Why Is Atomic Energy A Force For Good

Atomic Energy, A Force for Good

Although the Manhattan Project is most notably known for the creation of the atom bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the program marked the beginning of an age of peaceful atomic energy. It brought great minds together to plant the seeds of atomic energy, not weaponry as many scientists believed in progress not destruction, towards a more prosperous world. The use of the atomic weapons is meager compared to the extent that atomic energy has been used to develop a more peaceful planet. The atom bombs ushered in an age of nuclear energy and innovation rather than nuclear war.

The Manhattan Project was a force for good and was the beginning of the use of atomic energy in many beneficial fields.

With the rise of nuclear weapons in the mid-1940s an arms race began between the Soviet Union and the US. This race produced, for the first time in existence, power capable to destroy the entire planet and anything that lives on it. This almost came to fruition in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest the world has been to nuclear annihilation. This fear of death and utter destruction is arguably more impactful than the effects of nuclear energy in the world.11 But in reality the use of atomic energy has far outweighed the use of atomic weaponry. There has never been a nuclear weapon used to kill a human being since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While there are an estimated 15,000 nuclear weapons are still in commission, the world has kept its nuclear peace since the two bombs were dropped on Japan in 1945.12 Even through conflict the world has continued to push for a world of nuclear stability. In 1969, representatives from the Soviet Union and the US met in Helsinki, Sweden to conduct the first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, or SALT. Both nations agreed to limit the amount of ICBMs, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, weapons capable of delivering nuclear payloads across the planet, that each nation could possess. These talks were the beginning for the reduction of nuclear weapons that continue to this day.13 This reinforces the idea that the Manhattan Project, the first known program devoted to the development of nuclear weaponry, was a force for good not