Rod Buntzen watched the detonation of a hydrogen bomb — and he was never the same.
Having a guest essay published in The Times is often equal measures eloquence and luck: The right writer has to connect with the right editor at the right time with an idea that's just right for the moment. |
With President Vladimir Putin of Russia rattling his nuclear saber amid his floundering invasion of Ukraine, I was interested to hear from Rod Buntzen about what it was like to watch the test of one of the first hydrogen bombs. Back in 1958, he was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, and an engineer at the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory in San Francisco. In that capacity, he witnessed one of the many nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. government during the Cold War — you can see a declassified video of the blast he witnessed here. |
I've written often about nuclear weapons over the years. In 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the first nuclear test, I went on a reporting trip to the Trinity test site in a barren part of the New Mexico desert appropriately named "Jornada del Muerto" or, roughly translated, "the route of the dead." |
It was there in 1945 that scientists from the Manhattan Project detonated the world's first nuclear explosive. |
Even today, the sand around Trinity is littered with bits of a green, glassy substance called trinitite. This unique, man-made substance, found nowhere else on earth, was produced when sand and debris were thrown into the air and vaporized in the intense heat of that first nuclear blast. |
It's considered theft of government property to remove trinitite from the Trinity site. But lots of it has made its way into circulation over the years. I have a few bits of that horrible material in an old film canister stuck in the back of my closet, and I dug it out while I was editing Rod's piece. It sat there on my desk, a reminder that there's no putting atoms back together after they've been smashed. That once the physical earth is broken apart, it will never be the same. |
As the years of the Cold War faded into the mists of memory, it was easy to forget that we live only minutes away from nuclear obliteration. |
But reality intrudes with a frightening urgency at moments of crisis — most recently in Ukraine, as the world's powers try to find a way to fight each other without the conflict escalating to annihilation. Anyone interested in the full horror of such an escalation can head here and see the simulated effects of a nuclear blast on their hometown. |
Rod Buntzen's eloquent words recenter this often ignored aspect of modern warfare and urge us to keep in mind that we must rely on far more than luck to avoid calamity. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
We asked teenagers in a recent focus group to tell us what's on their minds these days. Several more sent us emails to share their thoughts. Here's what two of them wrote: |
"With all of the tensions escalating around Ukraine, it feels as if World War III is imminent, which is not very helpful as I try to write an essay for English class. And with all of the attacks on the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community, and the pure racism that members of our government are showing, it feels as if we are going backward in history, erasing all the hard work that people have died for. |
People are continually trying to revoke gay marriage and abortion rights and trans rights, all of which are so important; to hear people blatantly attack women and trans people and queer people, it awakens an anger in me. But I have no say in the matter, because at 13 I can't vote to control how our government is run, and that is perhaps the most upsetting of all." — Avery Henderson, 13, Hawaii |
"It's hard to envision the future these days. It feels like there is a new, groundbreaking, unprecedented event every single day. Between the rapid advancements in technology, the current pandemic, the absolute disregard for the health of our environment and the multitude of conflicts that are sure to arise globally, we have no idea what the future looks like. It's hard to think of anything you can ask your future self, when there is no guarantee that our earth will last another 40 years.
I think this kind of impending doom makes a huge impact on people in my generation, whether it's conscious or not. It might explain why there is more of a focus on mental health and present issues. We need to focus more on living in the moment and making today as perfect as we possibly can for ourselves because we might not get that chance for much longer. My generation doesn't have the luxury of 'sticking it out' or hoping that it'll get better with time." — Camilla Reggioli, 18, Maryland |
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