Bomb Scientists Remember Trinity

Eleven men who helped design, build, and detonate the first nuclear bomb gathered in Washington, DC, in July, 60 years after the Trinity Test, to reflect on the Manhattan Project and its legacy.

The near-capacity symposium was organized by former SLAC director Wolfgang Panofsky and sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on International Security and Arms Control. Today’s decision-makers have not seen an atomic bomb explode, and to many of them, nuclear weapons have become primarily symbols of strength and prestige and tools for diplomatic bargaining, Panofsky warned. In addition to Panofsky, the bomb builders in attendance were Harold Agnew, Hugh Bradner, Robert Christy, Val Fitch, Donald Hornig, Lawrence Johnston, Arnold Kramish, Louis Rosen, Maurice Shapiro, and Rubby Sherr.

The participants’ views on the Manhattan Project’s legacy varied widely. Christy said, “The ‘have–have not’ situation doesn’t work” because smaller countries believe they can negotiate with the US only if they have the bomb. Sherr suggested that every country should have just one bomb. Rosen said the concern should be about countries, such as Pakistan, in which civilians do not have control over their nuclear weapons. Johnston, the only person to have witnessed the Trinity, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki explosions, said his solution to weapons proliferation is to pray.

Also speaking at the symposium were Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) and National Nuclear Security Administration chief Linton F. Brooks. Holt, a physicist, said, “I can think of only a dozen [representatives] who follow these issues,” and said the excessively limited discussion on nuclear and science policy in Congress is “dangerous for the country.” Further details on the symposium, including a full list of speakers, can be found at http://www.physicstoday.org .