Today is for Trinity
Written by Chris Schaffer on July 16, 2008 – 10:52 am -Today marks the 53rd Anniversary of the Trinity test. The very event that launched us into a new era of military destruction and civilian power. More than any previous military invention, this may have changed the direction of the world.
Even though it has been used only twice in war, it has shaped almost every facet of the world. The resulting arms race managed to level the Soviet Union as costs simply outpaced production. The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction has both lead to much hostility (enforced non-proliferation) and enduring peace between the super powers.
It may also be the only power source that we feel so ambivalent toward. We want cheap clean energy, yet we run from nuclear power and rail against it because of a single dramatic accident. There have been other accidents, but only Chernobyl did any sort of damage; which was cataclysmic. However, we flock to oil and coal despite the fact that a change in climate could be much more devastating (we run from solar on a cost basis).
The image above is Nagasaki at the moment of the blast. The pure destructive force of nuclear weapons will always be the enduring impression we have of this technology.
Good, bad, or indifferent. This is the day that marked our entrance into the Nuclear Age.
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