Nuclear security

Let Hiroshima guide us back to nuclear basics

It’s tempting to say that the problem of nuclear weapons calls for fresh thinking, but in fact, some very useful ideas have been on the table—in some cases, unheeded—since the summer the United States dropped Little Boy and Fat Man, killing tens of thousands of women, men, and children in a flash. Even back then, Manhattan Project scientists at the University of Chicago were beginning to understand the enormous consequences of the new weapons and the challenges of managing their spread. In a report to US President Harry Truman in June 1945—two months before the United States dropped its bombs—scientist James Franck and others conveyed their concerns about how fear and national rivalries would lead to future nuclear arms races.