{"id":225,"date":"2014-08-05T09:23:29","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T09:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/?p=225"},"modified":"2014-08-05T20:41:01","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T20:41:01","slug":"reflections-on-the-hiroshima-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/?p=225","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on the Hiroshima Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hiroshima<\/a>
Hiroshima Peace Memorial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today marks the 69th year since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. \u00a0The wisdom of the bombing will likely be debated for centuries to come. \u00a0This year\u02bbs commemorative ceremony will be attended by US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, according to\u00a0The Japan Times.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DoomsdayClock_black_5mins_regmark\"<\/a>How likely is such a horrific event to occur again, for whatever reason? \u00a0 I occasionally check the\u00a0“Doomsday Clock”<\/a>\u00a0created by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. \u00a0It is still standing at 5 minutes to midnight. \u00a0The clock hit the 3 minute mark in 1984 \u00a0at the height of the Cold War. \u00a0It dropped back to 17 minutes in 1991 when the Cold War thawed.<\/p>\n

Are we entering a new Cold War? \u00a0 Are the risks of nuclear war, deliberate or accidental, increasing or decreasing? \u00a0There are troublesome events on the horizon.<\/p>\n

The NY Times reports<\/a> that a critical accord on nuclear cooperation between Russia and the USA has fallen apart over the Ukraine crisis. \u00a0The Washington Free Beacon reports<\/a> that China is deploying a next generation ICBM, the DF-41, which can hit the United States (or Japan) with multiple warheads.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This is reportedly China\u02bbs secret DF-41 ICBM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps more disturbing is the saber rattling from North Korea, where a “high ranking military official” has threatened to strike the White House and other targets with nuclear weapons. \u00a0More on this at Voice of America.<\/a>\u00a0 Even if the ability to deliver their nuclear weapons to those targets is not there, it points to the possibility of unstable governments using nuclear devices to retain power or settle grudges.<\/p>\n

A recent United Nations meeting on nuclear terrorism looked at whether the Fukushima Daiichi events could provide a blueprint for terrorists seeking to “inflict mass destruction.” \u00a0More on that conference at Bloomberg<\/a>. \u00a0And what about the safety of the 15 nuclear reactors in the Ukraine? \u00a0Are we taking government stability into account as the nuclear industry expands into Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa?<\/p>\n

In another unstable region, Hamas recently fired rockets targeted to hit Israel\u02bbs Dimona Nuclear Reactor according to the NY Pos<\/a>t and the Jerusalem Post.<\/a><\/p>\n

What can we do to reduce the risk of nuclear war or nuclear terrorism? \u00a0Skillful diplomacy, sane public policy, planning, cooperation, trust building between nations, friendships across borders, goodwill, social justice, verification tools – all these come to mind as possible stepping stones towards a world where nuclear weapons will not be used again.<\/p>\n

The people at nuclearrisk.org have some ideas on how to get everyone involved in defusing the nuclear threat. \u00a0 It\u02bbs something worth looking at. See their website Defusing the Nuclear Threat.<\/a><\/p>\n

On this Anniversary of Hiroshima I pause to reflect on the lives lost – on all sides of the conflict that precipitated the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. \u00a0My sympathy is particularly strong for the innocent children and families who were not involved in the conflict. \u00a0 Their deaths and suffering speak to indiscriminate nature of nuclear weapons. \u00a0Precision strikes are not possible, and fallout poisons the atmosphere on a global scale. \u00a0Today I ask myself how can human beings learn to get along and work together – so that nuclear weapons are never used again. \u00a0None of us want to think about this, and that\u02bbs why nuclear war is often described as “unthinkable.” \u00a0But if leaders, governments, analysts don\u02bbt consider the possibility, it will be hard to prevent the unthinkable from happening again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today marks the 69th year since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. \u00a0The wisdom of the bombing will likely be debated for centuries to come. \u00a0This year\u02bbs commemorative ceremony will be attended by US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, according to\u00a0The Japan Times.   How likely is such a horrific event to occur again, for whatever reason? \u00a0 I occasionally check the\u00a0“Doomsday Clock”\u00a0created by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. \u00a0It is still standing at 5 minutes to midnight. \u00a0The clock hit the 3 minute mark in 1984 \u00a0at the height of the Cold War. \u00a0It dropped back to 17 minutes in 1991 when Continue reading Reflections on the Hiroshima Anniversary<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nuclear-weapons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244,"href":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuclearnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}