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Science and Public Policy:
Dawn of the Atomic Age and Nuclear Proliferation
Student Handout
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PAUL H. NITZE
Ambassador Paul H. Nitze was the Special Advisor to President Ronald Reagan for Arms Control Matters. He was an honors graduate from Harvard University who became a "child prodigy" on Wall Street. Mr. Nitze entered government service in the 1940s and oversaw creation of the Marshall Plan and NATO alliance. He managed the U.S. responses to crises over Berlin and Cuban missiles in the early 1960s, as a key figure in coordinating the diplomatic policies of the Kennedy administration. Mr. Nitze was nominated by President Kennedy as Secretary of the Navy. In the 1970s, he served as the U.S. delegate to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Soviet Union. Mr. Nitze was the senior advisor to President Reagan during the historical nuclear arms summit with Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev in Iceland. Ambassador Nitze is a "tough-minded diplomat of intellectual brilliance" and one of America's most distinguished and respected statesmen.
DR. EDWARD TELLER
Dr. Edward Teller is best known to the public for his work in the development of nuclear explosives and for his advocacy of a strong defense for America. He is also a noted physicist with more than 100 technical publications, several books, some patents, and numerous articles in the popular media. Born in Budapest in 1908, Dr. Teller worked at the University of Leipzig as a graduate student and received his Ph.D. in physics in 1930. With the rise of the Nazis, he left Germany, worked in London and in Copenhagen at the Niels Bohr Institute. In 1935, Dr. Teller was appointed Professor of Physics at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Teller has served our nation in many capacities. He has served on the General Advisory Committee of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission as Chairman of the first Nuclear Reactor Safeguard Committee. He has been a member of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the National Commission of Superconductivity, and was a board member of the Defense Intelligence School. From 1982 to 1989, he served as a member of the White House Science Council.
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The atomic bomb is a weapon with large explosive power that results from the sudden release of energy upon the splitting, or fission, of the nuclei of certain heavy elements such as plutonium-239 or uranium-235. The fission is provoked by a bombardment of the fissionable material by neutrons in a very rapid chain reaction. An atomic bomb is immensely more powerful than a bomb of the same size containing chemical explosive. The atomic blast releases vast amounts of heat, light, and lethal radiation. The atomic bombs were built in the United States during World War II under a program called the Manhattan Project. The first atomic bomb was successfully tested on July 16, 1945 at a site (Trinity) near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The explosion came as an intense light flash illuminating mountains ten miles away, a sudden wave of heat, and later a tremendous roar as the shock wave passed and echoed in the valley. A ball of fire rose rapidly at the detonation site, followed by a mushroom cloud forty thousand feet in height. The first atomic bomb to be used in warfare was dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan, the site of an army base, on August 6, 1945. After World War II, the United States conducted dozens of test explosions of atomic bombs in the Pacific and in Nevada. In later years, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and China tested fission weapons of their own. Since the development of the thermonuclear bomb in the early 1950s, atomic bombs and weapons have been relegated mainly to tactical rather than strategic missions in the arsenals of the nuclear power.
You may already be familiar with the leaders and inventors of the nuclear age. Conduct a brainstorming session with your fellow classmates to review who they are and what their individual contributions are to the 20th century. Name at least five individuals.
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The following places are important to any discussion regarding the dawn of the atomic age and nuclear proliferation. Use this assignment as a geography quiz by locating the places on a map and describe their significance below:
- Alamogordo (Trinity), New Mexico:
- Berlin, Germany:
- Enewetak atoll:
- Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Japan:
- Los Alamos, New Mexico:
- Moscow, Russia:
- University of Chicago:
Think of two questions to ask the guests during the program. (Possible questions: What was the Manhattan Project and who was its leader? How is energy emitted from an atomic bomb? When the atomic bomb detonated at Trinity, New Mexico on July 16, 1945, what did you think? What is the difference between the atomic and hydrogen bomb? What happened to the atomic weapons the former Soviet Union had in its arsenal?
Studying physics and international arms control negotiations may not seem relevant to your future today, but they represent stepping stones to a meaningful career. A knowledge of these subjects will help you decide what is most interesting to you. This is very important because most people spend one-half of their waking time on the job. Investigate the following careers related to science and medicine. Find out what the person does on a daily basis, the educational and work experience required and where the work must be performed.
- Chemist
- Congressional Aide
- Diplomat
- Environmentalist
- Inventor/Physicist
- Journalist
- Lab Technician
- Lawyer
- Mathematician
- Politician
- Researcher
- Teacher
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