Going Nuclear
Hollywood, Health & Society has worked with its partner organizations and others on topics dealing with the proliferation of weapons, nuclear energy and cybersecurity.
Since 2015, Hollywood, Health & Society has been part of the N Square network of innovators committed to raising awareness of the nuclear threat. This page is dedicated to the media work that HH&S and our fellow cohort members have done. With the last U.S. administration, many of the guardrails that were meant to keep us secure—the framework of international nuclear agreements achieved through diplomacy—were largely weakened (to learn more, see our tip sheet on "A New Nuclear Arms Race"). Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the existential threat of nuclear war increased (see Doomsday Clock below).
However, since President Biden took office he has reversed security policies of the previous White House by reinstating the United States’ commitment to NATO; restarting negotiations with Iran to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action; extending the New START agreement (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) to 2026; and signing a joint statement with leaders of nuclear weapons states—the U.K., France, China, and Russia—affirming that nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. Below are some of the discussions, workshops, videos and articles designed to raise the visibility of issues surrounding nuclear threats and security, and hopefully help build a safer world.
Explore the powerful images at The Atomic Photographers Guild, an international group dedicated to documenting the history and impact of the nuclear age. Works include prints by the world's first two atomic photographers, Berlyn Brixner of Los Alamos and Yoshito Matsushige of Hiroshima.
Science historian Alex Wellerstein created NukeMap, a nuclear weapons detonation simulator that gives users an idea of the horrifying power of these explosions in measuring fallout and casualties. Other visualizations are at his Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog.
