By Leonard Eiger July 16th marks the day 78 years ago when the United States let the nuclear genie out of the lamp. On July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 AM at the Alamogordo Test Range, on the Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) desert, in the test named Trinity, Manhattan Project scientists detonated the experimental device known as the “Gadget,” creating a light “brighter than a thousand suns.” A mere 6 kilogram (13.2 pound) sphere of plutonium, compressed to supercriticality by the surrounding high explosives, created an explosion equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT (20 Kilotons). Was this, as thought […]
READ MORETag Archives: Nuclear Weapons
Activists Blockade Trident Nuclear Submarine/Weapons Base for Mother’s Day
Activists blockaded the entrance to the US Navy’s west-coast nuclear submarine base, which is home to the largest operational concentration of deployed nuclear weapons, in a nonviolent direct action the day before Mother’s Day. Eight peace activists from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, holding banners reading “The Earth is Our Mother Treat Her With Respect” and “Nuclear Weapons are Immoral to Use, Immoral to Have, Immoral to Make,” briefly blocked all incoming traffic at the Main Gate at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington as part of a May 13th Mothers Day observance. Traffic was diverted as the 15 […]
READ MORE
Decommission Land-Based Nuclear Missiles NOW!
By Leonard Eiger, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action Originally published February 8, 2023 (Updated/Revised February 10, 2023) The US Air Force conducted a test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) late Thursday night (February 9th) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. There has not been any international outcry over the launch of the missile that, under normal operational deployment, would carry a thermonuclear warhead. There will be little or no discussion anywhere by the news media about the test and its implications regarding international efforts to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons and move […]
READ MORE
Death by Nationalism
By Robert C. Koehler (originally published in Common Wonders on Wednesday, October 12th, 2022) The game may be almost over. Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies put it this way: “The irresolvable dilemma facing Western leaders is that this is a no-win situation. How can they militarily defeat Russia, when it possesses 6,000 nuclear warheads and its military doctrine explicitly states that it will use them before it will accept an existential military defeat?” Neither side is willing to let go of its commitment: to protect, to expand, a piece of the whole planet, no matter what the cost. The […]
READ MORE
From nuclear sub commander to nuclear weapons abolitionist
Only way to prevent their use, says Tom Rogers – Get rid of them By Patrick Mazza; Originally published in The Raven; October 7, 2022; https://theraven.substack.com/p/from-nuclear-sub-commander-to-nuclear From handling nuclear weapons to protesting them Tom Rogers knows his way around a nuclear weapon. At various points of his career as a U.S. Navy submarine officer, he oversaw safety and security of nuclear weapons on board, conducted disaster drills, and was part of the team that would authenticate orders to use them. Rising to captain a sub, he was responsible for the whole picture. Later in his career, Rogers began to raise […]
READ MORE