

#8

At first, Dieter Gruen was assigned to a team building a nuclear submarine under the direction of Captain Hyman Rickover. He was tasked with figuring out how to eliminate hafnium from zirconium, which was needed in combination with uranium to fuel the subs.

#9

At the Argonne lab, scientists worked regular hours, and it seemed like