Nukes are an historic mistake

The creators of nuclear weapons wish they had never been invented. We should heed their laments.

By: Abid Mujtaba

Posted: 10/1/08

Leo Szilard, a Jewish Hungarian-American physicist, is considered the father of the nuclear chain reaction and, consequently, the atomic bomb. Born in Hungary, he moved to Germany to study in Berlin under the likes of Einstein and Plank.

In 1933, Szilard fled to London to avoid Nazi persecution. It was there that he read an article by Ernest Rutherford stating the impossibility of harnessing atomic energy for practical purposes. Legend has it that, annoyed at such a dismissal of the idea, Szilard came up with the thought of nuclear chain reaction while waiting at a traffic light on his way to work.

In 1938, Szilard moved to the U.S. He was joined by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, an expert in induced radioactivity. At this time, the Germans under Hitler were attempting to practically demonstrate a chain reaction as a precursor to the invention of the first atomic bomb.

Szilard and Fermi succeeded in demonstrating that uranium could be used to generate a chain reaction. "We turned the switch, saw the flashes, watched for 10 minutes, then switched everything off and went home. That night, I knew the world was headed for sorrow," said Szilard.

In 1942, the pair activated the world's first nuclear reactor. After registering a net outflux of energy from the reactor, Szilard shook Fermi's hand, handed him champagne in a plastic cup and remarked that the day would go down as a black day in the history of mankind.

What drove Szilard to pursue the nuclear reactor and nuclear weapons? He was a witness to Nazi persecution and greatly feared a world in which Hitler's Germany was the sole possessor of nuclear weapons. It was this fear that led him to write a letter to President Roosevelt, co-signed by Einstein, detailing the Nazi plan and the need for a U.S. nuclear weapons program. This resulted in the establishment of the Manhattan Project.

As the project continued, Szilard became increasingly worried and dismayed at the sight of the scientists losing control of the project to the military. It had been his hope that the U.S. government would possess the farsight and integrity to ensure that it would never need to use a nuclear weapon.

He wrote the Szilard Petition, which proposed that Japanese observers be invited to view a nuclear weapons test, arguing that the mere sight of the devastation would be enough to force Japan to the negotiating table. This proposal was rejected by President Truman, and on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These attacks, the only to use nuclear weapons, resulted in 220,000 immediate deaths. On Aug. 15, 1945, the Japanese surrendered.

Unable to stand the role he had played in the development of these instruments of destruction, Szilard left the field of physics and started studying biology. He was joined by Einstein and the scientific community at large in protesting the use and existence of nuclear weapons.

As of 2008, it is estimated that there are 15,000 nuclear warheads of varying yields in existence, 10,000 of which are actively deployed. Of these, the U.S. possesses 5,500 - 4,000 of which are actively deployed. The U.S. alone has the capability of bringing about not one, but several nuclear winters, turning a significant portion of Earth's surface to glass in the process.

With the end of the Cold War, calling this overkill would be an understatement. Add the nuclear weapons in the hands of countries like India, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan, each embroiled in various forms of regional instability, and we have a very convincing case for nuclear disarmament.

The U.S. and Russia need to be leaders on this issue. Progress has been made, considering the former Soviet high of 45,000 and former U.S. high of 32,000 nuclear warheads. However, there is still much to be done, especially since the reductions focused on out-of-date and inefficient warheads.

As a generation, we are growing up under the threat of nuclear winter. A testament to this is that a new technique for detecting faked paintings involves testing the paint for Strontium-90 and Cesium-137 isotopes that did not exist in nature before 1945. We have added known carcinogens to the air we breathe by atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.

In a world racked by hurricanes, rocketing oil prices, political turmoil, terrorism, regime changes, hunger, epidemics and instability, it seems we have found a means of ignoring the Sword of Damocles.