The bombs that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki were crude, blunt instruments of destruction. Using the previously unharnessed power of atomic fission, they razed miles of human habitation to the ground, reducing people, houses, shops and factories to ash. It fell to Cohen to discover a way to refine this device into something more precise.
In the Fifties, Cohen — who died on Sunday aged 89 — invented the neutron bomb, a device that can still make the blood run cold.
Why? Because the neutron bomb was designed to kill people with massive doses of radiation while leaving buildings, cities, whole countries pretty well intact. It seemed as if he had created the supreme immoral weapon.
It made the controversial Cohen a particular target for peace protesters. It also fuelled intense debate at the top levels of government and the military about how best to use nuclear weapons — hopefully, without bringing the world to an end in the ultimate holocaust scenario of a confrontation between the West and the Soviet bloc.
Cohen's contribution, put simply, was to reconfigure the components of the bomb in such a way as to reduce the size of the blast caused by its detonation — the bit that starts fires and knocks down buildings — but increase the destructive power of the radiation it released.
The Hiroshima bomb, which was tiny compared with the ones made in the feverish post-war arms race between Washington and Moscow, flattened areas more than four miles from the point of detonation. Cohen's device would cause the same degree of devastation, but over just a third of a mile. Beyond that, buildings would largely manage to survive.
But Cohen ramped up the radiation dose, with the result that death for those exposed to the blast over many miles would be instant. As a bonus, that radiation would also be much more quickly dissipated in the atmosphere. Areas hit by the bomb would be inhabitable again rather than nuclear deserts.
Given a scenario that seemed to put infrastructure above human life, it's no wonder that even many of those at the heart of the Cold War — U.S. Presidents such as Jimmy Carter among them —shuddered and drew back from this chilling prospect.
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Some updates from the nuclear front:
Ducked and Covered: A Survival Guide to the Post Apocalypse is an instructional public information film designed to assist the general population with surviving life in Australia after a nuclear war. Produced by the Australian Board of Civil Defence during the early 1980s, this previously unseen, dusty print was uncovered deep within a university film archive.
Broken into four chapters, the film guides wary survivors through the trials that will await them in the post apocalypse. From post-apocalyptic fashion and unique uses for surplus human skulls, to becoming a local warlord and avoiding radioactive mutants, there is something for all dwellers of the wastelands. With its dry methodical narration, brooding synthesizer, minimalist animation and erroneous guidance, Ducked and Covered is a dark humored parody/loving homage to the late cold war era, early 1980’s public information films, as well as a reminder… OF WHAT STILL COULD BE.
Broken into four chapters, the film guides wary survivors through the trials that will await them in the post apocalypse. From post-apocalyptic fashion and unique uses for surplus human skulls, to becoming a local warlord and avoiding radioactive mutants, there is something for all dwellers of the wastelands. With its dry methodical narration, brooding synthesizer, minimalist animation and erroneous guidance, Ducked and Covered is a dark humored parody/loving homage to the late cold war era, early 1980’s public information films, as well as a reminder… OF WHAT STILL COULD BE.
Russia Moves Tactical Nukes Closer to NATO. Gulp.
...As recently as this spring, the Russians have moved their tactical nukes to sites close to their Western frontiers, alarming the Baltic and Eastern European members of NATO, the Wall Street Journal reports. Russia's longstanding position is that it won't pull its tactical nuclear weapons behind the Ural Mountains until the U.S. gets its own small nukes out of Europe. True totals of Russian tactical nuclear weapons is a tightly-held secret, but the Federation of American Scientists estimated last year that Moscow has nearly 5,400 of them, with about 2,000 deployed.
The Russian nuke movement isn't expressly forbidden by prior nuclear treaties; and the Journal notes that it "appeared to coincide" with the arrival of NATO missile defense systems near Russia's European borders. At the NATO summit in Lisbon this month, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev endorsedbuilding a joint NATO-Russia missile defense system over the next ten years — a big NATO priority — but warned that if "universal" missile defense couldn't be fielded, a "new round of arms race will start." So it's tense, but it's not necessarily time to dig out that old Sting song out of the record crates...
IAEA agrees to create international nuclear fuel bank
(Xinhua) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) approved on Friday an U.S. proposal on the establishment of a Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Bank run by the agency.
According to the plan passed at the IAEA board meeting, the agency will be the owner of the LEU in the bank, which will be located in one or more Member States that is prepared to act as a host state.
The plan says LEU from the IAEA LEU bank will be supplied to Member States that experience a nuclear fuel supply disruption due to exceptional circumstances, and is unable to secure supply from the commercial market.
A statement from the EU representative to IAEA said the EU Council of Ministers had decided to support the establishment of an IAEA (LEU) Bank, and declared its readiness to make a substantial financial contribution to support the proposal.
However, the plan has met opposition from some developing countries. They worry that a nuclear fuel bank could undermine their right to acquire their own nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Some countries are also concerned with the possibility of fuel supply being controlled by western powers and used for political purposes.
Hu Xiaodi, the Chinese envoy to IAEA, told the board meeting that while the objective of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons should be promoted, Member States' right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy should not be affected.
Evangelicals join US bishops in calling for approval of nuclear weapons treaty
The National Association of Evangelicals is joining with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in calling for "immediate and bipartisan action" to ratify the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which was signed by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on April 8.
"The Church's concern for nuclear weapons grows out of its commitment to the sanctity of human life," said Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace, in a recent letter to senators. "This commitment led to the development of just war criteria, including the principles of discrimination and proportionality. Nuclear weapons are a grave threat to human life and dignity. Nuclear war is rejected in Church teaching because the use of nuclear weapons cannot ensure noncombatant immunity and their destructive potential and lingering radiation cannot be meaningfully proportionate."
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