atomic bomb

A Japanese organization of atomic bombing survivors wins the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize

3:58am October 11, 2024

by Michel Martin

The Japanese grassroots group Nihon Hidankyo, an organization of World War II atomic bombing survivors, has won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to create a world free of nuclear weapons.

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People walk by a poster to promote the movie Oppenheimer on Friday in Tokyo.

'Oppenheimer' finally premieres in Japan to mixed reactions and high emotions

7:27pm March 29, 2024

by Anthony Kuhn

The film's release in Japan, more than eight months after it opened in the U.S., had been watched with trepidation because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.

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European Council President Charles Michel (from left), Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Emmanuel Macron, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, President Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a monument for atomic bomb victims in Hiroshima, Japan, Friday.

World News

Japan's atomic bomb survivors hope G-7 firms up support for nuclear disarmament

6:13am May 21, 2023

by Anthony Kuhn

As President Biden and Group of Seven leaders gathered in Hiroshima, people in Japan wanted the setting to act as a powerful symbol for consensus toward banning nuclear arms.

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American nuclear physicist and father of the atom bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer is pictured in the 1940s.

National

J. Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance was wrongly revoked, energy secretary says

6:28pm December 17, 2022

by Giulia Heyward

J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, lost his security clearance "through a flawed process that violated the Commission's own regulations," according to the Department of Energy.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows Thursday in front of a memorial to people who were killed in the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Hiroshima Atomic Bombing Raising New Questions 75 Years Later

12:51pm August 06, 2020

by David Welna

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were said at the time to be justified as the only way to end World War II. Seventy-five years later, legal experts say they would now be war crimes.

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Four of the men from Jack ReVelle's team observe the retrieval of the second hydrogen bomb's parachute pack.

National

8 Days, 2 H-Bombs, And 1 Team That Stopped A Catastrophe

8:31am January 25, 2019

In 1961, it was Jack ReVelle's job to make sure two hydrogen bombs that had accidentally dropped over North Carolina didn't explode. At StoryCorps, he tells his daughter about recovering the bombs.

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World War II Norwegian resistance fighter Joachim Roenneberg, seen here in 2013, has died at age 99. He led a team that was credited with slowing Hitler's plan to build atomic weapons.

World News

Joachim Roenneberg, Who Sabotaged Nazis' Nuclear Hopes, Dies At 99

3:20pm October 22, 2018

by Bill Chappell

Roenneberg was just 23 when his team of resistance fighters parachuted into a mountain range in Norway. They skied to a plant making heavy water and blew Hitler's atomic plans off-schedule.

Neil deGrasse Tyson attends Film Independent at LACMA presents StarTalk — A Conversation with Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, on June 5 in Los Angeles.

'Accessory To War' An Uncomfortable Wake-Up Call For Some

10:47am September 17, 2018

by Marcelo Gleiser

An "unspoken alliance" between scientists and the military had been brewing for millennia prior to Hiroshima. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang excel at detailing this union and its possible future.

In 1952, atomic scientists came together on the 10th anniversary of the first controlled nuclear fission chain reaction, which took place Dec. 2, 1942, at the University of Chicago.

Science

75 Years Ago, Scientists Conducted An Unprecedented Nuclear Experiment

6:36pm November 28, 2017

by Samantha Raphelson

On Dec. 2, 1942, a group of scientists in Chicago created the first controlled, self-sustained nuclear chain reaction, which would prove essential to developing an atomic bomb a few years later.

An archival view of Oak Ridge, Tenn. shows one of the three sites that has been included in the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

National

Passions Flare Over Memory Of The Manhattan Project

8:08am January 14, 2017

by Megan Kamerick

The new Manhattan Project National Historical Park tells the story of how scientists created the world's first atomic bomb. But how fully the story will be told is intensely controversial.