All articles tagged with #nuclear history
A new biography by Philip Ball argues that Niels Bohr was the more radical and influential figure of 20th-century physics compared to Albert Einstein. The book details Bohr’s development of the Copenhagen Interpretation, which posits that observation determines quantum states, and traces his role in the atomic age despite his opposition to nuclear weapons.
The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered merchant ship, is at risk of being scrapped by late 2026 after a planned move to Savannah, Georgia, failed. The vessel, which sailed 450,000 nautical miles on just 163 pounds of uranium, is currently moored in Baltimore. The NS Savannah Association is now preparing a proposal to keep the ship in Baltimore as a museum, but the Maritime Administration has not publicly confirmed a disposal date.
The Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF) at Idaho National Laboratory—the largest inert-atmosphere hot cell filled with argon and shielded by four feet of concrete—was honored with a Nuclear Historic Landmark plaque by the American Nuclear Society, recognizing its pivotal past. Yet the facility remains actively busy, supporting sodium loop experiments, ongoing fuel examinations, and NRAD neutron-imaging work as part of Idaho’s broader nuclear‑energy revival and research program.
A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences used CT and X-ray scans to analyze a rare red crystal from the Trinity test’s trinitite and found a previously unseen clathrate that traps atoms in its lattice—a material never observed in nature or in nuclear debris—highlighting the extreme chemistry produced by nuclear weapons, with the reminder that collecting such material is illegal.
As Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer brings attention to J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the "father of the atomic bomb," travelers can retrace his significant steps from New Mexico to the Caribbean. From Los Alamos, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, to the Trinity site where the first atomic blast occurred, and the Nevada Test Site where nuclear devices were tested, to Oppenheimer Beach in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, where he sought solace from the nuclear arms race, these locations offer a glimpse into the physicist's legacy and the history of nuclear weaponry.