Just before the [atomic] bombs were dropped, Truman (the US President) wrote in his diary (24.7.1945): It seems the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful. De Groot, The Bomb

Between the explosions, the Russians declared war on Japan. Japan surrendered on 2 September 1945.
J. M. Roberts, History of the 20th Century

In October 1956 the Queen switched on Calder Hall, the world's first nuclear power station. The Queen stated that nuclear power was our answer to the energy crisis, but she omitted to say that we had also built Calder hall for the production of plutonium for use in atomic weapons.
Fred Roberts, 60 Years of Nuclear History

April 1986. Explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Ukraine involved the largest short release from a single source of radioactive materials ever recorded. The contamination reached Finland and Scotland.
The International Chernobyl Project

Britain has five nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered Trident submarines. Each submarine has 16 missiles carrying up to 48 nuclear warheads. Each warhead has a destructive power 7 times that of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. All our nuclear weapons are based at Faslane.
SCND leaflet, What about Britain's Weapons of Mass Destruction

It wasn't inhuman to drop the bomb, if you believe in saving lives in the long run.
Harlan K Ullmann

We have genuflected before the god of science, only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties that science can never mitigate
Martin Luther King

Considerations Sheet

• Nuclear weapons cost a lot of money
• Scientists develop nuclear weapons when they could research other things
• Countries feel more powerful with nuclear weapons
• Countries feel weaker without nuclear weapons
• Disposing of nuclear waste is a problem because it can take thousands of years to decay
• From mining through to the final product, there are risks of nuclear accidents and leaks of radiation
• Do nuclear weapons stop wars?
• Do non-nuclear countries feel threatened by countries that have nuclear weapons?
• Are nuclear weapons worth the money?
• During a war, should civilians be targeted?
• Should weapons be developed that could pollute the whole world if used?

created 5 May 2005