Hello, thanks for downloading our podcast. This is the inquiry from the BBC World Service.

If you've listened to the last couple of editions, you'll know that Helena Merriman,

who normally sits in the presenter's chair, has gone on maternity leave. So while Helena is away you've got me Ruth

Alexander. I hope you like this week's program. The subject is dark and we think

fascinating. Donald Trump was given a small plastic cart. That card gives him the authority to

unleash thousands of nuclear warheads and wipe out millions of lives, ending the

world as we know it.

Former presidents have been said to have grown ashen faced on learning they wielded this terrible

power.

This is the moment perhaps when they understand what being commander-in-chief

really means.

President Trump's opponents say he's too erratic to be trusted with such

awesome responsibility. Of course the US isn't the only nation to have a nuclear

arsenal, they are believed to be nine of them. This week we're going to look at four of

those nations. We want to know what, if anything, stands between the leaders of

those nuclear powers and their ability to use the bomb.

In other words, how do you launch a nuclear missile?

Part 1. American Football.

We were called Minuteman for nothing. Our first expert witnesses Bruce Blair, a former U.S US nuclear missile launch officer.

He worked in a nuclear control bunker deep under the mountains of Montana in the 1970s.

He would ski on his days off and then go back to work to prepare for all out nuclear war

It would take us no more than about one minute to carry out a launch upon receipt of a valid launch order.

...