Abstract  After a long period of post-​Cold War stability, the risks posed by nuclear weapons are increasing sharply, marked by the invasion of Ukraine and a new generation of nuclear weapons being developed and deployed by Russia, China, and the United States. Physicists played an important role in nuclear debates during the Cold War; they […]

Abstract 80 years ago, Robert Oppenheimer led an industrial scale effort with more than 130,000 employees to create the nuclear fission weapons used to end World War II. With the United States and its allies facing totalitarian aggressors in the European and Pacific theaters, many elite scientists, engineers, and technicians supported the Manhattan Project through […]

Abstract With the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the public, including most physicists, and Congress, assumed, the danger of a nuclear war had ended as well.Unfortunately, that has not been the case. Indeed, the danger of accidental nuclear war may be increasing. US and Russian strategic missiles remain […]